Is the next addictive drug crisis hiding in plain sight?

Dr. Thomas O’Connor is a Board Certified Internist who is also a record-holding powerlifter whose medical practice is focussed on men’s health, testosterone replacement therapy and anabolic steroid recovery. Thus, he is uniquely situated to warn about what he believes is a burgeoning epidemic of anabolic steroids (AAS) use, "staring us in the face", while being virtually ignored by the media, policymakers, and even medicine itself. "Anabolic steroid abuse is now where opioids were 15 years ago," he states.
Known as the Anabolic Doc to millions of men worldwide who read his columns in muscle and fitness publications, Dr. O’Connor has been writing about the dangerous side effects of these drugs for over a decade. Now that AAS use has grown to 4 million Americans (a number he believes is vastly understated), he has written a book that is targeted to a wider audience in the hope that it will trigger action both within and outside the AAS community.

99% of all anabolic steroids are smuggled into the US from China where these drugs are not illegal. Unlike other drugs, AAS cannot be sniffed out by dogs. So, since detecting and testing suspicious shipments is an expensive process, shippers have ample time to disappear. To date, not one supplier has been jailed. Mislabeled as dietary supplements, these virtually undetectable drugs quickly make their way onto the Internet—a 2 billion dollar industry hiding in plain sight. Compounding this cancerous invasion is the existence of other legal, but potentially dangerous bodybuilding products. Also labeled as “dietary supplements”, an estimated 25% of some legal, over-the-counter supplements which are promoted as alternatives to AAS for increasing muscle mass and strength actually contain AAS or steroid-like substances, synthetic hormones related to the male hormone testosterone.
Easy access to dangerous legal and illegal bodybuilding drugs has contributed to the sharp rise in AAS use—far beyond the Olympic and professional athlete cheaters and the stereotypical knuckle-grazing gym rat. These drugs now fuel dreams of the ideal male physique at every level and corner of American life. The butcher and the baker, are now joined by the accountant, the teacher, the lawyer, the cop and the captain. Yet, the average parent, teacher, legislator—and physician— is barely aware of this. The official response to AAS use is almost exclusively one of law enforcement; research funding to study these powerful drugs is virtually non-existent. These two factors have driven use farther underground and been an obstacle to promoting evidence-based medical intervention and prevention. As a result, users seek information underground--seeking guidance in the “bro-science” mythology posted on thousands of AAS user forums worldwide—in plain sight. Reading the posts of 18 year olds who brag about using enormous amounts of these drugs is bone chilling. To be fair, one also reads the warnings they receive from older users who advise them to wait until they are fully grown before starting to use. Still, small comfort.

Challenging this risky brew of half truth and often blatant misinformation as well as dangerous so-called "anti-aging" mills, Dr. O'Connor offers readers evidence-based explanations of how these drugs damage the body and how health can be restored. He explains why so many users become addicted, and how physicians can help them to end use safely and effectively. In great detail, he describes the hallmark effect of AAS, a condition ALL users will encounter--anabolic steroid-induced hypogonadism (ASIH). When its mood and libidinal withdrawal effects are intolerable, these can force a man into the cycle of dependency, even when he sincerely wants to quit using. Dr. O'Connor describes the "3 doors" he offers men to relieve their suffering and restore healthy testosterone levels and fertility.