Athletes who test positive for anabolic steroids may be suspended from competition. Our hypothesis was that giving anabolic steroids should limit the amount of atrophy that might occur in immobilized limbs. N.Y. The researchers put one of the back limbs of 48 rabbits in a cast, without breaking the bone, and divided them into two groups. Sesame seed oil does not prevent muscle loss or increase muscle mass. Compared with the rabbits that received injections of sesame seed oil, those treated with the steroid had muscles that were bigger and stronger in both the casted and noncasted legs.
Anabolic steroids do the opposite and are supposed to make muscles enlarge.
Before this it was thought that steroids only worked if you ate properly and exercised. Now there is reason to believe that, at least in rabbits, steroids may increase muscle mass without exercise. Deschere is a family medicine expert at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Though the research findings seem to indicate that anabolic steroids may help people who are bed-ridden or who suffer from disease associated with muscle loss such as AIDS, Deschere cautions against their use if similar results are found in humans. First of all, he notes that using anabolic steroids will not allow people to sit on the couch and begin to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.