Bodybuilders or bodybreakers: when bigger muscles mean bigger health risks

Le résumé fourni par la source

This commentary refers to ‘Mortality in male bodybuilding athletes’, by M. Vecchiato et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf285 and the discussion piece ‘Beyond the stage: the “gymdemic” and rising steroid abuse among youth—a public health and medico-legal perspective’, by Cioffi and Cecannecchia, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf909. The commentary by Cioffi and Cecannecchia on the ‘Gymdemic’ is timely and highly relevant. Their observations strongly resonate with our recently published data documenting a high mortality rate among competitive male1 and female bodybuilders,2 particularly for professional athletes.3 However, mortality risk is also high in amateur athletes, who are more numerous in absolute terms. These reports were deliberately limited to reporting objective mortality data, without speculation on causative mechanisms. Yet, as the discussion forum entitled ‘Gymdemic’ highlights, the broader implications of performance-enhancing drug (PED) abuse and misuse extend far beyond this competitive sport, penetrating the young fitness culture and related practices. Epidemiological data confirm the scale of this problem: anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are the most widely used PEDs in bodybuilding, with reported prevalence exceeding 75% among competitive males.4 When juxtaposed with our mortality findings,1 and evidence from population-based analyses linking AAS abuse to elevated mortality risk,5 the cardiovascular hazards become undeniable. Still, robust data on the prevalence and health outcomes among amateur AAS users remain scarce, as online sources often rely on anecdotal or speculative reporting.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.