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ANABOLIC STEROIDS AND LIVER TOXICITY

by Anthony Roberts

 Are anabolic steroids liver-toxic?
 How toxic are they, potentially?
 And why?

Back when John Ziegler first introduced Dianabol (aka methandrostenolone or metandienone) to
American athletes, a dose of 5-10 milligrams per day was cautiously suggested as an effective
dose…and this is exactly the dose most athletes took. National and international records in weightlifting
were set on 5-10 milligrams, daily, and for the next few years few (if any) athletes experimented with
higher doses. In fact, ten milligrams was the recommended therapeutic dose for males. Many athletes
feared that using a higher dose would be hepatotoxic (liver toxic).

Medals were earned and records smashed with 5-10mgs/day, and the clinical results were fantastic.

A study performed in 1968 on Dianabol examined 125 young adults, each receiving 3mgs 3x/week, and
showed a nearly 3lb gain over 3 months. While this isn’t spectacular, we are talking about am
approximate dose of 1.25mgs/day, without training. When combined with training the gain was over three
and a half pounds. Obviously 3mgs 3x/week is a ludicrously small dose, and it’s surprising they gained
any weight at all. A study published one year later (in 1969) on 24 men with no prior weight training
experience showed a five and a half pound body weight gain in just three weeks, using just ten milligrams