No disrespect taken. Was it the steroids? Wholly? No! Was it a huge contributing factor? Yes! I have went into detail on a few threads on this. I abused steroids and was not smart about it. I will never tell guys not to use even large doses but I at least will counsel them to be smart about it.
1. 6'2 3/4, 305lbs 13%bf, 325 15%bf, 365 19%bf, 390 23%bf. I have been up to 425 at one point but I do not know what my percentage was. Lowest adult weight was 292lbs but I had not bf testing done. I would imagine it was 10%ish. I was very lean except for extra skin from when I was 405 for a year. Mind you I was 6'2 and 300lbs in 8th grade. I had 20inch arms in highschool. I have never been small... I naturally had a strength athletes build.
2. My blood pressure ran 120-130 over 70-80 off cycle. On cycle with no meds it ran 160-170/100-110. With meds 140/90. From 21-27 I went without regular checks. Since then I have been regularly checking BP and using meds when necessary.
3. My cholesterol was back and forth as would be expected. Normal range off cycle. High on cycle. Hdl plummeted on orals... I did hold water much of the time because used a lot of estrogenic gear and didn't use any inhibitors... I was almost always running a minamum of 1g test a/week. Maxed at 3G a/week test. Along with 1-2g of other stuff. Went up to 2g of tren once. That was a mistake...
Obviously other factors were involved. But my bloods came back pretty good for years. Even when on cycle. Never once were my doctors concerned even when I insisted somthing was wrong. By the time the doctors realized I was right I was off the gear and my blood pressure was 120/70 naturally at 345lbs... I had three EKG's in a year. All came back fine. It literally took me coughing up blood and pissing blood for them to take me seriously...
I developed a auto immune disease that caused massive systematic vascular inflammation (vasculitis) and killed the veins in my kidneys and caused congestive heart failure. This is the simple version of the story...
I believe that the volumes of oil and other things i injected into my body also played a part in the development of the auto immune disease.
Another thing I feel could have been a major factor was that I was exposed to black mold for a year or so in my home without realizing it. This cause months of illness until I realized it and had all the floors and Sheetrock ripped out and rebuilt.
None the less I am not the only guy suffering from similar afflictions and the one thing we generally have in common is heavy gear use...
It's worth thinking about. You can still get huge and be smart guys. That's all I'm saying...
You know I was thinking about the same thing about the amount of oils, eventually something encapsulates, develops bacteria over time and one day spreads, but then to mind come all those SEO idiots walking around with 30inch arms and dont have any muscle the actual "Synthol hall of shame" - (How Not to Lift: Top 10 Synthol Superstars ) but didnt seem to affect them, and they carry more oil than anybody....