S
saudades
Guest
Saw this on MSNBC today, check this out:
Steroid abuse scars a young muscle man for life
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 6:13 PM PT
Filed Under: Melissa Dahl
By Melissa Dahl
For one 21-year-old muscle man, the quest to build a perfect body ended in grotesque, lifelong scars.
Doctors were shocked when the young man came into their Dusseldorf clinic with one of the worst cases of acne conglobata any of them had ever seen: His chest and upper back were canvassed in craterlike ulcers and abscesses oozing with pus.
“He had these deep, ulcerating lesions with bloody crusts,” says Dr. Peter Arne Gerber, a dermatologist who treated the young man at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. Adding insult to injury, the poor young man’s sperm count had plummeted and his testicles were in a sad little shrunken state.
“For me, personally, it was the worst case that I had ever observed,” says Gerber, who wrote an article about the case study that appeared in a recent issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
He and his colleagues immediately suspected the young amateur body builder was abusing steroids, because acne is a typical reaction to rampant roid usage.
“Steroids increase the amount of sebum, or oil, production from the sebaceous gland, and acne is a bacteria that thrives on the sebum,” says Dr. Bruce Robinson, a Manhattan dermatologist who represents the American Academy of Dermatology.
Robinson describes the sebaceous gland’s normal oil offering as a light lunch for a few bacteria, but steroid users’ glands produce enough sebum to provide the bacteria with a lavish oily feast to which they invite all of their friends. “That results in this explosive steroid acne,” he explains.
It took a persistent amount of badgering, but the amateur bodybuilder finally admitted his doping habits: He’d been using two types of anabolic steroids twice a week for several months, and the high dosage and long-term usage kicked his bloody brand of acne up a notch.
Happily, his manhood issues – the tiny testicles and paltry sperm count – returned to normal after he quit using the steroids. But Gerber says the lesions, ulcers and abscesses that covered his unfortunate upper torso crept deep into the skin’s basal membrane, the cell layer that separates the outer skin from the deeper dermis. And when that happens, from acne or any kind of damage to the skin, scarring is inevitable.
Just one more reason to stay off the juice, kids.
-----------------------------------
Comments
OMG! I knew about the acne but...damn! Poor guy. Thats a terrible way to learn a lesson, the hard way. Hope others will read this and learn from his mistake.
Pamela, Oak Harbor, Washington (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 10:55 AM)
wow, too bad, this is all from vanity. how ironic...
sarah wildomar,ca (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:32 AM)
Hopefully while the docs were treating his acne, they sent him to the headshrinker to get his body image issues adjusted.
Mel (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:48 AM)
Wow. I would hope this would be a powerful enough story to keep at least a few people from using Steroids. If you can´t get there naturally, maybe you should either accept what you were born with, or change professions. Yuck.
Kat, Canada (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:50 AM)
Since steroid use has been on the media radar, what an excellent sensationalized story to get your ratings. First off, these types or problems would be less likely if a steroid use was legal and regulated. When used in a controlled, regulated setting; issues illustrated in the proverbial article would be highly unlikely.
Why would it be legal to implant your body with silicone, saline or other cosmetic implants but using steroids for cosmetic gains are off limits? I find America a bit hypocritical, I’m certain there are horror stories dealing with cosmetic implants too; but they are legal.
The media likes to focus on horror stories like this and others gain ratings and justify why they aren’t legal. Its stories like this which suggest legalization and doctor controlled setting for cosmetic gains would prevent these stories.
SLC, Utah (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 12:38 PM)
--------------------------
And no, the comment from SLC, Utah is NOT me. I'm curious who it was though.
Steroid abuse scars a young muscle man for life
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 6:13 PM PT
Filed Under: Melissa Dahl
By Melissa Dahl
For one 21-year-old muscle man, the quest to build a perfect body ended in grotesque, lifelong scars.
Doctors were shocked when the young man came into their Dusseldorf clinic with one of the worst cases of acne conglobata any of them had ever seen: His chest and upper back were canvassed in craterlike ulcers and abscesses oozing with pus.
“He had these deep, ulcerating lesions with bloody crusts,” says Dr. Peter Arne Gerber, a dermatologist who treated the young man at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. Adding insult to injury, the poor young man’s sperm count had plummeted and his testicles were in a sad little shrunken state.
“For me, personally, it was the worst case that I had ever observed,” says Gerber, who wrote an article about the case study that appeared in a recent issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
He and his colleagues immediately suspected the young amateur body builder was abusing steroids, because acne is a typical reaction to rampant roid usage.
“Steroids increase the amount of sebum, or oil, production from the sebaceous gland, and acne is a bacteria that thrives on the sebum,” says Dr. Bruce Robinson, a Manhattan dermatologist who represents the American Academy of Dermatology.
Robinson describes the sebaceous gland’s normal oil offering as a light lunch for a few bacteria, but steroid users’ glands produce enough sebum to provide the bacteria with a lavish oily feast to which they invite all of their friends. “That results in this explosive steroid acne,” he explains.
It took a persistent amount of badgering, but the amateur bodybuilder finally admitted his doping habits: He’d been using two types of anabolic steroids twice a week for several months, and the high dosage and long-term usage kicked his bloody brand of acne up a notch.
Happily, his manhood issues – the tiny testicles and paltry sperm count – returned to normal after he quit using the steroids. But Gerber says the lesions, ulcers and abscesses that covered his unfortunate upper torso crept deep into the skin’s basal membrane, the cell layer that separates the outer skin from the deeper dermis. And when that happens, from acne or any kind of damage to the skin, scarring is inevitable.
Just one more reason to stay off the juice, kids.
-----------------------------------
Comments
OMG! I knew about the acne but...damn! Poor guy. Thats a terrible way to learn a lesson, the hard way. Hope others will read this and learn from his mistake.
Pamela, Oak Harbor, Washington (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 10:55 AM)
wow, too bad, this is all from vanity. how ironic...
sarah wildomar,ca (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:32 AM)
Hopefully while the docs were treating his acne, they sent him to the headshrinker to get his body image issues adjusted.
Mel (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:48 AM)
Wow. I would hope this would be a powerful enough story to keep at least a few people from using Steroids. If you can´t get there naturally, maybe you should either accept what you were born with, or change professions. Yuck.
Kat, Canada (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:50 AM)
Since steroid use has been on the media radar, what an excellent sensationalized story to get your ratings. First off, these types or problems would be less likely if a steroid use was legal and regulated. When used in a controlled, regulated setting; issues illustrated in the proverbial article would be highly unlikely.
Why would it be legal to implant your body with silicone, saline or other cosmetic implants but using steroids for cosmetic gains are off limits? I find America a bit hypocritical, I’m certain there are horror stories dealing with cosmetic implants too; but they are legal.
The media likes to focus on horror stories like this and others gain ratings and justify why they aren’t legal. Its stories like this which suggest legalization and doctor controlled setting for cosmetic gains would prevent these stories.
SLC, Utah (Wednesday, August 27, 2008 12:38 PM)
--------------------------
And no, the comment from SLC, Utah is NOT me. I'm curious who it was though.
