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Designer Steroid Injury Report
A paper appearing in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology (“Prolonged Intrahepatic Cholestasis and Renal Failure Secondary to Anabolic Androgenic Steroid-Enriched Dietary Supplements”) is sure to bring some unwanted government attention to the U.S. designer steroid market. It concerns a collection of potentially very serious injury reports following the use of over-the-counter (OTC) designer steroids, specifically with patients hospitalized for significant liver and kidney toxicity.
First, a little background for those unfamiliar. Steroids are indeed back in U.S. supplement stores, and in a big way. And your father’s (OK, big brother’s) prohormones they are not. I am sure it is to the dismay of many people morally or ethically opposed to the use of steroids, but these drugs did not go away when the prohormone ban of 2005 went into effect. In fact, the ban succeeded only in shifting the supply from the milder, naturally-occurring prohormones like ‘andro’ and ‘norandro,’ to a class of ‘designer’ steroids that is far more potent.
Basically, when the prohormone market was eliminated back in 2005, supplement companies were left with a ‘high demand’ market and no inventory to sell. The prohormone ban was compound-specific, so the trick was finding new hormones to sell. Four years and one dusty old steroid book from a guy named Vida later, we have a full collection of highly potent synthetic designer steroids— the companies just looked up some of the stronger old steroids and had them newly synthesized.
You won’t find them in GNC, but these drugs are widely sold on the Internet and in some of the more ‘aggressive’ bodybuilding-focused supplement stores and gyms. No, they might not be quite legal, but the FDA is very busy and lacks a large police force. This has actually gone on for so long that it has become an almost-accepted part of the industry at this point. It frustrates me when people insist these supplements cannot possibly be the same thing as ‘real’ steroids. Indeed they are the same thing.
But let’s get back to the new paper. It concerns a collection of six injury reports, three from the past 12 months and three that are newly published. The common factor in all cases was significant liver toxicity, including severe itching, yellowing of the eyes, and jaundice. This was accompanied by a variety of other symptoms including an enlarged liver, enlarged spleen, malaise, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal discomfort, and/or discolored stool. Two of the cases also involved severe kidney toxicity or kidney failure.
The supplement involved in three of these cases was Superdrol (methasteron), the very first of the ‘post-prohormone era’ designer steroids. In another case, DMT (desoxymethyltestosterone) was blamed, which is one of the infamous BALCO designer steroids, also very popular on the supplement market. One remaining report involves dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which has no known liver toxicity. This may be the result of a complete error on the part of the physicians involved, or it may be mislabeling. The last case lists the steroidal substance as ‘unknown.’
I will be honest in saying that these injury reports are not necessarily a surprise. These designer steroids are nearly all 17-alkylated, which gives them inherent liver toxicity like other oral steroids. In most cases, these drugs are extremely potent, often many times that of some of the prescription steroids like methandrostenolone and stanozolol. So you have some of the most potent and liver-toxic steroids ever used, available over-the-counter. Most consumers are educated about what they are taking, and use reasonable dosages and short intake periods, avoiding injury. Others may be lulled into a false sense of security, however, and use much more than they should. And even if you are careful, we must always remember that these are still potent, liver-toxic steroids. Injury is bound to happen in some people just by sheer numbers and how widely the steroids are used.
Overall, the incidences of injury with these designer steroids are not very great when you consider the popularity of these supplements. In four years, it is very likely that many hundreds of thousands of bottles of the various designer steroids have been sold and used. Most people, therefore, never develop such problems— otherwise we would hear much more about them. And thankfully, of the five patients in this report who were followed after their initial hospitalization, all recovered. So I don’t want this to completely stress out anyone who has been taking DMT, methasteron, or any of the other designer drugs. Still, be careful, and most of all, respect the risks involved in what you are doing. These drugs are liver- and cardiovascular system-toxic. For all intents and purposes, you should assume that the OTC designers are no different than Anadrol or a high dose of D-Bol.
Spiked Supplements and Nandrolone Failures
We’ve all read or seen the news reports. They are usually the same thing. “Such and such athlete tested positive for anabolic steroids. Such and such athlete denies using steroids, and believes this is the result of a contaminated nutritional supplement.” This almost seems to be the standard response to a drug-testing failure these days.
If you are like many people, you have probably been wondering how feasible this explanation is. Is it really possible that some of these athletes have failed completely by mistake, or is the ‘tainted supplement’ excuse really the doping equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’— possible, but very far from likely? Researchers at the School of Sports and Exercise Sciences in Loughborough University in the UK, working in cooperation with the Drug Surveillance Group in Cambridgeshire, UK, have just completed a paper that may help answer this question once and for all (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009 Mar 7).
A paper appearing in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology (“Prolonged Intrahepatic Cholestasis and Renal Failure Secondary to Anabolic Androgenic Steroid-Enriched Dietary Supplements”) is sure to bring some unwanted government attention to the U.S. designer steroid market. It concerns a collection of potentially very serious injury reports following the use of over-the-counter (OTC) designer steroids, specifically with patients hospitalized for significant liver and kidney toxicity.
First, a little background for those unfamiliar. Steroids are indeed back in U.S. supplement stores, and in a big way. And your father’s (OK, big brother’s) prohormones they are not. I am sure it is to the dismay of many people morally or ethically opposed to the use of steroids, but these drugs did not go away when the prohormone ban of 2005 went into effect. In fact, the ban succeeded only in shifting the supply from the milder, naturally-occurring prohormones like ‘andro’ and ‘norandro,’ to a class of ‘designer’ steroids that is far more potent.
Basically, when the prohormone market was eliminated back in 2005, supplement companies were left with a ‘high demand’ market and no inventory to sell. The prohormone ban was compound-specific, so the trick was finding new hormones to sell. Four years and one dusty old steroid book from a guy named Vida later, we have a full collection of highly potent synthetic designer steroids— the companies just looked up some of the stronger old steroids and had them newly synthesized.
You won’t find them in GNC, but these drugs are widely sold on the Internet and in some of the more ‘aggressive’ bodybuilding-focused supplement stores and gyms. No, they might not be quite legal, but the FDA is very busy and lacks a large police force. This has actually gone on for so long that it has become an almost-accepted part of the industry at this point. It frustrates me when people insist these supplements cannot possibly be the same thing as ‘real’ steroids. Indeed they are the same thing.
But let’s get back to the new paper. It concerns a collection of six injury reports, three from the past 12 months and three that are newly published. The common factor in all cases was significant liver toxicity, including severe itching, yellowing of the eyes, and jaundice. This was accompanied by a variety of other symptoms including an enlarged liver, enlarged spleen, malaise, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal discomfort, and/or discolored stool. Two of the cases also involved severe kidney toxicity or kidney failure.
The supplement involved in three of these cases was Superdrol (methasteron), the very first of the ‘post-prohormone era’ designer steroids. In another case, DMT (desoxymethyltestosterone) was blamed, which is one of the infamous BALCO designer steroids, also very popular on the supplement market. One remaining report involves dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which has no known liver toxicity. This may be the result of a complete error on the part of the physicians involved, or it may be mislabeling. The last case lists the steroidal substance as ‘unknown.’
I will be honest in saying that these injury reports are not necessarily a surprise. These designer steroids are nearly all 17-alkylated, which gives them inherent liver toxicity like other oral steroids. In most cases, these drugs are extremely potent, often many times that of some of the prescription steroids like methandrostenolone and stanozolol. So you have some of the most potent and liver-toxic steroids ever used, available over-the-counter. Most consumers are educated about what they are taking, and use reasonable dosages and short intake periods, avoiding injury. Others may be lulled into a false sense of security, however, and use much more than they should. And even if you are careful, we must always remember that these are still potent, liver-toxic steroids. Injury is bound to happen in some people just by sheer numbers and how widely the steroids are used.
Overall, the incidences of injury with these designer steroids are not very great when you consider the popularity of these supplements. In four years, it is very likely that many hundreds of thousands of bottles of the various designer steroids have been sold and used. Most people, therefore, never develop such problems— otherwise we would hear much more about them. And thankfully, of the five patients in this report who were followed after their initial hospitalization, all recovered. So I don’t want this to completely stress out anyone who has been taking DMT, methasteron, or any of the other designer drugs. Still, be careful, and most of all, respect the risks involved in what you are doing. These drugs are liver- and cardiovascular system-toxic. For all intents and purposes, you should assume that the OTC designers are no different than Anadrol or a high dose of D-Bol.
Spiked Supplements and Nandrolone Failures
We’ve all read or seen the news reports. They are usually the same thing. “Such and such athlete tested positive for anabolic steroids. Such and such athlete denies using steroids, and believes this is the result of a contaminated nutritional supplement.” This almost seems to be the standard response to a drug-testing failure these days.
If you are like many people, you have probably been wondering how feasible this explanation is. Is it really possible that some of these athletes have failed completely by mistake, or is the ‘tainted supplement’ excuse really the doping equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’— possible, but very far from likely? Researchers at the School of Sports and Exercise Sciences in Loughborough University in the UK, working in cooperation with the Drug Surveillance Group in Cambridgeshire, UK, have just completed a paper that may help answer this question once and for all (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009 Mar 7).
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