Steroids and Blood Doping for LEO/Mil/Competitive Shooters

[Heartbreaker]

I'll start by saying I'm not an LEO or enlisted so for all I know both are common practice, I really don't know. There's a pretty big stigma surrounding both steroids and various forms of doping, and when brought up it's normally with the word cheating. On the other hand most research shows that with safe use, not abuse, both can be healthy and have minimal risks.

Anabolic steroids speed up muscle recovery and growth, leading to faster gains and shorter recovery periods, although most people associate them with getting huge they are used by all kinds of athletes from weightlifters to cyclists. Blood doping (whether done by transfusion of your own blood or EPO) increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry, which in turn increases V02 max, endurance, and even helps with focus as more oxygen is brought to your brain.

Obviously the benefits for someone who is out in the field possibly encountering life and death situations are huge. My question to you is are you personally opposed to using performance enhancing drugs outside of competition environments? Do you think they should be made accessible to LEOs and soldiers whose lives could possibly be saved by them?

[GotAmmo]

not against em and yes...if used smartly..... cause we're not "cheating" or getting paid 1 million a game, and noone really idolizes us (soldiers). we're only hero's cause we're in Iraq and Afghan right now

It is still somewhat easy to get away with if you're smart about it. Military Units dont wnt to spend there training funds on steriods testing unless they have the needle and vial you just shot in your butt cheek

but.......
Saw a Ranger from the 75th recently getting chaptered out for juicing

so it is frowned upon

[Dano5326]

1) Some usage is probably, probably, ok (short term) in a highly structured manner with significant medical oversight and testing. Think east bloc Olympic athletes in the 80's & 90's

2) 99.9% of users don't do this and can cause significant short term hormonal balance issues and long term RNA/DNA problems.

3) no one really knows what the long term effects of illicit use is.. big brains at military biomedical performance conferences suggest nothing good.

In a military environment, where food, water, sleep, etc. can fluctuate all over the map, where no minute hormonal medical monitoring provided, not good. Inconsistencies in performance and judgment. Unstable hormones produce unstable performance.. watch the woman folk when the moon is full, or not, for a mild demonstration.

And it cost less than $100 to test individuals for stimulants, opiates, and steroids. As an instructor we routinely screened for those individuals who thought that some potion would help. Initially we intended to screen for ephedrine and other (us mil banned) thermogenic OTC products that were causing or exacerbating heat injuries.. but found more than we expected. We let some who popped positive continue forth in training anyway.. to see if they made it through "Hell Week" none did.

[WillBrink]

Obviously the benefits for someone who is out in the field possibly encountering life and death situations are huge. My question to you is are you personally opposed to using performance enhancing drugs outside of competition environments? Do you think they should be made accessible to LEOs and soldiers whose lives could possibly be saved by them?

Although few and far between, there are some well informed educated people who see past the hysteria and hyperbole regarding AAS. This makes for some interesting reading for those interested in the topic:


STEROIDS AND SPORTS:
A PROVOCATIVE INTERVIEW WITH NORM FOST, M.D.

By Rick Collins, J.D.

By the time the torch was extinguished and the dust of Athens had settled at the end of the summer Olympics, a total of 24 athletes had been thrown out of the Games for cheating by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, double the previous record of 12 from the Los Angeles Games in 1984. And the testing process on other samples still isn't finished.

As the commanding general leading the war against performance-enhancing drugs in sports, World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound snared more headlines than most of the athletes. Sometimes it seemed like the war waged on cheating athletes overshadowed the events themselves. Perhaps more than by any other measure, a competitor's strength of character is now defined by the purity of his or her urine.

Under IOC rules, anabolic steroid use is cheating. That steroid use in sports is dangerous, immoral and unethical is the principle that underlies its prohibition. This principle is so entrenched that it would seem unthinkable to hear someone seriously challenge it.

That's where Norman Fost, M.D., comes in. This man has big cujones, which might seem to be an atypical descriptive term to stumble across when you're reading an article concerning steroids, but it's apt here. In this age of stifling political correctness and "same thinking", it takes big, brass ones to reject the popular military drumbeat and march in the opposite direction.

Dr. Fost isn't short on gray matter, either. A graduate of Princeton (A.B.), Yale (M.D.) and Harvard (M.P.H.), he's not only a practicing pediatrician, but also an expert in medical ethics. In fact, he's been the Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of Wisconsin since 1973. He's Chairman of the Hospital Ethics Committee, heads the Child Protection Team, and is also a past-Chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics. Last year he received the William G. Bartholome Award for Excellence in Ethics from the American Academy of Pediatrics. His views are generating increasing mainstream media attention, and he has recently appeared on television and radio broadcasts including ESPN, CBS Evening News, NPR Morning Edition, and C-SPAN.

Cont:

http://www.steroidlaw.com/steroid-law-45.html

There are other good articles on that site regarding the topic of AAS in sports, as "cheating" and so forth.

[kmrtnsn]

I'll start by saying I'm not an LEO or enlisted so for all I know both are common practice, I really don't know. There's a pretty big stigma surrounding both steroids and various forms of doping, and when brought up it's normally with the word cheating. On the other hand most research shows that with safe use, not abuse, both can be healthy and have minimal risks.

Anabolic steroids speed up muscle recovery and growth, leading to faster gains and shorter recovery periods, although most people associate them with getting huge they are used by all kinds of athletes from weightlifters to cyclists. Blood doping (whether done by transfusion of your own blood or EPO) increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry, which in turn increases V02 max, endurance, and even helps with focus as more oxygen is brought to your brain.

Obviously the benefits for someone who is out in the field possibly encountering life and death situations are huge. My question to you is are you personally opposed to using performance enhancing drugs outside of competition environments? Do you think they should be made accessible to LEOs and soldiers whose lives could possibly be saved by them?

For those that like to self medicate, Anabolic Steroids are a Schedule III Controlled Substance. If you are buying them over the internet from China or Pakistan you are violating 21USC852 and 18USC545. These are federal felonies, you're attorney will not be talking to you about probation but federal jail time (truth in sentencing; you'll serve 85%). If you are buying them in bulk amounts and you recieve them then you are Possessing with the Intent to Distribute, a federal felony under 21USC841. Doing this with a friend? Conspiracy, 18USC371. If you are selling them to your friends at the gym, you are trafficking. Cop, personal trainer, or even a doctor (the selling of "cheap" foreign steroids by doctors is becoming more popular) buying these from overseas someone will eventually be coming for you. Keep them at your house? Expect a visit. If you go to your P.O. box to pick them up, they'll be seizing your car as a "fruit or instrumentality". The guys I know enforcing this give no second thought to arresting cops, firefighters, doctors, or professional athletes and the U.S. Attorney's Office loves the cases because they are slam dunks with great press exposure. Illegal steroids are not worth messing around with.

[WillBrink]

Illegal steroids are not worth messing around with.

Important point made above: the discussion is strictly one of ignoring the current realities: legality, costs, quality = not worth using and that's what I advise to anyone who asks, LEO, Mil, athlete, etc.

Loss of job, felony record, poor quality (due to black market sourcing), and other real world factors, simply makes the risk to benefit, not worth using.

Always happy to discuss the science, ethics, etc, but that does not change the realities as kmrtnsn details so well.

[MarkG]

Try and justify it anyway you want. If you take steroids or HGH, supervised or not, your a ****ing loser, plain and simple.

[dookie1481]

Try and justify it anyway you want. If you take steroids or HGH, supervised or not, your a ****ing loser, plain and simple.

Why is that?

[kartoffel]

My question to you is are you personally opposed to using performance enhancing drugs outside of competition environments? Do you think they should be made accessible to LEOs and soldiers whose lives could possibly be saved by them?

Not so sure about steroids because of (a) the potential for abuse and (b) the social stigma.

Also not sure about EPO or blood doping for military use. The aerobic gains are outweighed by the risk of your blood turning to glue as you get dehydrated. In a combat environment where you're not necessarily staying hydrated, I'd rather have normal hematocrit and take the performance hit.

Now on the other hand, Modafinil has plenty of .mil uses. Do I want LEO's popping Provigils for shift work? Go to your doc and see if you can justify an rx. Would be very interested in seeing what actual medical doctors think about it.

[dookie1481]

Try and justify it anyway you want. If you take steroids or HGH, supervised or not, your a ****ing loser, plain and simple.

You know, you should go work for WADA...they are always in need of more pompous myopics.

I hope you don't "cheat" by taking Viagra, statins, exogenous insulin, vaccines, or any of those other "cheater drugs" that have improved quality of life or life expectancy.

Drawing an arbitrary line in the sand and calling anything on the other side "cheating" is intellectually dishonest.