Over on reddit[1] a number of steroid users have pointed out that:
1. He actually took unusually high doses for a first-time user.
2. He took none of the additional drugs recommended to prevent or ameliorate the side-effects.
3. That he got every side-effect, even some rare ones, with unusually high severity, seems suspiciously like dramatic license.
Remember: this is a guy who has a novel to sell. He is not acting as a journalist. He is not a scientist. He is under no legal or ethical requirement to be honest. He is a salesman for his own work.
There's more dramatic license than just that - if you inject yourself into your behind, there's no way a "pressurised stream of blood spurted halfway across the room". Not going to happen.
I have the "fortune" of having to do injections in that place every week for several years running now, and I'm far from handy with a needle. The worst that ever happened was a thin rivulet. And that was dramatic - usual is nothing, or maybe a drop or two of blood.
Based on that part alone, he's dramatically exaggerating. Combine that with having every side effect in the book, and my money is on this being made up in large parts.
Doesn't sound like the dude took any SERMs to soak up the estrogen or to let his body's own testosterone up-regulate. Thats why he came out of his cycle with 3 pounds of nothing but bloat.
I never seen the point of growing additional muscle tissue. First you have to grow it which is tiring, then you have to feed it and lug it around. It's like getting fat on purpose.
What's more, if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
Instead of downvoting, please enlighten me about the benefits of growing few pounds of muscle tissue in places you don't really use in your daily life.
Lifting weights is part of my daily life. I feel silly that I'm even bothering to justify myself to an internet stranger. It's like when I had to justify playing roleplaying games or using the internet back in the mid-1990s.
However:
> It's like getting fat on purpose.
The downstream health effects of developing muscle tissue (and increased bone density) are largely positive; of fat, largely negative.
Weight training improves insulin sensitivity, improves various cardiovascular markers, strengthens the heart and improves bone density. People who train with weights live longer, with fewer health problems, with shorter senescence, than people who don't.
These health effects are distinct from the health effects of non-resistance training such as running, cycling or swimming.
Surely you're feigning ignorance. People find muscle sexually attractive and associate it with power in social situations. I'm not very muscular myself, but it would be pure sour grapes not to see the benefits.
I use weight lifting as a way to release any frustrations or anything. Its a great way to get my mind off of things for a while. Im 6'2". At 18 I weighed 165. Now at 24 I weigh around 240 with not a little fat. I'm not cut or anything, but you can tell my bulk isn't just fat.
I understand not getting why people want muscle. I don't understand why people want excessive amounts of muscle (read pro bodybuilders). I do however enjoy the feeling of having greater than normal muscle mass, in and out of the gym. In the gym it feels great to be able to lift decent amounts of weight. Outside of the gym I find a certain amount of respect received for having more muscle. Like the article pointed out about the people on the sidewalk, people give you more space. On the functional side of things I enjoy playing physical sports when I can such as football and more-physical-than-it-should-be Ultimate Frisbee. Even in sports like disc golf though having extra muscle means I can throw farther etc. I also am able to help friends move, do any heavy lifting family members need done, etc.
I could probably go on but I think the main thing is that it depends on your lifestyle. I will say this though: I didn't know how handy having muscle could be until I started building.
I would not work out if not for the health benefits.
That said, after I got a bit of muscle some chores became much easier. Carrying luggage or groceries, or squatting to pick up or manipulate something down low. I just had a baby, I suppose it will be much longer before he grows heavier than my capacity for carrying him.
The aesthetic and self-esteem boost are also something to consider, though my muscles are barely noticeable by now.
One reason would be to build up muscle reserve as well as bone density (the resistance/pressure from training seems to improve osteocyte function), so that you're at less risk of injury later in life. This is with normal weight training, though, not hardcore bodybuilding and certainly not with adding fancy stuff or anything.
During the year-to-date(starting in January) I put on about 25 pounds of muscle. The motivations were a mix of vanity, desire for general well-being, and the increasing recognition of my own mortality as year 30 draws closer. (w/r to this last: knowing that I'll get old and lose capability, I want to try to experience life in many dimensions before I lose the option entirely.)
And I guess I got all of that. In fact, it only improved my self-awareness, since even though you can build yourself up to look tough, no amount of training is going to stop a bus from hitting you. And you get reminded of that every time you go in and train to failure. That is really the essential conflict: "why even bother" vs. "try to be the best you can be."
> I never seen the point of growing additional muscle tissue
There are multiple answers to this:
- look at the two pictures he puts in the article and ask yourself which one would your partner prefer?
- working out with weights(steriods asid) has been shown to have numerous health benefits, increased mental competence, longer life span, ability to eat more( if you like eating ), better sleep, etc.
> What's more, if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
This is true, unfortunately its true for every single facet of life.
- I was an engineer in school, I've since forgot most of my thermodynamics course because I no longer use that information. However, I don't regret learning that information
- I used to be able to run a marathon but since having kids I no longer run for hours at a time, and hence, I"m not longer able to run a marathon. However, I don't regret running one.
In short, I don't really see the statement, if you don't use it you loose it as being a valid criticism of weigh lifting as it applies to many other facets of life.
Basically, you should plan you old age ahead of the time.
You will lose your muscle tissue with the age and it will happen pretty fast.
As the heart is also a muscle tissue, your heart will degrade.
The muscle tissue can be considered a separate organ of the human body. It's purpose to make sure every other organ is working properly, basically. Not on the "control" level which is what brain does, but on "demand is on this" signal that goes to brain. Your body is evolutionary constructed to support muscles and brain. If you do something we did through our evolutionary process, your muscles adapt (and other functions follows) and your brain grow stronger.
Training muscle makes body to produce excess BDNF hormone (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). The level of BDNF hormone after resistance exercise is about 40% higher than in rest, and it then promptly goes lower to also about to 40% of the rest condition (indicating quick utilization).
This is just an example of evolutionary protection of the brain.
The aerobic exercise has shown to provide cognitive benefits for older age (and even young age, there's correlation between university grades and physical activity). But, if you want to be very enduring, you have to do heavy resistance training: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23914932
And last, but not least.
Man and women have about the same mechanisms regarding erotic arousal. The venous blood goes into cave bodies in penis or clitoris and veins at exit are (partially) blocked by special muscles. Cialis, for example, blocks destruction of special agent that reacts to nitric oxide in the venous blood and makes those special muscles to contract, blocking the blood. The side signal of protein synthesis is the higher level of NO in the blood. Higher NO level makes more probable the reaction that produces arousal, thus makes the sexual arousal more probable (or more stable). Protein synthesis occurs after muscle training sessions. So, if you want a healthy sex life, you better do weight training.
Muscle is what gives your body its ability to move. It's involved in the endocrine system (as this rather crappy article illustrates), it is heavily involved in your metabolism and energy levels, especially including blood-sugar regulation. Building muscle, engaging in regular physical activity (lifting and cardio), and eating healthily (minimal processed carbs) will greatly reduce your likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome and (type II) diabetes. Many people can control T2 diabetes completely through strength training and exercise.
It also helps in injury avoidance, improves your posture (assuming you're training in a whole-body mode, not just chest+biceps). Load-bearing strength training also strengthens bones, joints, and connective tissue. And you can pick up heavy shit and not get tired.
As you get older, starting in your 30s for most people, your body is losing muscle mass at the rate of about a pound every year or two (this is called "sarcopenia"). Eventually this starts effecting your body's ability to regulate body fat, and though your weight may not change, your body composition does, with fat tissue increasing as your muscle wanes.
Most people look better with more muscle rather than more fat, if you're into vanity.
And you should end up with a much better appreciation with how your body works and responds to training, diet, and recovery.
you have to feed it and lug it around.
Well, yeah, there is that feeding it. But you've got to eat anyhow. You might be boosting your caloric intake by a few hundred calories -- a cup of oats or so.
if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
So long as you continue to train, your body will retain most of its gains. It's easier to retain muscle than it is to grow it, so lifting only once a week or even once every two weeks may be sufficient. But yes, it is a lifestyle committment -- your body is what you do with it.
And you seem not to be grasping the point: your muscle is the part of you that does the lugging. More of it makes things easier not harder.
As for my own experience, I'd found that adding strength training to my routine has helped me in many ways. It's more than worth the time and commitment. And though I've never sought artificial enhancement, my results have been more than satisfactory.
In 4 months, he could've easily sculpted a nice body without steroids.
Steroids are used by old people (and it really helps them), impatient idiots or bodybuilders who have reached those relatively quick 80% that normal training gives you and want to push it faster all the way to 100%.
Also, like others said, the side effects are suspiciously bad, there's no way one person can have most of the worst, unless you're significantly overdosing.
Exactly judging by the photos anyone skinny could've reached the same results with 3 to 4 months of regular training. Anyone not skinny would've had to just lose weight in 6-12 months and then put in the 3-4 months of training.
Good heavens, that's alarming. I wonder if part of the problem was that he did all this in 4 months, and whether he could have taken lower doses with less intensive training over a year or two...but then I think of the few times I've looked at magazines like Men's Fitness or suchlike, and it was all about maxing things out, downing vast quantities of supplements, and generally overdoing it. I don't know whether this means that most of their readers are juicing or that having a big physique is simply a full-time commitment, but this article makes me happy to stay skinny.
Men's Health and the like have to come up with new content to fill a magazine every month. Fitness isn't complicated; sound fundamental principles have been known for decades. There's a lot of money in making people think it's complicated though, so we have exercise fads and fancy/expensive weight machines. Look up the Starting Strength program to learn the basic building blocks of lifting.
Magazines are not a credible source of information. Their job is to sell eyeballs to advertisers. Whatever it takes to get you to pick up the magazine is what will go on the cover, whether it is true or false.
Bodybuilding with steroids, if we had some drug to make us super smart I imagine the cost would be the same, and I would be tempted by it.
Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity
I have often described Ritalin and Concerta as mental steroids. (Haven't ever tried Modafinil and the others.)
Like steroids, they don't work for everybody and they can have side effects. But when taken in normal, doctor-prescribed doses, these drugs will enhance mental function -- including the ability to learn -- in normal adult subjects.
I still think I am pretty good at what I do, but there is absolutely no doubt that I was more productive as a computer programmer -- I learned faster, invented new solutions more quickly, was less prone to mistakes -- when I had a Ritalin prescription.
And I do feel a serious sense of loss not having that anymore. Sometimes when I'm sick of thinking about a problem and just want to veg out and read HN, I get furious, thinking about how if only I'd had a tab of Concerta that morning, the fucking problem I'm working on would already be solved by now.
I don't quite feel like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon, but it is in fact somewhat like that.
if you haven't heard it, the Pal Erdős story is interesting.
Not only he was a great mathematician, he was also an amphetamine user for most of his life.
In 1979, he accepted a bet from a friend about quitting drugs for a month (his friends _were_ worried about him being a druguser).
Erdös won the challenge, but felt very stupid for the duration of the thing, declared that mathematics had been set back by a month and happily went back to amphetamine use.
> Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity
This is "sort of" the plot of the classic sci-fi novel (and short story) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes: The main character who starts out below average intelligence, gets a treatment that causes his intelligence to shoot through the roof to well above normal levels, but then he is forced to face that it is only temporary.
I think it would actually be harder to quit than steroids. I can't imagine being in some lucid state where you could solve almost any problem and then having to come back to down to some foggy haze where you can barely comprehend anything.
Vernor Vinge wrote about something called "Focus" in A Deepness in the Sky which explores that concept. People voluntarily become "focused" so they can have extreme concentration to solve difficult problems, but at the cost of neglecting everything else.
There was an episode in "Through the wormhole" where it showcased some experiments in how the subconscious mind can be utilized more. I bet this will become normal in coming decades.
If you find this interesting you might like http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/Drug-Test.html, which documents a journalist's use of EPO, Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone while training for the amateur Paris-Brest-Paris bike race.
And if you're still bored on a Wednesday morning, you can read about how this Olympic sprinter took testosterone, HGH, and EPO yet cleared all his drug tests. After reading this, you might realise Olympic drug testing isn't as effective as it's said to be.
Just finished reading, and that was a seriously terrifying article. I have no idea how anyone could go through all of that work just to have a more muscular body that barely works. Thank you to the author, writing that is a public service.
I personally suspect that he made up some or all of it. I compete in a WADA-regulated sport and I take my promise to not use PEDs seriously. But I train some of the time alongside people in untested sports who use steroids. They are in pretty good nick.
If this article had been about the time the author smoked weed and woke up in bed with dead kittens, would it be considered a credible PSA?
everybody want to be a bodybuilder but nobody want to lift no heavy ass weight!
Okay, so roid users are willing to lift heavy ass weights, what they aren't willing to do is put in the time, research, and diet to get fit naturally. It takes years, not 16 weeks, but the reward is actual health, health that will last into your old age.
There are plenty of steroid users who do put in the time, research, and diet. Many of them grace the IFBB stages. I would argue many of them have much more knowledge about health and fitness then the natural counterparts.
When anabolic steroids were banned by congress in the U.S., the DEA, AMA, NIDA, and FDA were all against the ban saying they were harmless [1], and they mostly are, especially if taken with doctor supervision.
Now they have been pushed underground (unless you have the money to doctor shop) and you get all sorts of bro science around them which can be a real problem.
Thank science the U.S. government is saving us from ourselves.
Call me paranoid but I'm scared as well to mess with hormones and other stuff I do not see. The body is a machine perfected over the millions (or billions) of years so no way in hell am I going to add all of the sudden, and on my own, 6 times the amount of testosterone.
I agree with the gist, but for a different reason. I'll repost something I've said elsewhere:
We're a loosely connected series of insane reactions that just about doesn't die. We put load on non-load bearing structures (hi, spine), we have our optic nerve running through the centre of our retina giving us a blind spot, our body can decide that peanuts = a threat so bad we should stop breathing and occasionally some of our cells will rebel and try and kill us. We need ultraviolet light to not get rickets but it can also give us cancer. Our fine-tuned digestive tract contains an organ which occasionally bursts. My wisdom teeth have decided that they'd rather grow forwards than up. We don't even produce vitamin C thanks to a single error, something we need to live and could easily produce.
I'm not worried about adding something to my body because it's a perfect machine.
I'm worried about adding it for the same reason I worry changing spaghetti code.
While I agree with your overall point, calling the human body "perfect" is ridiculous. Human bodies, if they were engineered, would never even be released to the beta testers out of fear of the engineers for being labeled as a bunch of quacks. There is much, much to improved on the human body, and we will over the next decades; but I agree that ordering a bunch of syringes from halfway across the world through an anonymous email account and injecting that into your muscles is probably not the way to go.
One interesting topic not discussed which is very important is muscle / tendon strength balance. If you overgrow your tendons you are in deep trouble.
"no way in hell am I going to add all of the sudden"
This usually rapidly morphs into a discussion about paleo diet and such, which I follow but some irrationally hate (or are hired to hate, or whatever).
[+] [-] jacques_chester|12 years ago|reply
1. He actually took unusually high doses for a first-time user.
2. He took none of the additional drugs recommended to prevent or ameliorate the side-effects.
3. That he got every side-effect, even some rare ones, with unusually high severity, seems suspiciously like dramatic license.
Remember: this is a guy who has a novel to sell. He is not acting as a journalist. He is not a scientist. He is under no legal or ethical requirement to be honest. He is a salesman for his own work.
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1lodxn/til_ca...
[+] [-] groby_b|12 years ago|reply
I have the "fortune" of having to do injections in that place every week for several years running now, and I'm far from handy with a needle. The worst that ever happened was a thin rivulet. And that was dramatic - usual is nothing, or maybe a drop or two of blood.
Based on that part alone, he's dramatically exaggerating. Combine that with having every side effect in the book, and my money is on this being made up in large parts.
[+] [-] jongraehl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raverbashing|12 years ago|reply
These testosterone salts have different half-lives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypionate
Oh yeah, and you don't get from the first picture to the last picture in 16 weeks, not gonna happen.
[+] [-] TruthElixirX|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scotty79|12 years ago|reply
What's more, if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
Instead of downvoting, please enlighten me about the benefits of growing few pounds of muscle tissue in places you don't really use in your daily life.
[+] [-] jacques_chester|12 years ago|reply
However:
> It's like getting fat on purpose.
The downstream health effects of developing muscle tissue (and increased bone density) are largely positive; of fat, largely negative.
Weight training improves insulin sensitivity, improves various cardiovascular markers, strengthens the heart and improves bone density. People who train with weights live longer, with fewer health problems, with shorter senescence, than people who don't.
These health effects are distinct from the health effects of non-resistance training such as running, cycling or swimming.
[+] [-] comicjk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OriginalAT|12 years ago|reply
I understand not getting why people want muscle. I don't understand why people want excessive amounts of muscle (read pro bodybuilders). I do however enjoy the feeling of having greater than normal muscle mass, in and out of the gym. In the gym it feels great to be able to lift decent amounts of weight. Outside of the gym I find a certain amount of respect received for having more muscle. Like the article pointed out about the people on the sidewalk, people give you more space. On the functional side of things I enjoy playing physical sports when I can such as football and more-physical-than-it-should-be Ultimate Frisbee. Even in sports like disc golf though having extra muscle means I can throw farther etc. I also am able to help friends move, do any heavy lifting family members need done, etc.
I could probably go on but I think the main thing is that it depends on your lifestyle. I will say this though: I didn't know how handy having muscle could be until I started building.
[+] [-] emiliobumachar|12 years ago|reply
That said, after I got a bit of muscle some chores became much easier. Carrying luggage or groceries, or squatting to pick up or manipulate something down low. I just had a baby, I suppose it will be much longer before he grows heavier than my capacity for carrying him.
The aesthetic and self-esteem boost are also something to consider, though my muscles are barely noticeable by now.
[+] [-] caycep|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chipsy|12 years ago|reply
And I guess I got all of that. In fact, it only improved my self-awareness, since even though you can build yourself up to look tough, no amount of training is going to stop a bus from hitting you. And you get reminded of that every time you go in and train to failure. That is really the essential conflict: "why even bother" vs. "try to be the best you can be."
[+] [-] chollida1|12 years ago|reply
There are multiple answers to this:
- look at the two pictures he puts in the article and ask yourself which one would your partner prefer?
- working out with weights(steriods asid) has been shown to have numerous health benefits, increased mental competence, longer life span, ability to eat more( if you like eating ), better sleep, etc.
> What's more, if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
This is true, unfortunately its true for every single facet of life.
- I was an engineer in school, I've since forgot most of my thermodynamics course because I no longer use that information. However, I don't regret learning that information
- I used to be able to run a marathon but since having kids I no longer run for hours at a time, and hence, I"m not longer able to run a marathon. However, I don't regret running one.
In short, I don't really see the statement, if you don't use it you loose it as being a valid criticism of weigh lifting as it applies to many other facets of life.
[+] [-] andygates|12 years ago|reply
Being really strong is really fun.
YMMV.
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] thesz|12 years ago|reply
You will lose your muscle tissue with the age and it will happen pretty fast.
As the heart is also a muscle tissue, your heart will degrade.
The muscle tissue can be considered a separate organ of the human body. It's purpose to make sure every other organ is working properly, basically. Not on the "control" level which is what brain does, but on "demand is on this" signal that goes to brain. Your body is evolutionary constructed to support muscles and brain. If you do something we did through our evolutionary process, your muscles adapt (and other functions follows) and your brain grow stronger.
Training muscle makes body to produce excess BDNF hormone (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). The level of BDNF hormone after resistance exercise is about 40% higher than in rest, and it then promptly goes lower to also about to 40% of the rest condition (indicating quick utilization).
This is just an example of evolutionary protection of the brain.
Training muscle makes your character better. No, really, it is better than toning exercise: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20101012
The aerobic exercise has shown to provide cognitive benefits for older age (and even young age, there's correlation between university grades and physical activity). But, if you want to be very enduring, you have to do heavy resistance training: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23914932
And last, but not least.
Man and women have about the same mechanisms regarding erotic arousal. The venous blood goes into cave bodies in penis or clitoris and veins at exit are (partially) blocked by special muscles. Cialis, for example, blocks destruction of special agent that reacts to nitric oxide in the venous blood and makes those special muscles to contract, blocking the blood. The side signal of protein synthesis is the higher level of NO in the blood. Higher NO level makes more probable the reaction that produces arousal, thus makes the sexual arousal more probable (or more stable). Protein synthesis occurs after muscle training sessions. So, if you want a healthy sex life, you better do weight training.
To conclude, let me say that higher NO level makes you ligaments stronger by providing you with the best muscle tissue enlarging program: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html (see "utilizing lactic acid") And also see this: http://www.nutritionexpress.com/showarticle.aspx?articleid=2... (regarding brain functions and relation between NO and lactic acid)
[+] [-] dredmorbius|12 years ago|reply
It also helps in injury avoidance, improves your posture (assuming you're training in a whole-body mode, not just chest+biceps). Load-bearing strength training also strengthens bones, joints, and connective tissue. And you can pick up heavy shit and not get tired.
As you get older, starting in your 30s for most people, your body is losing muscle mass at the rate of about a pound every year or two (this is called "sarcopenia"). Eventually this starts effecting your body's ability to regulate body fat, and though your weight may not change, your body composition does, with fat tissue increasing as your muscle wanes.
Most people look better with more muscle rather than more fat, if you're into vanity.
And you should end up with a much better appreciation with how your body works and responds to training, diet, and recovery.
you have to feed it and lug it around.
Well, yeah, there is that feeding it. But you've got to eat anyhow. You might be boosting your caloric intake by a few hundred calories -- a cup of oats or so.
if your lifestyle and diet doesn't match your newly grown muscle tissue the body will adjust and all your effort to grow it will be gone in few weeks/months.
So long as you continue to train, your body will retain most of its gains. It's easier to retain muscle than it is to grow it, so lifting only once a week or even once every two weeks may be sufficient. But yes, it is a lifestyle committment -- your body is what you do with it.
And you seem not to be grasping the point: your muscle is the part of you that does the lugging. More of it makes things easier not harder.
There are a lot of good basic guides. Liam Rosen's Health & Fitness guide lays out the basics: http://www.liamrosen.com/fitness.html
"Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie" is another excellent intro: http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness...
As for my own experience, I'd found that adding strength training to my routine has helped me in many ways. It's more than worth the time and commitment. And though I've never sought artificial enhancement, my results have been more than satisfactory.
[+] [-] jotm|12 years ago|reply
Steroids are used by old people (and it really helps them), impatient idiots or bodybuilders who have reached those relatively quick 80% that normal training gives you and want to push it faster all the way to 100%.
Also, like others said, the side effects are suspiciously bad, there's no way one person can have most of the worst, unless you're significantly overdosing.
[+] [-] cliveowen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ahelwer|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacques_chester|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sosuke|12 years ago|reply
Edit: after thinking, I would be afraid of the worst side effect of quitting, just like a steroid user would fear weakness, I would be afraid of my own stupidity
[+] [-] veidr|12 years ago|reply
Like steroids, they don't work for everybody and they can have side effects. But when taken in normal, doctor-prescribed doses, these drugs will enhance mental function -- including the ability to learn -- in normal adult subjects.
I still think I am pretty good at what I do, but there is absolutely no doubt that I was more productive as a computer programmer -- I learned faster, invented new solutions more quickly, was less prone to mistakes -- when I had a Ritalin prescription.
And I do feel a serious sense of loss not having that anymore. Sometimes when I'm sick of thinking about a problem and just want to veg out and read HN, I get furious, thinking about how if only I'd had a tab of Concerta that morning, the fucking problem I'm working on would already be solved by now.
I don't quite feel like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon, but it is in fact somewhat like that.
[+] [-] riffraff|12 years ago|reply
Not only he was a great mathematician, he was also an amphetamine user for most of his life.
In 1979, he accepted a bet from a friend about quitting drugs for a month (his friends _were_ worried about him being a druguser).
Erdös won the challenge, but felt very stupid for the duration of the thing, declared that mathematics had been set back by a month and happily went back to amphetamine use.
[+] [-] vidarh|12 years ago|reply
This is "sort of" the plot of the classic sci-fi novel (and short story) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes: The main character who starts out below average intelligence, gets a treatment that causes his intelligence to shoot through the roof to well above normal levels, but then he is forced to face that it is only temporary.
[+] [-] ximeng|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless
The people in it fight to the death for their smartness drugs.
[+] [-] Patrick_Devine|12 years ago|reply
Vernor Vinge wrote about something called "Focus" in A Deepness in the Sky which explores that concept. People voluntarily become "focused" so they can have extreme concentration to solve difficult problems, but at the cost of neglecting everything else.
[+] [-] devnetfx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ctide|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tristanj|12 years ago|reply
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/athletics/7403158.s...
[+] [-] photorized|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] redthrowaway|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] habosa|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacques_chester|12 years ago|reply
If this article had been about the time the author smoked weed and woke up in bed with dead kittens, would it be considered a credible PSA?
[+] [-] nazgulnarsil|12 years ago|reply
Okay, so roid users are willing to lift heavy ass weights, what they aren't willing to do is put in the time, research, and diet to get fit naturally. It takes years, not 16 weeks, but the reward is actual health, health that will last into your old age.
[+] [-] johnward|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] otikik|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TruthElixirX|12 years ago|reply
When anabolic steroids were banned by congress in the U.S., the DEA, AMA, NIDA, and FDA were all against the ban saying they were harmless [1], and they mostly are, especially if taken with doctor supervision.
Now they have been pushed underground (unless you have the money to doctor shop) and you get all sorts of bro science around them which can be a real problem.
Thank science the U.S. government is saving us from ourselves.
[1]http://www.steroid.com/The-Steroid-Control-Act.php
[+] [-] dylangs1030|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsullivan01|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IanCal|12 years ago|reply
We're a loosely connected series of insane reactions that just about doesn't die. We put load on non-load bearing structures (hi, spine), we have our optic nerve running through the centre of our retina giving us a blind spot, our body can decide that peanuts = a threat so bad we should stop breathing and occasionally some of our cells will rebel and try and kill us. We need ultraviolet light to not get rickets but it can also give us cancer. Our fine-tuned digestive tract contains an organ which occasionally bursts. My wisdom teeth have decided that they'd rather grow forwards than up. We don't even produce vitamin C thanks to a single error, something we need to live and could easily produce.
I'm not worried about adding something to my body because it's a perfect machine.
I'm worried about adding it for the same reason I worry changing spaghetti code.
[+] [-] roel_v|12 years ago|reply
While I agree with your overall point, calling the human body "perfect" is ridiculous. Human bodies, if they were engineered, would never even be released to the beta testers out of fear of the engineers for being labeled as a bunch of quacks. There is much, much to improved on the human body, and we will over the next decades; but I agree that ordering a bunch of syringes from halfway across the world through an anonymous email account and injecting that into your muscles is probably not the way to go.
[+] [-] revelation|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|12 years ago|reply
"no way in hell am I going to add all of the sudden"
This usually rapidly morphs into a discussion about paleo diet and such, which I follow but some irrationally hate (or are hired to hate, or whatever).