Study AAS Abuse Causes Alarming Increases In Mortality

CFC

CFC

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While it may seem pretty obvious to most that AAS abuse may be linked to shorter lifespans and elevated incidences of ill-health and poorer quality of life scores in later years, we're only now really seeing some of those lifelong consequences coming up in studies.

Previous research has indicated that steroids users are around 1900% more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular issues thanks to AAS use, and that's before even considering any of the other potential AAS-related causes.

What's even more concerning about such mortality studies is that they fail to capture those who don't die, but rather suffer prolonged bouts of ill-health, reduced quality of life, and increased hospital admissions as a result of kidney, liver, cardiovascular, musculo-skeletal, reproductive, libido and mental health issues.

A new study published on Tuesday helps extend our understanding further, noting not only a 10-year period a tripled risk of death from all causes as a result of AAS abuse in Danish gym-goers, but some pretty dramatic increases in the incidence of various ailments (table below):


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As ever, Ergo-Log's jumped onto the paper and you can read their nice little summary of it here.
 
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Gee happy day after Thanksgiving to me lmao. Hope my Girlfriend doesn't read that.
 
Conclusion
"Androgenic anabolic steroids users have an increased risk of dying and significantly more hospital admissions than their nonuser peers, and a high rate of side effects related to the pharmacodynamic properties of these drugs", the researchers conclude. "Based on the high prevalence of androgenic anabolic steroids abuse, these side effects are a public health concern."

Doesn't really tell us much regards their lifestyle choices apart from AAS usage, nothing on dosage, duration of cycle length, nutritional preferences, alcohol, tobacco, recreational drug use etc..

We know diet plays a huge part in health and longevity, without subject data it's really impossible to decide if AAS were the primary cause of death..

Alarming personal implications though, can't have long left by now.. ;)
 
^ yeah actually I just rejigged it a little and added a graph from the paper, as it did come over rather grim and deterministic lol. I'm sure you have many years of good health yet mate :)

And you're right, there's no effort to match controls in terms of lifestyle or much else apart from cohort status. Men enrolled in the study were basically caught taking gear on the basis of looking too big and ripped to be natural. So we can assume they had at least a fair amount of AAS exposure, but none of the actual details, nor what other efforts they took to stay healthy etc.
 
CFC said:
^ yeah actually I just rejigged it a little and added a graph from the paper, as it did come over rather grim and deterministic lol. I'm sure you have many years of good health yet mate :)

And you're right, there's no effort to match controls in terms of lifestyle or much else apart from cohort status. Men enrolled in the study were basically caught taking gear on the basis of looking too big and ripped to be natural. So we can assume they had at least a fair amount of AAS exposure, but none of the actual details, nor what other efforts they took to stay healthy etc.
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I appreciate the vote of confidence... Time will tell..:)
 
Do oral AAS cause liver cancer? I have seen lately many young bodybuilders with liver cancer... I wonder if its oral AAS, growth hormone, or maybe a higher incidence of hepatitis B or C due to needles and lifestyle... do any of you guys know if testosterone can cause liver cancer? I get Primoteston Depot from Bayer, and on the leaflet it says testosterone shouldnt be used on people with a history of liver cancer, wtf?
 
From the table, it would appear that AAS use (of some nature - we can't tell from the study how much they use or how long) increases cancer risk in general pretty significantly - 150% or so. We can't tell from the study if there's a specific type of cancer it tends to cause more, and others less, unfortunately.

This could be because AAS cause dramatic increases in systemic GH and IGF-1 (a downstream effect). Cancers typically respond to such growth factors by reproducing even faster. This effect is unrelated to oral AAS; anything that increases systemic IGF-1 would have this effect. And when it comes to oral steroids, there's a specific issue related to the harm caused to liver cells as they attempt to metabolise the steroid (which is less of a problem with injected AAS, although trenbolone has been shown to at least be a potential problem).

However, people who exercise generally have a lower risk of cancer because muscles that have been worked tend to 'mop up' circulating growth hormones pretty efficiently, thus lowering systemic levels and thus reducing the supply of such growth factors to any embryonic cancer clusters. Other things can help too, like a reduced carbohydrate diet, lots of good fatty acids (eg walnuts etc). It's doubtful, however, that someone on a heavy cycle could really lower circulating levels of massively elevated GH/IGF-1 very much.
 
But to be honest, those statistics seem flawed, as GF says... steroid users are more likely to use other substances, how many people started using steroids? Most started with other illegal substances first... most guys I know using steroids are complete idiots, dont even compete, dont know what blood pressure is... I have a friend who uses on and off several steroids, and he never gets bloodwork done, when questioned he says "what will I do if my organs are fucked up? I'd rather not know"... he hadnt taken his blood pressure ever and when I took it for him it was 170/70... thats how you get on dialysis, we live at 2500m and he never drains blood even when abusing for long periods, I drained 2 pints from him the other day and he felt so much better, he abuses rec drugs too without any harm reduction, how many idiots like that are out there? And I was one of them too, not knowing correct dosing, blood pressure, estrogen managment, etc... and I did research, im not the kind of guy to jump into shit without researching, but its such a complex theme with misinformation that its so easy to fuck up, major learning curve using AAS, I would say from the guys I know who use recreationally 90% dont know what the fuck are doing and are polysubstance abusers too, how can you take any meaningfull data out of those guys? Take a 21 year old with a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and all the things that come with the typical american lifestyle and take a 21 year old using only testosterone and other mild inyectable steroids like EQ in sensible doses, doing cardio daily, controlling blood pressure consistently, getting bloodwork, eating a good diet, using supplements for blood pressure and cholesterol and treating risk factors, draining blood and managing hematocrit, monitoring blood sugar and I guarantee the steroid user would be perfectly healthy 20 30 years down the road, the other would be on dialysis or several medications like most typical americans do, combining recreational drugs, steroids, shitty diet, disregard for your health even in the most basic senses like blood pressure, thats what fucks people up in my opinion.
 
I see, I was wondering really if oral steroids in the long term due to hepatocellular damage could cause liver cancer, being the sole and only cause themselves, similar to how hepatitis B and C cause liver cancer after several years due to constant hepatocellular damage, I remember reading somewhere Anadrol was particularly hazardous in this respect.
 
We can definitely live in hope that it's only the reckless and unwise who die young and suffer ill health as a result of lifetime AAS use :)

I think, though, given the pretty large body of research already demonstrating health repercussions from sometimes even fairly minimal AAS use, it may well be that we need to accept that what we do comes with some pretty hefty long-term risks. Some get lucky, but sadly many do not.

While it would be very unrealistic to suggest men stop using AAS altogether - given that it would otherwise be largely impossible to achieve the kind of physiques that a very large % of men aim for today - perhaps what we can do instead is advocate healthier ways of using them, and at the same time encourage all the other optimal lifestyle choices that you mention.
 
Jaredborgetti said:
I see, I was wondering really if oral steroids in the long term due to hepatocellular damage could cause liver cancer, being the sole and only cause themselves, similar to how hepatitis B and C cause liver cancer after several years due to constant hepatocellular damage, I remember reading somewhere Anadrol was particularly hazardous in this respect.
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Yeah, I think it's generally accepted by now that long-term abuse of oral AAS can elevate the risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer specifically. We can probably modify those risks with various supplements (eg NAC, taurine, UDCA/TUDCA, Vit E/C, dietary changes, reduced alcohol etc), but unquestionably oral AAS are known to cause hepatocellular damage, some more than others.
 
I agree with you, definetly, but lets be clear, using steroids is fine, we are all grown ups, we can all decide to use steroids or not, just like any other substance, thats fine, but disrespecting your body is BULLSHIT, some will have health issues with or without AAS, but lets be clear, if you are going to be man enough to inyect all kinds of chemical shit in your body, fucking own up to being a man and take care of your health, at least have bloodwork, take blood pressure, take care of risk factors, some will still have problems sure, but at least you were responsible and monitored your health, when you inyect shit into your body and have fucking desregard for basic bloodwork, blood pressure, etc... you spit on all the bodybuilders who were idiots and died so you could learn from them, Andreas Munzer, Derek Anthony, Art Atwood, whoever you want to look up to you spit on them, you spit on every child with cancer who wishes he had a healthy body to actually do something with his life other than inyecting chemical shit to look tough, yes some guys do it for career and sports and I respect them if they take care of their health and are responsible, but lets be honest how many idiots use steroids just for looking good, and the worst part is that thats okay, I dont have a problem with that, idiots that disrespect their bodies is what sickens me, that is no better than a junkie or a smoker, you could have perfect blood pressure, perfect lab work, use only low doses of AAS, eat a perfect diet, and still die of ALS, cancer, or any other shit, sure, but at least your respected your body, you knew what you were doing and you accepted the consequences and responsabilities that came with it, if guys were as tough having bloodwork and reading on AAS as they are inyecting shit with disregard to their lifes, 90% of steroid deaths could be avoided. I did 2 cycles of testosterone and EQ, now im clean, I did it for my career, I need to have a great physique to make money, OK... but to be honest id rather look like shit in comparison to other guys and be left behind than sacrificing my health, if any guy wants to get on steroids and happens to read this, COMPETE AGAINST YOURSELF, improve your own body, dont envy physiques of others, most guys on AAS are idiots, and when they end up on dialysis at 30 yo, you will look 10 times better than them believe me, and if you are going to use them, READ READ READ, and never stop reading, get bloodwork, measure BP daily, drain blood as needed, cardio is MANDATORY daily, perfect diet is MANDATORY no shit meals, never share needles, be a man and own up to the consquences and responsabilities that come with inyecting shit on your body!!!!
 
Oh and I wasnt referring to you CFC in case it came across that way in that last post, you are great man and very knowdledgeable, I was talking in general, just my opinion.
 
CFC said:
Yeah, I think it's generally accepted by now that long-term abuse of oral AAS can elevate the risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer specifically. We can probably modify those risks with various supplements (eg NAC, taurine, UDCA/TUDCA, Vit E/C, dietary changes, reduced alcohol etc), but unquestionably oral AAS are known to cause hepatocellular damage, some more than others.
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There is so much information out there now regards healthy nutritional options, gut health, longevity, mechanisms of aging/causes of chronic disease, (mitochondrial cellular communication dysfunction and how to mitigate it), there really is no excuse to fall victim to consequences of poor lifestyle choices..
 
I'm here for a good time, not a long time. Of course I get into a relationship and now I got women lining up for me. Should just make a gear head bucket list lol.
 
Let's be serious here guys-of course they cause health problems. You'd be a total idiot to think they don't. I have over 20 yrs of ASS and HGH use under my belt and did EVERYTHING RIGHT- bloodwork, EKGs,regular check ups, moderate doses and was very open with my PCP. I had done all the things we were told to do, eat healthy, do cardio and keep fats low. At 42 I received a call from my PCP that I had CHF, cardiomyopathy and a damaged valve!! But I did it all properly! Now I have a defib implant and can't even workout. I also had low EF..in the 20's... there was nothing else I've done over these years that could hurt me other than long term gear use. My cardiologist says I should've had a heart attack but my PCP was on point. He didn't like my last EKG and ordered an echo which revealed all of these health issues. I try and tell all of these young cats about my issues so they don't make the same mistakes. Many could care less about hearing about long term effects! Life changes quickly- you grow up, have a child or get married. Then you care about maintaining long term health. Make sure its not too late. Remember when the old school heads give you information(that have been there) you try to listen! Just my own examples that I've lived...and my .02


JJ
 
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BigJJ said:
Let's be serious here guys-of course they cause health problems. You'd be a total idiot to think they don't. I have over 20 yrs of ASS and HGH use under my belt and did EVERYTHING RIGHT- bloodwork, EKGs,regular check ups, moderate doses and was very open with my PCP. I had done all the things we were told to do, eat healthy, do cardio and keep fats low. At 42 I received a call from my PCP that I had CHF, cardiomyopathy and a damaged valve!! But I did it all properly! Now I have a defib implant and can't even workout. I also had low EF..in the 20's... there was nothing else I've done over these years that could hurt me other than long term gear use. My cardiologist says I should've had a heart attack but my PCP was on point. He didn't like my last EKG and ordered an echo which revealed all of these health issues. I try and tell all of these young cats about my issues so they don't make the same mistakes. Many could care less about hearing about long term effects! Life changes quickly- you grow up, have a child or get married. Then you care about maintaining long term health. Make sure its not too late. Remember when the old school heads give you information(that have been there) you try to listen! Just my own examples that I've lived...and my .02


JJ
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How can you be sure your issue was related to AAS usage? Not saying it isn't, but so far you just stated a correlation. Are there other risk factors that could've contributed to your diagnoses?
 
No risk factors in my family at all. I've spoken to a few of the best cardiologists in Boston,that specialize in sports medicine as well as AAS usage. There is zero speculation that my issues weren't related to my usage. One Dr I spoke to said there is a massive uptick in otherwise healthy men with cardiac problems who all used ASS in their past(although long term use) The numbers don't lie-I wish I had a copy of the studies I've read that back that up. I've personally seen many area BBers die from heart attacks and ultra low EF from ASS usage. One Dr. told me that its becoming a serious problem with athletes dying so young with long term ASS usage. To think these drugs have little or no side effects flies in the face of many new studies that keep coming out. Hey, if you choose to ignore these facts, its on you. Just listen to people who have gone through it.

JJ
 
I?d also be curious as to what those guys diets looked like long term. Did they eat pretty much whatever or did they really make an effort to eat balanced whole foods, fruits, veggies, fiber, healthy oils, etc along with supplements that mitigate risk.

Seems like most of the old timers I know with health issues generally didn?t care too much to watch that kind of stuff which is why I?ve become 100x more conscious in the past couple years about diet and supplementation along with overall usage.
 
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