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Anabolic steroids history

Posted by Shawn

Anabolic steroids were not suddenly a modern discovery, or a new fancy "invention", anabolic steroids are real natural products produced by the human body. Whatever the purpose, anabolic steroids simply act because more of what the body already produces is put inside of us.

The origins of using anabolic steroids specifically for performance enhancement, date back all the way to antiquity. The sudden mainstream and continued widespread use of steroids, including the development of the many different variants and analogues have only been in the last 70-100 years.

Although the idea of anabolic steroids like Testosterone being manufactured in the testes has been understood for thousands of years, it can be documented back to 1700 BC where ancient Greek Olympic competitors would actually consume testes of sheep or bulls, often in large quantities.

These athletes were orally ingesting a large amount of anabolic steroids in the form of Testosterone contained in these testes, but this was never understood by the athletes consuming these testicles, they simply saw that and the consumption of any animal testicles increases strength and performance.

To use the oldest written recordings that we have to analyze when humans actually realized the connection between testosterone and any anabolic potential, it all started around the middle 16th century. They noted that castration of any male animal always resulted in the eventual disappearance of male characteristics, including strength and muscle.

Towards the late 1880's, the first discovery and the isolation of androgens happened because of filtrating urine samples, so they could first locate and then isolate a hormone. Although it was extremely basic this was the start of hormonal injection preparations, but this led to real full-scale research being done, which then got the development of anabolic steroids underway.

The sporadic study and farther development of Anabolic Steroids is complex but we can summarize by stating that a chemist from Marburg in Germany called Adolf Butenandt was able to isolate 15 milligrams of Androstenone by using a massive amount of urine samples in 1931.

The serious race for farther knowledge of anabolic steroids started after World War II when the Soviet Union were the first country to understand anabolic use of Testosterone and its many applications. This head start, for the Soviet Union was seen in the Olympics, where Eastern Bloc and USSR used Testosterone to enhance strength and performance in their Olympic athletes.

The Cold War was well underway by 1950 and the fight for superiority in the knowledge and use of anabolic steroids was in full swing. The Soviet Union completely dominated the Olympic Games during the 1950's. By 1960 the American government decided to do something about it and they discovered that the Russians were administering exogenous Testosterone to the Soviet athletes when they defected to the West.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) quickly became aware of the fast growing use of all types of anabolic steroids by most Olympic athletes. By 1976 the IOC had placed most anabolic steroids on a banned substances list and then introduced drug testing. It was only after this ban on most anabolic steroids in 1976 that other sports started to follow the IOC and do anabolic steroid bans as well, as well as testing.

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