Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

Perhaps the first suggestion that testosterone might be useful in aiding sporting performance came from the work of Oskar Zoth and Fritz Pregl in 1886. As an alternative to testicular transplantation, Zoth and Pregl undertook a study using testicular extracts. These two Austrian scientists aimed to determine whether the aqueous extracts could improve muscle strength and, thus, improve athletic performance. They injected themselves with a liquid extract from bull’s testicles and then measured the strength of their middle fingers throughout a series of exercises. Their paper, published in 1896, concluded that the extract had improved the strength and condition of their muscles. Moreover, they went on to suggest that further research be carried out within the athletic community for practical assessment of their initial results. The writer Paul de Kruif reported on the developments in the synthesis and therapeutic  applications of testosterone. During the 1940s he commented on the potential of these substances to improve the athletic performance of baseball teams. However, these reports were essentially indications of the potential  performance-enhancing abilities of testosterone and its derivatives. The first accurate and controlled studies into this aspect of sports doping were produced in the 1950s.

The American scientist Dr John Ziegler produced some of the most influential work into the effects of AS upon sporting performance. Indeed, Ziegler was responsible for the original synthesis of AS (Taylor, 1991; Goldman and Klatz, 1992; Yesalis et al., 1993a; Hoberman and Yesalis, 1995). In 1956 Ziegler attended the World Games, and at this competition
he learnt of the Russian athletes’ use of hormonal treatments for performance enhancement. On his return Ziegler  reported his findings and, funded by the pharmaceutical company Ciba, went on to synthesize the first AS. He named this compound Dianabol.

Since the development of Dianabol an enormous range of AS has become available. Pharmaceutical companies have continued to research methods to dissociate the ‘desirable’ anabolic effects from the androgenic effects, but as yet they have had very limited success. Some of the AS available have lower androgenic components than others, but androgenic effects have not been entirely eliminated from any product (Haupt and Rovere, 1984).

The period of the 1960s and 1970s saw an increase in the number of people using AS, and also an increase in the range of AS commercially available (Taylor, 1991). However, the medical and sporting institutions were still viewing these substances with suspicion. In both America and Britain, research as to whether AS did improve athletic performance was conflicting ( Johnson and O’Shea, 1968; Freed et al., 1975; Hervey et al., 1976; Ryan, 1978). In 1975, the British Association of Sport and Medicine (BASM) announced that AS were not capable of producing an improvement in performance. The policy of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) was published in their 1977 annual report; this report stated that there was no conclusive scientific evidence to suggest that AS improve athletic performance.

In fact, it was only in the 1980s that it became accepted that, under specified circumstances, AS are capable of producing an improvement in sporting performance. The specific circumstances were that:

the athlete must have been undergoing an intensive weightlifting programme before starting the course of Anabolic Steroids;
the athlete must continue this intensive training programme throughout the course of Anabolic Steroids;
the athlete must consume a high protein diet.

It also recommended that changes in the strength of the athlete must be measured by the single repetition-maximal weight technique for the exercises in which the athlete trains (Haupt and Rovere, 1984).

After it had become widely accepted that AS could enhance sporting performance, the medical and sporting  institutions were forced to change their public policies. The sporting institutions continued to maintain an anti-doping stance. They now had to find some way of deterring athletes from using drugs that were scientifically proven to  enhance performance. To compound matters, there was already a significant lack of credibility between the sports medicine and the athletic communities due in no small part to the previous denial of the sport medical community as to the performance-enhancing properties of AS (Haupt and Rovere, 1984). Any research documenting the adverse effects of these drugs was likely to be viewed sceptically by athletes.

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

There are rumours that German soldiers were administered anabolic steroids during the Second World War, the aim being to increase their aggression and stamina (Yesalis et al., 1993a). These rumours have often been reported (Verroken, 1996) but are, as yet, unproven. Hitler was also believed to have been treated by his physician with injections of testosterone (Taylor, 1991). A more ethical application of anabolic steroid treatment was also
applied at the end of the Second World War, whereby these drugs were used to treat the malnourished victims of the Nazi concentration camps (George, 1996a).

Other early uses were found for testosterone derivatives in the treatment of men and women with abnormal hormone production. The mode of action of these treatments works on almost identical principles to the primitive transplantation of testicular tissue; exogenous testosterone circulates around the body to fulfil the roles of  endogenous testosterone. The first documented case of testosterone being used to treat a patient was by Hamilton (1937). This physician administered a total of 550 mg of testosterone acetate, given via 14 injections with three injections per week, to a 27-year-old male patient who was suffering from sexual underdevelopment (hypogonadism). Hamilton’s experiment proved to be successful, the patient experienced penile erections, deepening of voice,  elevation of mood, and growth of body hair. Hamilton’s work also provided an early indication of the potential  side-effects of testosterone, or testosterone derivatives; the patient was recorded to have developed acne on his back and chest and experienced hot flushes. Testosterone derivatives are still used to treat this disorder today, although the doses used and the drugs themselves have undergone significant development and modification.

Following the work of Hamilton, a series of reports documented the use of testosterone in the treatment of male involutional melancholia (Barahal, 1938; Danzinger and Blank, 1942; Goldman and Markham, 1942; Davidoff and Goodstone, 1942); this syndrome is believed to be caused by the decrease in testosterone level brought about by the aging process. The research had varying levels of success, but primarily served as a precursor for later research into the application of testosterone-derived treatments in the field of mental health.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, research was also conducted into the use of testosterone derivatives in the  treatment of cardiovascular disorders (Taylor, 1991). Medical and scientific knowledge of today suggests that there is an association between the use and misuse of testosterone and its derivatives and cardiovascular disorders such as  myocardial infarction, hypertension and cardiomyopathy (Greenberg et al., 1974; Pearson et al., 1986; Ferenchick, 1990; Ferenchick et al., 1991; Rockhold, 1993; Melchert and Welder, 1995). The use of testosterone as an  anti-oestrogen treatment for female breast tumours led to a secondary and more controversial use for testosterone. It has been reported that, during this period, testosterone was administered to homosexual men in the belief that  homosexuality was caused by abnormally high levels of female hormones in men (Lenehan et al., 1996).

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

A number of experiments were carried out in the nineteenth century by Brown-Sequard, a French physiologist, in which he injected the aqueous extracts from animal testes into himself as well as into a range of animals.

In 1889 Brown-Sequard reported his observations, declaring that he had reversed his own decline into old age. Although Brown-Sequard’s discoveries were not accepted because of the lack of experimental controls, his idea that
the testes release physiologically active substances proved to be true (Kochakian, 1993a). His self-experimentation provided the basis for further studies into the effects of ingestion of testicular extracts, and ultimately the effects of testosterone, upon people.

Surgeons developed the technique of transplanting human and animal (e.g. monkeys) testes into patients whose testes were damaged or dysfunctional.

Claims were made that these operations had relieved pain and discomfort and promoted bodily well-being in hundreds of patients. People began to seek treatment for all manner of disorders: senility, asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, impotence, tuberculosis, paranoia, gangrene and more (Hoberman and Yesalis, 1995).

However, this method of treatment was not accepted by the scientific community, who did not believe many of
the claims made. An international committee that was appointed to investigate these claims concluded that claims of rejuvenation as a result of testicular transplantation were unfounded (Parkes, 1985).

Subsequent to the research outlined above, testosterone has been isolated and its structure discovered.

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid

Primitive medicine holds an early clue about the medical applications of testosterone. The practice of treating an organ with itself, also known as similia similibus, or organotherapy, was frequently applied by the ancient Greeks, and later by the Romans, to treat a wide variety of complaints.

Human or animal tissues would be used to treat various complaints; for example, the eating of brain tissue was recommended to improve a low intellect (Newerla, 1943; Hoberman and Yesalis, 1995). The centuries-old practice of castration provided evidence that the testes were involved in the development of secondary male sex characteristics (Hoskins, 1941).

This knowledge led to the belief that the consumption of testicular tissue could be used to treat an array of complaints, specifically including impotence (Taylor, 1991). These practices were also applied to the improvement of sporting performance. Athletes in ancient Greece would eat lambs’ testes in an attempt to increase their strength and muscle size.

Further medical and scientific discoveries served to reduce the frequency with which these practices were applied, but interest in the effects of testicular extracts and testes transplantation has continued. The use of animal experimentation to provide a model of testicular function and hormonal regulation is still applied today, and experiments involving human subjects are often conducted.

Some of the earliest experiments to investigate the function of the testes were conducted by Berthold in the mid-nineteenth century. He conducted experiments with roosters and showed that transplantation of testes into castrated roosters (capons) led to regression of the changes that occurred as a result of castration, namely theregrowth of comb and wattles and changes in behaviour. Berthold concluded that a secretion from the transplanted testis was responsible for these changes.

Berthold’s experiments were repeated by different scientists with variable success. Eventually, Berthold’s conclusions
were verified, as a result of work by McGee (1927) and Gallagher and Koch (1934). Both of these groups conducted modified versions of the Berthold experiment, in which they used an alcohol extract of bull testicle to stimulate
the regrowth of the combs of castrated roosters.

Following research that proved extracts from men’s urine had a similar stimulatory effect upon regrowth of the comb of castrated roosters (Ruzicka et al., 1934), it became accepted that the testes produced an active extract responsible for the development and maintenance of male characteristics (Kochakian, 1993b).

Anabolex Dianabol Dbol D bol Methandrostenolone Steroid