Now look up longevity of drug addicts. Im sticking with gear

This is an important topic. For many years, say prior to 2017 there weren’t that many deaths of high level BBs or people we knew, or relatively young people who were running gear. Those that did die always seemed to be right around contests. So we all pretty much convinced ourselves that just the diuretics are really dangerous and gear isn’t really that bad, as long as we’re doing it the safe way with bloodwork and all that good stuff.

Then around 2017ish, atleast that’s when I started noticing it more and more young pros, well known amateurs and influencers started dying nowhere near contest prep. Always heart attacks too. There’s been so many of them the last 8-10 years. It’s pretty scary.

So that sucks. Kinda destroyed the diuretic theory that made a lot of us more comfortable. A lot of the side effects from gear can be mitigated, but not its effects on the heart. You can keep your cholesterol in check and your Bp in check but you can’t prevent hardening, growth and structural changes to it. Certain compounds are really bad about this like nandrolone which I won’t run again, as much as I used to love it.

Cardiac testing and imaging should be done on a yearly basis if you’re running gear. Echos, angios, EKGs etc. you just tell your doctor you’ll be feeling a little chest pain that you think Is probably just your pec but you want to be sure. And they’ll send you off for the works. I did that last year got a clean bill of health for my heart lol. Echo, EKG, and a 2 week heart monitor. I’ll have to figure out how to do it on a yearly basis without raising suspicion though lol.

But ya bottom line is this shit is not safe. This is why I preach moderation now to most people. You should run the absolute least amount of gear possible to reach your goals, and the fewest compounds. Even if it takes a bit longer. Most of the people here (not all, but most) don’t need anything except test at a reasonable dose way below a gram. We do have some mass monsters and guys with much more advanced physiques that probably need more, but they’re the exception.

2976 people died in the twin towers and 90% of them weren't bodybuilders or even been to a gym probably 99% never touched AAS. Soak that in and just hug your children everyday and tell them you love them

I wonder how many people in this study were keeping a close eye on their markers and making efforts to keep them in range- lipids, blood pressure, resting heart rate and inflammatory markers. Obviously you can't completely prevent this stuff but I see a lot of examples where this stuff is out of range and for whatever reason people don't take the measures to get it right- whether that's cardio, ancillaries or a better diet or less gear.

Steroids grow muscles - making them bigger and thicker. The Heart is also a muscle that you don't want any bigger or thicker, but what can you really do to totally stop it happening? If you want to live to an old age you are best off not running steroids period.

It is an interesting point of discussion this, because lets face it - most of us try to kind ignore this with regards to the heart and whether me may or may not end up having a heart attack in the future as a result of running gear. More than 99% of us on here are in the poisition where we have never had major heart problems, or indeed a heart attack or stroke so it is something we have never faced before. Chances are if we had one then we probably won't know much about it because we will be dead. Where as something like food poisonoing or the Flu most of us have experienced it - so we know how bad it is and how to avoid it because of how bad it feels at the time. It makes you wonder how many of us would carry on running steroids, or completely cut them dead if we knew we had a 90% chance of having a heart attack in 15 years time? How many of us would be willing to take that chance and keep running them for the happiness and satisfaction they bring?