November 30, 2007
Two of my favorite steroid writers are John Hoberman, PhD and Charles Yesalis, PhD. I read their books. I read their articles. I have “Google Alerts” set to notify me when they are quoted by the media. I have even invited them to write for my website (and I’ve been fortunate to have Dr. Hoberman write a few feature articles for me).
Several of my friends and colleagues wonder why I enjoy works from these “anti-steroid guys.” While I may have a different perspective regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, Dr. Yesalis and Dr. Hoberman represent the few prominent “steroid experts” that generally stay above the histrionics and scaremongering. Dr. Yesalis recently discussed the topic of steroids in an interview published on Testosterone Nation website: Read more
November 29, 2007
David Jacobs admitted to selling 40,000 vials of anabolic steroids and several thousand units of growth hormone as part of a sealed plea agreement earlier this month. The Plano-based national level bodybuilding competitor and personal trainer pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. He was indicted in May 2007 as part of Operation Raw Deal.
Jacobs gained national attention in recent weeks after revealing to CBS 11 (Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT) that, as a condition of his plea agreement, he would cooperate fully with federal prosecutors by releasing the names of professional athletes to which he supplied anabolic steroids and growth hormone. In exchange, other charges would be dropped and he would receive three years probation instead of maximum of five years in federal prison.
Statements by Jacobs on his website implied that he worked with several NFL and IFBB athletes:
These athletes range from Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons football players to those we have seen in the top 10 at the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competitions.
Local CBS TV affiliate KTVT wasted no time identifying NFL football player and former Dallas Cowboy Matt Lehr as one of the athletes linked to Jacobs. As proof of their relationship, they showed Matt Lehr photographed with David Jacobs.
While mainstream media may only be interested in NFL players to which Jacobs sold anabolic steroids and ignoring Jacobs’ ties to bodybuilding, those who follow professional bodybuilding know David Jacobs was a regular training partner of Branch Warren along with Jay Moore; he replaced Johnnie Jackson as part of Branch’s hardcore training triumvirate last year. There is no shortage of photographic and videographic evidence documenting the relationship between Branch and David including but not limited to scenes in Branch Warren’s DVD and the featured training articles in Flex Magazine.
David Jacobs forfeited over $25,000 cash, his 2005 Hummer H2, 2005 Ford Mustang, and his new Harley-Davidsons. But he still has his freedom as a result of the plea agreement (as long as he cooperates with the feds).
Operation Raw Deal had far-reaching effects in bodybuilding community; Branch Warren is clearly not the only one who has seen friends and training partners arrested or investigated as a result of this federal investigation. In fact, there are probably only a few degrees of separation between most competitive bodybuilders and those who have were busted in the aftermath of the steroid crackdown. However, the David Jacobs plea agreement highlights the vulnerability of the sport of competitive bodybuilding. It is probably only a matter of time before some aggressive prosecutor realizes that they could decimate the ranks of pro bodybuilding and cripple the sport at a fraction of the time and cost necessary to bring down a single professional baseball or football player who uses anabolic steroids.
November 28, 2007
The medical journal Circulation published a new study this week entitled “Endogenous Testosterone and Mortality Due to All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer in Men.” The role of testosterone in health has long been a controversial topic and the recent steroid hysteria has only fueled the love-hate relationship with steroids in our society.
Reuters reports that “high testosterone linked to men’s lower death risk.” I hope steroid-using bodybuilders do not conclude that higher testosterone levels, even supraphysiologic levels from exogenous testosterone adminstration, are always better than low testosterone levels.
I think that WebMD more accurately describes the culprit associated with the increased mortality in their headline – “Low Testosterone, Early Death?” Higher endogenous testosterone levels were related to lower mortality rates from all causes, particularly cardiovascular disease. Low testosterone levels may be as good a predictive marker for predicting cardiovascular disease risk as lipid profiles i.e. cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Lead researcher University of Cambridge gerontologist Kay-Tee Shaw writes in the paper:
Men in the top quartile for endogenous testosterone concentrations had 40% lower risk of death due to any cause than men in the bottom quartile, and this relationship appeared independent of age, body mass index, smoking and other lifestyle factors, cardiovascular risk factors, and other hormone levels.
If low testosterone increases mortality risk in men, then it seems logical that testosterone supplement would be in order to optimize testosterone levels in the highest quartile of physiological normal range. Of course, it is never that simple.
No one in mainstream medicine wants to advocate testosterone therapy because there are no studies showing that it is safe. And no one wants to do any studies on testosterone therapy because they are afraid that exogenous testosterone will increase the risk of prostate cancer.
Robert Davis, MD, professor of urology at the University of Rochester, laments the widespread myth regarding the alleged association between testosterone and prostate cancer:
One of the myths is that androgen supplementation will cause a cancer. We know that prostate cancer often regresses when androgen is removed, but there is very little evidence that supplementing to normal levels increases risk of cancer, and some evidence it may lower it.
The situation as described by Dr. Shaw to WedMD:
There has been a worry that testosterone supplementation may increase the risk of prostate cancer, but we did not see any more cases of prostate cancer in men with higher testosterone levels compared with those with lower levels. This is reassuring and should open the way for studies of testosterone supplementation in men with low levels to take place.
Furthermore, Dr. Khaw acknowledges the problems that have faced estrogen replacement therapy in recent years:
The observational studies of estrogen replacement in women were encouraging, but randomized controlled trials actually showed harm. That has put people off the idea of hormone therapy in men as well. But the observational studies in women were mainly with estrogen supplements and suffered from many biases, as women who took estrogen supplements were different in many other ways from women who didn’t. In contrast, our study in men looked at endogenous testosterone levels, which should have fewer biases.
WebMD: http://men.webmd.com/news/20071127/low-testosterone-early-death
