Muscle Building

Surprising it may seem
but tracing the history of anabolic steroid will reveal that there was prevalence of its use among professional athletes in ancient Greece. In those times
athletes used natural steroidal substances in order to enhance androgenic and anabolic growth in the body.


As the history of anabolic steroid unfolds
one would find that in early 1930s
German scientists discovered the drug in modern pharmaceutical form - albeit accidentally. There was however no immediate interest to pursue research into the drug's utility.


After a hiatus of nearly 2 decades
the first serious scientific attention to anabolic steroid came upon in 1950s when methandrostenolone or Dianabol was approved by the FDA for use in US in 1958 after it was known to have had promising trials in other countries.


In spite of sporadic trial and use of anabolic steroid from 60s through 80s
doubts remained as to whether it had any real effect. In 1972 a study was done whereby no big difference could be noticed between those who received anabolic steroid injection and those who were given placebo.


Later in 1996
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) decided to examine the effect of the drug by injecting testosterone enanthate in high doses intramuscularly at the rate of 600 mg/week for 10 weeks. The results gave clear indication of increase in muscle mass and decrease in fat mass among those who took the test as against those who took placebo injections.


Meanwhile
the US Congress approved the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990
and accordingly the anabolic steroids are placed into Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).


It is not known how the history of anabolic steroid will trace its route in future. For now
as recently as on January 20
2005
the CSA has been further amended to make way for Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004
vide which both anabolic steroids and prohormones are now controlled substances.