who to thank
"Anabolic Steroids in Sports and Exercise 2nd Edition" by Charles Yesalis
its a fascinating read. a bit lengthy and a bit scientific in parts but really studies the history of PED's in sports and the world. I read it cover to cover and learned a ton about the body. and how crazy some people are (in like 1900 a guy injected bull testicle shavings into him and noted benefits similar to testosterone)"
-F2S
Yes, FTS, this is a good book to read. I loaned my copy out to a doctor and he never returned it and has since
moved on, with me losing track of him. Damn.
My friend Randy Roach, writes in Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors, Volume I, Chapter 19 on the development of steroids,
and I quote . . .
“In a rare interview with Denie and Bob Goldman titled "Father of Dianabol" in the April, 1980 issue of Muscle
Training Illustrated, John Ziegler described his Soviet experience:
"Now I knew the Russians were using testosterone because of the prostate gland enlargements I was seeing.
They had to catheterize all these young players, say 22 years old just so they could urinate. (Being catheterized
is have a tube inserted in through the penis canal and up past the prostate gland which when swollen blocks
urine emission). I got to know one of the Russian doctors of their team and we became real good friends. He'd
been a country practice doctor as I had. Well, one night we were out having a few drinks—and the next day our
pictures together were on the front page of a Vienna newspaper. I never saw that man again. He admitted to
me they were using it—and I said to him it's so damn dangerous. Oh, by gawd, I saw some of their women athletes,
—they could play on the Redskins' football team over here. I felt the Russians were going to use sports as the
biggest international publicity trick going . . . and strength sports especially. They saw it as a political advantage, 100%."
“Ziegler was no stranger to testosterone. With his background in rehabilitation therapy and his connection with
CIBA Pharmaceuticals, he was already experimenting with testosterone on himself, patients, and some notable
athletes before his trip to Vienna.”
“British/French physician Charles Edward Brown-Sequard drew criticism when he reported a self-rejuvenation
by injecting subcutaneously an extract from the testes of freshly killed dogs and guinea pigs. By the turn of the
20th century, it was becoming well accepted that the body produced substances in specific organs that were
secreted and carried to target tissues throughout the system. In 1905, Ernest Starling popularized the term "hormone"
and within years, thyroxine and insulin were identified. It wasn't until the 1930s that the preferred hormone of
bodybuilding was discovered. In 1935, thanks to more animals sacrificing their testicles, researchers Kochakian
and Murlin noted that extracts from human urine injected into the beleaguered castrated dogs enabled them
to maintain a positive nitrogen balance.5 Immediately afterwards, Karoly G. David, Ernst Laqueur and colleagues
isolated crystalline testosterone from more testicles and published the results in the same year.6 With funding
from the Schering Corporation in Berlin, a team led by Butenandt and G. Hanisch as well as Leopold Ruzicka and
A. Wettstein of CIBA developed synthetic methods of preparing testosterone. In fact, the 1939 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry was shared by Butenandt and Ruzicka for their achievements in this field.”
(In Paul de Kruif's 1945 book, "The Male Hormone,") “Paul de Kruif laid out the plight of the hormone hunters
from Sequard to Dr. Fred Koch and their sifting of pools of urine and tons of testicles in their search for that
illusive compound of zest. The author presented the heroics of biochemistry as it rose to take its place of
prominence in the fields of medical science. Paul de Kruif hid very little of his partisan view of the magic of
synthetic testosterone as he showed the research that turned hens into roosters, geldings into stallions and
eunuchs into studs. He made it quite evident that both injectable testosterone propionate and oral methyl-
testosterone were commercially available by 1940 and were part of his lifestyle by 1945.”
“Across the country in California, bodybuilding champion Bill Pearl had also found out what the Russians
were doing and decided to investigate for himself. While filming a movie in Florida for Arthur Jones, Pearl
stated that Jones informed him about a "new chemical" that the Russian weightlifters were using to improve
their strength. After completing the movie, Pearl took it upon himself to conduct his own research. He
described his first experiences with steroids in 1958 almost 2 years earlier than Bill March at York:
. . . At the University of California at Davis, I met the veterinarian who told me that steroids were being used
with good results to develop strength and growth in cattle. The name of the drug was Nilivar and the daily
recommended dosage for humans was 10 mg... Now it might seem extreme for someone with no more
information than that to begin using the drug, but that is what I did. Good enough for a Bull, good enough
for me!”
“Bill took the approach of a bull also when he decided to take 3 times the recommended amounts for humans:
"It never even occurred to me that there could be anything harmful in the drug or any side effects. I took dosages
of 30 mg a day for 3 months.
Pearl stated he had never experienced such rapid gains in such a short time and he knew it was no placebo effect.
In that 12 week period, his body weight shot from 225 Ibs. (102.3 kg) to 250 Ibs. (113.6 kg). His strength improved
dramatically as his squatting poundage moved up over 600 Ibs. (272.7 kg).
This lent testimony to a few interesting points. First, it was to Bill Pearl's credit that he was able to build 225 Ibs.
(102.3 kg) of muscle on a five foot ten inch (177.80 cm) frame before using steroids. The second point of interest
was that even at his advanced level of bodybuilding, he was still able to put on an additional 25 Ibs. (11.4 kg) in
12 weeks with the addition of the steroids. Finally, as confused as the men of York were about steroids, Bill Pearl
seemed to know exactly what he wanted, knew what to take and knew what gave him the results. The men of
York would come to learn this eventually as well.
Pearl was not at all physically comfortable at that size and weight, stating that he felt like the "proverbial muscle-
bound bodybuilder." He decided to lower his bodyweight by discontinuing the drugs. However, he would later
engage them again.”