Friday, December 06, 2002

Damn, Mom Was Right!

While in junior high, my older bro developed a muscle obsession.

Weider publications invaded the house in waves -- full of bulging muscles and popping veins.

Mom was not impressed. To her it was obviously all artificially induced and such gains came at a cost: wienies decreased in proportion to biceps.

Well.

It turns out she may have been on to something.

Last week the NY Times had a piece on the continued popularity of steroids and testosterone in the weight rooms of America.

With No Answers on Risks, Steroid Users Still Say 'Yes'

The gist of the article is: As more and more men, and some women, are seeking large, chiseled bodies, more are learning the bitter secret of that look: It almost always takes some chemical assistance, from drugs that are often are illegal but are readily available.

It also dutifully lists the possible hazards: All along, there have been suspicions — but very little solid evidence — that anabolic steroids and drugs that act like them can lead to serious long-term effects, including heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

Then today -- a revelation.

Additional testosterone can effect the wang -- sort of.

Hormone Therapy a Potential Male Contraceptive

Evidently, excess testosterone stops the production of sperm cold -- faster even than those Missouri pesticides.

In the study described by the article -- 80% of the test subjects achieved azoospermia in 12 weeks.

Now there's a word -- azoospermia.

It means the complete absence of sperm in semen.

Hats off to mom's foresight.

posted by Bohica at 2:04 AM