Dr Robert Weatherby and his Steroid experiment....

i know this was on T.V. a couple of weeks ago but did anyone else see it? (i reckon alot of you saw it but no one has talked about it yet)
yesterday a friend of mine in the gym was talking about the program and said that he was trying out testosterone enanthate (just like those volunteers in the program)

for those that didn`t see the program on channel 4, Dr Robert Weatherby is a sports scientist from Southern Cross University, Australia. He is one of the very few scientists who can use illegal steroids for scientific purposes. He wanted to look at the effects of a steroid (testosterone ethanate) and other supplements (caffeine and pseudoephidrine, colostrum, creatine, tribulus and the hypoxicator) that atheletes used in increasing personal performance seeing as its the olympic games. he also wanted to look at the side effects of the steroid and supplements by monitoring the atheletes looking for behavioural changes, analysis of blood samples etc...

24 volunteers were split into two groups (18 volunteers for the steroid group and 6 volunteers for the non-steroid group).

the steroid group were further split in two (9 of the steroid group took testosterone enthanate at a dose of 3.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight and the other 9 were given a placebo injection, only one injection was given at the start of each week. the experiment lasted for 6 weeks therfore the 18 volunteers were given 6 injections in total during this trial).

the non-steroid group used the sport supplememnts (e.g 1 of the 6 volunteers solely used creatine, another volunteer solely used collustrum etc...)

the experiment was also designed as a double blind trial (i.e neither the volunteers, nor those who administered the injections, knew who was getting what)

all 24 atheletes had to take part in a series of distance runs and stength tests at the start of the experiment (before any drug or supplement had been taken) and then again at the end of the experiment to see if there had been any changes in performance due to the drugs or supplements.

the results of this experiment basically showed that steroids improved performance by 8% and that supplements (i think?) improved performance by 3% with the placebo group improving by 1.8%

the most surprising aspect of this though was the fact that those on testosterone ethanate saw improvements in performance after only 3 weeks!! (usually people say that you have to take steroids for 6-8 weeks to see any improvement in performance) also bare in mind the doses given were alot lower than those normally administered to atheletes and bodybuilders alike who are far more likely to use higher doses.

of the side effects the most significant was seen in the analysis of blood samples. here they found that the drug suppressed the activity of the natural killer cells that are used by our bodies to help us fight against viruses and tumors. therefore one could say that using steroids affected our bodies immune system.

all in all i only wish that there were more people like Dr Robert Weatherby out there. People who could educate others that are often scaremongered by the media and usually dont have any legitimate arguemnt where it concerns steroids or supplemnts. Also his studies can benefit bodybuilders etc.. to the point where they will understand exactly what doses are needed to help with training and also which doses are adverse to there health.

i am going to email Dr Robert Weatherby with a few questions of which i hope i can get an answer for (e.g. did tribulus raise basal testosterone leveles? if yes then by how much? What dose of tribulus was given? etc...)

he may even need volunteers for further experiments, anyway i shall keep you all updated with his responses (hopefully!!)

If anybody else saw it what do you think?

p.s. here is the link form the show (can i please put this in, admin?) http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/science/society/cheating.html