11.10.2015

New Zealand Heart Transplant Survivor is the Wrong Spokesman to Speak Out Against Steroid Use

A 21-year old New Zealand man has entered the limelight as one of the latest anti-steroid crusaders to speak out about the dangers of anabolic steroids. Luke Nabi is recovering from a heart transplant and he blames his medical problems on his previous use of steroids. The only problem is that this is not true. His medical problems are the result of a serious genetic defect in his heart. This type of dishonesty makes Nabi a poor spokesperson to speak out against steroid use.

Nabi has been described as a bigarexia sufferer and survivor in media reports. He said he used steroids for “self-image and attention”. He had been an obese teenager who started going to the gym to lose some bodyfat. He started working out and lost 45 kilograms, which is almost 100 pounds, in bodyweight. Nabi described his body image obsession in a letter published under the headline “Steroids nearly killed me” on the Fairfax Media’s Stuff.co.nz website.

“Which I did from bad self-image issues I’ve had, being obese most of my life, losing around 45kgs of weight and becoming obsessed with my gym training and seeing my body change.” Nabi wrote. “I used steroids, not so much for the strength and size gains, but the fact that I was amazed at how much I could change my body using steroids, testing my limits and never being satisfied with the results, I felt like it was never enough but all I could do now is learn from this and do what I can do to be healthy again.”

Nabi decided to use steroids for several weeks as a teenager in order to continuing improving his physical appearance but still not so much for size and strength. His bodybuilding drugs of choice were testosterone and trenbolone acetate. After a two-month steroid cycle, Nabi claimed he gained approximately 16 to 17 kilograms (35 to 37 pounds) in bodyweight according to the New Zealand ONE News Now website.

That’s when he started having problems. Nabi was rushed to the hospital after experiencing the signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure. He ultimately required a heart transplant to save his life.

Nabi recounted the explanation of the cause of his heart failure as told to him by his cardiologist at the Auckland City Hospital. The cardiologist pointedly attributed the heart failure to “a newly-found hereditary heart condition”.

“A few days had passed and I had a meeting with my cardiologist in my hospital room, coming up with possible causes of my heart failure,” Nabi wrote is his letter to Fairfax Media. “Which he concluded to be a newly-found hereditary heart condition, having a weak heart my whole life, my arteries in my heart being twice as small as they should be making any physical task more taxing on my heart needing to pump harder to circulate blood around my body and a combination of my steroid use I had done in the past, cycling testosterone and trenbolone.”

Nabi’s medical problems are unfortunate. However, it is deceptive and dishonest to blame steroids as the cause of his heart failure. In the absence of the serious genetic defect of the heart that afflicted Nabi, he likely could have continued to use steroids indefinitely without leading to heart failure. Of course, when you have a heart defect, anything that adds stress to the heart – whether it’s radical bodyweight fluctuations involving weight loss or weight gain, intense physical activity, or drugs like anabolic steroids – can make matters worse.

To send an anti-steroid message to other young people that says ‘Don’t use steroids or you could end up with a heart transplant just like me’ does a disservice to legitimate efforts to educate the public about the real risks and side effects associated with the use of steroids. There are real side effects associated with steroids. There are real cardiovascular risks associated with steroids. Steroid educators should focus on these rather than the rare and unlikely incidences of things like heart failure and suicide that happen to occur in steroid users.

Source:

Nabi, L. (September 24, 2015). Steroids nearly killed me. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/share-your-news-and-views/12708401/Steroids-nearly-killed-me

ONE News. (October 13, 2015). Bigorexia survivor backs anti-steroids message to body builders. Retrieved from https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/bigorexia-survivor-backs-anti-steroids-message-to-body-builders-q15438.html

Leave a Comment