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BBC Sport is running articles on the long-term effects of steroids, based on research done last year by Kristian Gundersen, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oslo, which demonstrated long term "muscle memory" effects in mice.
These articles have been triggered by the case of US sprinter Justin Gatlin. Gatlin had been banned from the sport for doping twice, most recently serving a four year ban, but returned to competition in 2010, and is now running faster than ever. He holds six of the seven fastest 100m times in the world this year, and has been nominated for the IAAF athlete of the year award. The BBC quotes Dai Greene (Britain's 2011 400m hurdles world champion):
Those are incredible performances. Not many people have run that fast separately, ever. To do it on a damp Friday night? I couldn't believe those times."
"It shows one of two things: either he's still taking performance-enhancing drugs to get the best out of him at his advanced age, or the ones he did take are still doing a fantastic job. Because there is no way he can still be running that well at this late point in his career."
[More after the break]
The BBC refers back to the work done by Professor Gundersen's team:In the study, mice were exposed to anabolic steroids for two weeks, which resulted in increased muscle mass and number of nuclei in the muscle fibers.
The drug was then withdrawn for 3 months, a period which corresponds to approximately 15 percent of a mouse's lifespan. After the withdrawal, the mice’s muscle mass grew by 30 percent in 6 days following load exercise, while untreated mice showed insignificant muscle growth during the same period.
Although they experimented on mice, Gundersen states that the cell nuclei in humans are known to be very stable, and believes that the mechanisms are comparable, leading to the suggestion that the advantages could be lifelong or persist for decades.
However Gatlin's agent disagrees, saying that the current performances are due to four years of rest during the period of the ban, and athletic talent, blaming former coach Trevor Graham for being "over-zealous" and attempting to get results sooner, but that Gatlin would have otherwise been able to get to this level naturally.
In addition to the linked BBC article there's also an 80 Minute podcast from BBC Radio 5(mp3 link) with discussion and interviews on this topic.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 10 2014, @01:09AM
My apologies, gewg_, but your reply is better suited to the GP post [soylentnews.org]: I wasn't endorsing steroids, just pointing that the size of one's testes may be the least of worries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford