Thursday, March 03, 2005
Steroids & a President
Here's something I bet you didn't know.
Amid the controversy of professional athletes who are using steroids to bulk up, there's a very prominent American figure who used steroids extensively, and today he's perceived as a near-saint.
The man I'm talking about is President John F. Kennedy.
He started taking steroids in the 1930's, and by the time he was in the White House, was receiving injections almost daily.
If you look at pictures of the young Kennedy, he was quite slender, but by the time he was assassinated, he had gotten considerably rounder. That in itself is a common experience of middle-aged men, but Kennedy's size increase was a side-effect of the extensive steroid use.
At that time, it wasn't well-understood that long-term steroid use had terrible side-effects--and in Kennedy's case, it didn't matter anyway.
Amid the controversy of professional athletes who are using steroids to bulk up, there's a very prominent American figure who used steroids extensively, and today he's perceived as a near-saint.
The man I'm talking about is President John F. Kennedy.
He started taking steroids in the 1930's, and by the time he was in the White House, was receiving injections almost daily.
If you look at pictures of the young Kennedy, he was quite slender, but by the time he was assassinated, he had gotten considerably rounder. That in itself is a common experience of middle-aged men, but Kennedy's size increase was a side-effect of the extensive steroid use.
At that time, it wasn't well-understood that long-term steroid use had terrible side-effects--and in Kennedy's case, it didn't matter anyway.
