History Of Steroids
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The history of steroids; most do not realize how far the history of steroids stretches back; if you want to be technical you might say it goes back as far as the existence of man but what we’re concerned with here is the history of steroids in terms of the anabolic-androgenic steroid supplementation. Watch any news cast, read any newspaper or listen to gossip and the manner in-which steroids are talked about and you might be left thinking steroids are this “newfangeled” idea. The truth; steroids and more specifically, steroid supplementation has been around for nearly one hundred years and similar practices have existed for centuries making the history of steroids vast and long.
Steroids; as mentioned, if we’re being very specific have been around since the dawn of time; after all, there are hundreds of steroids flowing through the human body, including the very steroids that are the basis of the super-supplements found in gyms and sports arenas around the world. What most people are unaware of is the history of steroids as it applies to administration for performance purposes and that is what we are going to delve into here.
As some of you understand, anabolic steroids are based largely off of the primary male sex hormone testosterone. The advent of pinpointing these hormones specifically goes as far back as 1931 when a German chemist Adolf Butenandt found a way to purify the androstenone hormone from urine. A few short years later Leopold Ruzicka developed a method to synthesize the hormone making it far safer to use. This is the period many label as the starting point regarding the history of steroids but in truth we can go further back than 1930’s Germany. As far back as the 1800’s the medical field had already been using extract from testicles; although the practice wasn’t a pure pursuit in nature, in essence they were on the same track Butenandt and Ruzicka would later pursue. But even as far back as the original Olympic Games in Greece athletes, although they probably didn’t understand why, knew there was something in the testicular region of mammals that could produce beyond normal results. It was not uncommon for these athletes of old to eat animal testicles before a meet to aid in performance thereby gaining an advantage over their opponent. Sound familiar, it should; in essence “sports doping” has been going on for thousands of years.
The True Beginning
After Butenandt and Ruzicka, in 1935, the male hormone testosterone was officially identified and isolated and for the first time in that same year testosterone was synthesized and the age of specific anabolic steroid supplementation for the specific purpose of enhancing physical results was born. The findings and results were so enormous that Butenandt and Ruzicka were awared the 1939 Nobel Prize for their work in chemistry. Think about that for just a minute; the discovery made by these men that birthed the use of anabolic steroids as we see them today was awarded the Nobel Prize; we’re talking about the same drug(s) that have been labeled the very spawn of the devil today; kind of interesting.
The Expansion
By the 1940’s anabolic steroid use was taking off in the Soviet Union and this is where the history of steroids first becomes important in terms of its effects in the world of competitive sports. The Soviet Union became the dominating force of the Olympic era in that time thanks to the super-supplementation and destroyed the U.S. Olympic team, particularly in weight lifting competition. The domination was however short lived as Dr. John Ziegler, the team doctor for the U.S. Olympic teams soon developed methandrostenolone, also known as Dianabol or Dbol. Ciba Pharmaceuticals was the first company to market the new drug and by 1958 Dianabol was approved by the U.S. FDA for human use.
In terms of Olympic use anabolic steroids would later be banned in 1976 for all Olympic competitors in the name of “fairness.” However, over the next several years when looking back at the history of steroids this is when things really started to get exciting. From the late 1960’s through the 1980’s would see a massive expansion in the world of anabolic steroids. Year after year new and improved methods of isolation and altering would be achieved. Esterfication of testosterone was vastly improving giving a host of options; various classes of a host of steroids were being formed and developed giving anyone and everyone who had a taste something that would meet their needs.
The Dark Ages
When looking at the history of steroids there are a few points in time that can be attributed to the beginning of a much clouded period of this history. With the death of NFL great Lyle Alzado and the Olympic performance of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, an era of darkness would soon cover the anabolic world. At this point in time the IOC had long banned the use of anabolic steroids but in 1990, a blow was struck that has yet to been recovered. In 1990, the U.S. government passed the Steroid Control Act officially banning the use of anabolic steroids without a prescription for medical purposes. No longer would athletes be allowed to freely purchase and use these supplements for the means of competition.
As it Stands Today
The era known as the dark ages began in 1990 and it is a place we still find ourselves today. With the U.S. ban on steroids, the largest market in the world for such drugs, no longer has research ever met the level it once did. The era of developing and improving anabolic steroids has halted to a slow crawl and as it stands now, as we look into the future, when it comes to the history of steroids the end of that story may have already been told.