We followed weekly the evolution of serum lipid concentrations in two bodybuilders undergoing a cycle of treatment with anabolic steroids. These drugs caused maximum depression of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations by 69.1% in the fifth week after the beginning of the cycle for subject 1, and by 72.4% in the fourth week for subject 2. Maximum increases in low-density lipoprotei...

The anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are a family of hormones that includes testosterone and its derivatives. These substances have been used by elite athletes since the 1950s, but they did not become widespread drugs of abuse in the general population until the 1980s. Thus, knowledge of the medical and behavioral effects of illicit AAS use is still evolving. Surveys suggest that many million...

BACKGROUND The UK continues to experience a rise in the number of anabolic steroid-using clients attending harm reduction services such as needle and syringe programmes. METHODS The present study uses interviews conducted with harm reduction service providers as well as illicit users of anabolic steroids from different areas of England and Wales to explore harm reduction for this group of dru...

Twenty-one boys with a height of 135 cm or less at onset of puberty were treated with a combination of GnRH analog and anabolic steroid hormone, and their pubertal height gain and adult height were compared with those of untreated 29 boys who enter puberty below 135 cm. The mean age at the start of treatment with a GnRH analog, leuprorelin acetate depot (Leuplin(®)) was 12.3 yr, a mean of 1.3 y...

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) have been abused for decades by both professional and amateur athletes in order to improve physical performance or muscle mass. AAS abuse can cause adverse effects, among which are hepatotoxic effects. These effects include cholestatic icterus and possibly peliosis hepatis and hepatocellular carcinoma or adenoma. In particular, 17α-alkylated AAS appear to be h...

The sportsmen self-administering androgenic-anabolic agents to improve their performance and their body shape continue to be a problem. After the opening of the East European borders a large number of compounds are offered on the black market and in fitness centres. As a consequence students and children practicing no sport use these agents. Most athletes have only a crude pharmacological knowl...

This study focused on the reasons for practicing bodybuilding and the use of anabolic steroids, as well as the social representations and uses of the body among bodybuilding steroid users. This ethnographic study involved participant observation in middle and lower-class bodybuilding gyms in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil, and 43 in-depth interviews with steroid users. Aesthetic reasons are the ...