Medical Profile of a Bodybuilder

The following material relates to a specific professional bodybuilder who was extremely serious about participating and placing in national contests.

That steroid usage causes medical problems has been well documented in many peer-reviewed medical journals. Rarely, though, has a specific patient's medical record been analyzed in detail. That is the purpose of this explanation, which will come in several installments, a new one every few weeks.

At the beginning of his medical workup, the patient filled out a questionnaire regarding any medical signs and symptoms he might be experiencing and asking him to list the medications he was using. The Comprehensive Medical Questionnaire for Males lists 115 different "Signs and Symptoms of Illness" and asks the patient to check those that apply to him. The average person checks anywhere from one to perhaps six. This patient checked 23, including the following:

• Insomnia
• Appetite loss
• Acne
• Muscle and joint pains
• Pain specifically in the calves
• Muscle cramps
• Episodes of difficulty and shortness of breath
• Sneezing and runny nose
• Chronic sinus trouble
• Heartburn and/or indigestion
• Excessive gas
• Shortness of breath while walking or lying down
• Frequent urination
• Nighttime urination
• Water retention
• Cuts and bruises slow to heal
• Occasional irregular heartbeats
• Leg cramps at rest or at night
• Coldness of hands and feet
• Back pains
• Numbness and tingling in arms, legs, and face
• Muscle twitches
• Memory problems

His physician subjected him to a battery of approximately 73 different medical tests. In further installments of this medical summary, we will examine the results and implications of many of these.

The signs and symptoms he indicated, however, strongly suggest a myriad of serious medical problems. Right away one can guess from several of the signs and symptoms he checked (slowness of cuts and bruises to heal, coldness of hands and feet, chronic sinus trouble, water retention, and appetite loss) that he has a serious zinc deficiency. This did, indeed, prove to be the case.

As for the medications and drugs, here is the list of what he thought he was taking:

• nutropin (growth hormone)
• erythropoitien (5,000iu x 3 weekly)
• testosterone proprionate (600 mg/week)
• oxandrolone (20 mg/day)
• oxymetholone (75 mg/day)
• primobolin depo (400 mg/week)
• stanozolol (350 mg/week)
• nolvadex (tomoxipon) (10 mg/day)
• cytomel (50 mg/day)
• multi-vitamin
• magnesium (450 mg/day
• zinc (30 mg/day)
• chromium picolinate
• vanadium sulfate
• lipoic acid
• hydroxy citric acid
• L-arginine
• L-Lysine
• L-tyrosine
• BCAA
• whey protein
• creatine monohydrate
• glutamine

The bodybuilder discussed above was tested for steroids, including:

• Bolasterone
• Boldenone
• Clostebol
• Dehydrochloromethyltestosterone
• Ethylestrenol
• Fluoxymeterone
• Mesterolone
• Methenolone
• Methyltestosterone
• Methandienone
• Nandrolone
• Norethandrolone/etyhylesterol
• Oxandrolone
• Oxymesterone
• Oxymetholone
• Stanozolol
• Stenbolone
• Trenbolone
• Probenecid (Masking Agent)
• Testosterone (T/EPI-T Ratio)

The positive findings included the following:

• Fluoxymesterone (Halotestin)
• Mesterolone (Primobolin)
• Methenolone (Primobolan)
• Nandrolone ((Deca-Durabolin)
• Oxandrolone (Oxandrin)
• Stanozolol (Winstrol)

This bodybuilder's T/EPI-T Ratio was 1148ng/ml : 161ng/nl = 7.1 Nomal range for both is 30 - 50. His use of exogenous steroids caused these raised levels. Anything above 6:1 is considered postive and could be used to ban one from the Olympics. In practice, an athlete might not be banned unless the level was over 10:1.

His total testosterone (serum) level was 10881 ng/dl. A normal range is considered to be between 260 and 1000. This could be a false reading, representing a reaction to something else as though it were testosterone, but the reading could be accurate, indicating that he uses massive amounts of testosterone.

Note that despite what this bodybuilder lists that he is using, his description may not be accurate. If he is buying steroids from an illicit source, some of the steroids may be mislabeled. His percentage of free testosterone tested out at 4.46. The normal reference range is 1.0 - 2.7. His free testosterone level was measured at 4848.4 pg/ml. The normal range is considered to be 50 - 210. This is massively high. He does inject testosterone. And other stypes of steroids may also be showing up as testosterone.