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YellowJacket
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Steroids build muscle mass, not aggression
New implications for people with AIDS
July 3, 1996
From Correspondent Aileen Pincus
WASHINGTON (CNN)--The underground market for illegal steroids, such as testosterone, continues to be a problem, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A recent study confirmed what many who use steroids have suspected for years: they work.
Building muscles takes hard work. For years, some athletes have turned to illegal steroids to give them the strength and muscle size exercise alone didn't provide.
Dr. Wayne Bardin of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. says the latest research, which placed 43 men on large doses of testosterone over a ten week period, provides conclusive results.
"If you give men more testosterone, their muscles will grow, but they don't get any more aggressive than they already are," he said.
The study published in the July New England Journal of Medicine could have major implications for the treatment of those who lose muscle mass, such as people with AIDS or the elderly.
"In older men, testosterone declines as a group, and people have attributed the frailty of aging to declining testosterone levels," said Dr. Shalender Bhasin from the Drew University of Medicine and Science.
Dr. Bhasin also says the study proves those on testosterone showed no change in mood or behavior.
"Testosterone effects on angry behavior or aggression, if there are any effects on humans, are greatly constrained and so they don't become manifest, so it's unlikely that testosterone would turn humans into beasts so to speak," he said.
The findings may even reach into space, where scientists have long searched for a way to counter the effects of gravity on muscle mass in astronauts.
Scientists say this study does not justify the use of illegal steroids. The study lasted for just ten weeks, and there is still much that is not known about the long-term effects of steroids.
New implications for people with AIDS
July 3, 1996
From Correspondent Aileen Pincus
WASHINGTON (CNN)--The underground market for illegal steroids, such as testosterone, continues to be a problem, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A recent study confirmed what many who use steroids have suspected for years: they work.
Building muscles takes hard work. For years, some athletes have turned to illegal steroids to give them the strength and muscle size exercise alone didn't provide.
Dr. Wayne Bardin of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. says the latest research, which placed 43 men on large doses of testosterone over a ten week period, provides conclusive results.
"If you give men more testosterone, their muscles will grow, but they don't get any more aggressive than they already are," he said.
The study published in the July New England Journal of Medicine could have major implications for the treatment of those who lose muscle mass, such as people with AIDS or the elderly.
"In older men, testosterone declines as a group, and people have attributed the frailty of aging to declining testosterone levels," said Dr. Shalender Bhasin from the Drew University of Medicine and Science.
Dr. Bhasin also says the study proves those on testosterone showed no change in mood or behavior.
"Testosterone effects on angry behavior or aggression, if there are any effects on humans, are greatly constrained and so they don't become manifest, so it's unlikely that testosterone would turn humans into beasts so to speak," he said.
The findings may even reach into space, where scientists have long searched for a way to counter the effects of gravity on muscle mass in astronauts.
Scientists say this study does not justify the use of illegal steroids. The study lasted for just ten weeks, and there is still much that is not known about the long-term effects of steroids.
