In the following years, little pink Dianabol tablets found their way into many weightlifter´s training program, fast forward a few years, and in the early 1960s, there was a clear gap between Ziegler´s weightlifters and the rest of the country, and much less of one between them and the Soviets. It was also in the 1960´s that another anabolic steroid had been developed and used to treat short stature in children with Turner Disease syndrome.

At this time, physicians around the United States began to take notice of steroids, and numerous studies were performed on athletes taking them, in an effort to stem the tide of athletes attempting to obtain steroids for use in sports. The early studies on steroids clearly showed that anabolic steroids offered no athletic benefit whatsoever, but in retrospect can be said to have several design flaws. The first issue with those studies, and the most glaring one was that the doses were usually very low, too low to really produce much of an effect at all. In addition, it was neither common for these studies to not be double blind nor to be randomized. A double blind study is one where neither the scientists nor the subjects of the study know if they are getting a real medication or a placebo. A randomized study is where the real medicine is randomly dispersed throughout the test group. Finally, in those early studies, nutrition and exercise was not really controlled or standardized. Not long after those flawed studies were concluded, the Physicians Desk Reference boldly (and wrongly) claimed that anabolic steroids were not useful in enhancing athletic performance. Despite this, in 1967, the International Olympic Council banned the use of anabolic steroids and by the mid 1970´s most major sporting organizations had also banned them.

Toxic side effects of anabolic steroids: liver damage

In the category of the toxic side effects of anabolic / androgenic steroids, the potential effects on the liver are most apparent. These can manifest themselves in various dysfunctions of the liver. In the literature, cases have been mentioned where it came to a cholastasis (bile obstruction in the liver), a peliosis hepatis (bloodfilled cavities in the liver tissue, cysts), or liver cancer with the use of anabolic/ androgenic steroids. It is of great importance that these manifestations could almost exclusively be seen in those patients who previously had undergone a long-term steroid therapy and already had extensive liver damage or suffered from other internal diseases prior to the intake of anabolic steroids. It is of further interest that the administered steroid medication consisted almost exclusively of the 17-alpha alkylated, oral androgenic steroids. Especially the potentially liver-toxic substances methyltestosterne and oxymetholone were given in the course of therapy without suspension for several years. Evidence that steroids cause similar liver damage in healthy athlete could only be found in one or two rare cases, which is neither of statistic relevance nor allows for the preconception to expect liver damage by consumption of anabolic/androgenic steroids. "Insofar as a connection between steroid intake and tumor development could be established, until now, there is no evidence where testosterone or a testosterone ester is responsible for liver cancer. The reason had always been the androgen/anabolic with an alkyl substitute on the C-1 7 alpha of the steroid molecule... Accordingly it seems that testosterone and its esters are not (or are slightly) liver-toxic...

Toxic liver damage: this, as mentioned above, is only expected with 17alpha alkyl derivatives... With a proper choice of the drug, there is no danger here." (From: Doping - verbotene Arzneimittel im Sport, Dirk Clasing, Manfred Donike, et al, pages 60 and 63). At this time it once again must be stressed that nearly all the liver-damaging results have been found in patients whose physicians prescribed steroids for the treatment of already existing, serious diseases. Although one cannot exclude the possibility of liver damage and delayed reaction in the future, empirical data shows that even with repeated, excessive, and prolonged intake of the potentially liver-toxic 1 7-alpha alkylated steroids by athletes, these symptoms rarely occur. In order to avoid any possible risks, one should. forego the use of I 7-alpha alkylated steroids. Since a total abandonment of these steroids is impossible for most athletes one should follow strict guidelines regarding the duration of intake and the dosage. Far-sighted athletes will therefore interrupt their steroid regimes in regular intervals by either stopping steroid intake alltogether or switching to a (potentially) non-toxic steroid (usually injectable). In many cases the problematic steroid will be combined with one or more "milder" steroids which interact in order to keep the dosage of the first at a moderate rate level without diminishing the effectiveness. In conclusion, one can say that the toxic, critical side effects on the liver occur mostly in those patients who have previously been ill and have received 1 7-alpha alkylated steroids as their treatment over longer periods of time.

It is recommended that athletes using oral steroids have their liver function routinely checked by a qualified physician.

History and development of anabolic steroids: Testosterone

In order to trace the history and development of anabolic steroids from their beginning to their present day form, we first need to look back towards ancient times, when it was known that the testicles were required for both the development and maintenance of male sexual characteristics. In modernity, this concept was further developed, by a scientist named Berthold and his experiments on cockerels done in 1849. He removed the testes from these birds, and they lost several of the characteristics common to the male of their species, including sexual function. So, we knew as early as 1849 that the testicles functioned to promote what we consider to be primary male sexual properties; in other words, they are what "make men into men". Berthold also found that if the testicles were removed and then transplanted to the abdomen, the sexual function of the birds was largely unaffected. When the birds were dissected, it was found that no nervous connections were formed, but a vastly extensive series of capillarization took place. This provided strong evidence that "the testes act upon the blood" and he further concluded that this blood then had a systemic effect on the entire organism. Anabolic steroid history, therefore, can be truly said to have made its first step with this simple series of experiments.

Later, in 1929 a procedure to produce an extract of potent activity from bull's testicles was attempted, and in 1935 a more purified form of this extract was created. A year later, a scientist named Ruzicka synthesized this compound, testosterone, from cholesterol, as did two other scientists, Butenandt and Hanisch. Testosterone was, of course, the first anabolic steroid ever created, and remains the basis for all other derivations we have currently being used in medicine today. Testosterone was then used in 1936, in an experiment demonstrating that nitrogen excretion of the castrated dog could be increased by giving the dog supplemental testosterone, and this would increase its body weight. Shortly after this time, the Nazi´s were rumored to have given their soldiers anabolic steroids, but that rumor seems to be largely undocumented. Later, further experiments were carried out in men, of course showing that testosterone was a potent anabolic substance in humans. Later, between the years of 1948 and 1954, the pharmaceutical firms Searle and Ciba had experimented with the synthesizing of over a thousand different testosterone derivatives and similar analogues.