A Little Background Info on Steroids

A Little Background Info on Steroids
STERIODS!!!! What do people think of when they hear the term steroids? To tell you the truth, I think about large hairy East German and Chinese swimmers in the 1980’s. However, steroids have been around for a lot longer than that, and were popularized in the 1940’s when athletes began taking steroids heavily to increase muscle mass. Even before that though on June 1st 1889, Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard, a prominent French physiologist, announced that he had devised a rejuvinating therapy for the body and mind by injecting himself with a liquid extract derived from the testicles of dogs and guinea pigs. He claimed that the injections increased his physical strength and intellectual energy, relieved his constipation and even lengthened the arc of his urine. (Hoberman and Yesalis, 1995) Many scientists think that Brown-Sequards effects were caused by the power of suggestion, they believe that he was correct in his proposal that the functions of the testicles might be enhanced or restored by replacing the substances they produce. Even before the discoveries in the late 1800’s there has been evidence to suggest that early civilizations used different types of secretions and organs for similar reasons. The Hoberman, Yesalis article said that The Ayurveda of Suscruta (circa 1000 B.C.) recommended the ingestion of testis as a treatment for impotence. In the 1920’s two Austrian physiologists, Oskar Zoth and Fritz Pregl injected themselves with extract form bull testicles. They injected their middle fingers and tested to see if the fingers gained strength. Zoth published a paper, which said that the extract had improved the muscular strength. With the advancements that came from these early studies, we have seen the popularity of steroids skyrocket. Even though steroids have been illegal for some time, the industry is booming with over a billion-dollar black market. However, talk has turned from the benefits of steroids to the negative aspects and that is where research is leading now.