A 26-year old Bulgarian bodybuilder, who worked out regularly and happened to use anabolic steroids, died shortly after he was admitted to the Naval hospital in Varna. The man reported feeling sick and experiencing difficulty in breathing. The bodybuilder allegedly stacked oral and injectable steroids in a quest to build muscle. He was found to have an enlarged heart and blood clots in his lungs and legs. However, Bulgarian doctors have blamed his death on “steroid intoxication.”
Dr. Snezha Zlateva, the head of the Department of Toxicology at the Military Medical Academy Naval Hospital in Varna, has determined that “steroid intoxication” was the confirmed cause of death. The toxicologist claimed that the autopsy provided “irrefutable evidence” that the intake of steroids was responsible for the fatality.
Zlateva asserted that the bodybuilder was the latest of several sportsman around the world who have died from steroid overdoses.
Unfortunately, acute steroid intoxication does as a cause of death does not have strong medical evidence to support such a diagnosis. The fact is that no one has every overdosed on anabolic steroids because it is practically impossible to do so.
Cheque Drops (mibolerone), one of the most toxic steroids available, has a lethal dose (LD) of 1,600,000 mcg/kg. The LD is the dose required to kill half of the population given such a dose. A fatal overdose of mibolerone would require that a 220 pound bodybuilder ingest 29,000 bottles of Cheque drops within fifteen minutes.
The dangers of steroids are the result of chronic use and not acute use. However, acute steroid intoxication is not a real danger of steroid use.
Vladimir Shvarts, M.D., the Medical Examiner for Maricopa County (Arizona), perhaps set the precedent for a “steroid intoxication” diagnosis in 2008 when “steroid intoxication” was listed as a contributing factor in an accidental fatal overdose that also included Xanax, Oxycontin and cocaine.
Anabolic steroids can clearly have adverse side effects but suggesting the existence of acute steroid intoxication reflects more of a politically-guided anti-steroid diagnosis than a medically-guided one.