Lyle Alzado

Originally posted by xcfan:
Steroids don't cause cancer

Alzado used HGH actually. In a bid to make a comeback, he used it. He developed a brain tumor whose growth was greatly accelerated by the HGH.

Originally posted by SFTifoso:
Steroids are bad for you, at least in large uncontrolled doses, but I'm wondering if it's doctors and other people getting these guys to quit cold turkey is what causes the harm. Look at Stalone, lifelong steroid user, and he's still doing pretty good. Sure he looks like a freak, but he is in good health overall. I'm just wondering if it would be better to simply lower the steroid dosage for these type of guys, rather than cut it off cold turkey.

It all depends on the individual. Guys that use a lot of heavy steroids usually have to remain on at least small doses of testosterone since they've damaged their own ability to produce it endogenously.


Here's an example of Dorian Yates, a bodybuilder from the 90's and Dorian Yates today in his late 40s. Still a big guy, but nowhere near the massive monster that he used to be, however still looking pretty good for his age.















In the case of Alzado, he used steroids along with a lot of other NFL players but the guy got really caught up with drugs in general, started spending massive amounts of money on human growth hormone which was just becoming more widely available in those days. I think because of how newly available it was, the quality of it, especially since Alzado was buying from street dealers by his own admission and not going through doctors....was even more dubious than one might expect.


I think he was the victim of unfortunate circumstances, combination of lifestyle and genetics, if it was just the drugs that he was taking that led to his cancer, I think we'd expect to see a lot more of that nowadays, particularly in the bodybuilders which are showing up on stage, 280 pounds and ripped to the bone. The ever increasing amounts of drugs they have been taking for the past 20 years makes Alzado and people in his era look like they were merely trifling around. Yet there is no epidemic of brain cancer or any other cancer in these individuals more than what we see from the general population.


There have been a multitude of early deaths from heart disease and strokes, guys dying from abusing insulin and diuretics, but the cancer connection is dubious at best, even Alzado's own physicians didn't buy his claims.

Wow, blast from the past, Yates was an absolute beast. When he was competing, you could tell he came from a powerlifting background, his physique had a rugged, powerful quality to it. Glad he hasn't completely broken down or passed away like several other pros.