Research published in the Journal of Physiology shows that the benefits of steroid doping remain for life. Muscles retain a memory of what they did so that after a period of inactivity, when they are trained again they bounce back in to shape. The same behaviour is found in muscles of people who are more active in youth; if you run when young, your muscles can build up more quickly when you try to get fit again later in life.
Experimenting on mice, researchers found that three months after testosterone was withdrawn, the rodents’ muscles grew by 30% after six days of exercise. A control group of mice saw growth of just 6% in the same time period.
The drugs boost the number of cell nuclei in the muscle fibres and these nuclei are key to building strength in muscles when people exercise. The study suggests that these extra nuclei gained through using testosterone remain in the long term.
As far as cheating goes, it seems that it would be difficult to differentiate between a middle-aged adult who trained as a teenager and one who took steroids in their 20s, though the benefits might be the same. It would be nice if people wanted doping out of sport, but it seems that the fans are more interested in “bigger, stronger, faster” irrespective of how it’s done. That, sadly, encourages doping rather than natural excellence. It would be better if we could at least distinguish sports run with dope and those without, but that’s unlikely. In science, if you cheat you rarely get to compete again. In sports, and maybe banking and politics, it seems easy to get away with. It will only become ethical when we, the spectators, demand it.
BBC: Steroids can benefit athletes for a decade after use
PNAS: Muscle memory may be encoded in muscle fiber nuclei
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