The Steroid Deceit is critically important and very highly recommended reading
The Steroid Deceit: A Body Worth Dying For? by Jeff Rutstein is an informed and informative guide to all that the use of steroids will effect in the life and body of the user. In The Steroid Deceit the reader will find much great detailing on national statistics, psychological reasoning, and preventative action. The book’s invaluable content follow the guidelines of “Why do teenagers really use steroids?”, “How do they obtain steroids?”, “What are the warning signs of steroid use?”, and “How do you get teenagers to recognize the real dangers of steroids?”. The Steroid Deceit is critically important and very highly recommended reading — especially for parents and athletically active teenagers.
The danger of steroids: Rutstein tell-all good for any athlete or coach out there
By Abby Ashey
The Steroid Deceit: A Body Worth Dying For, by Jeff Rutstein, Custom Fitness, 2005, 108 pages
Do you know the kind of danger that some bodybuilders put themselves in? I didn’t until I took a look at Jeff Rutstein’s book, The Steroid Deceit.
Rutstein is a former bodybuilder who knows a lot about the drug due to an addiction that led to a downward spiral. Rutstein takes you through his trials and tribulations with steroids via his book and also incorporates some alarming statistics.
This book is a must-read for anyone trying to get jacked and for coaches at junior high, high school, collegiate level and professional level. Athletes should definitely read this book, users or not.
Rutstein shines the light on an alarming statistic, that between six and 11 percent of high school males and between two and five percent of high school females are currently using steroids. If that doesn’t alarm you I’ll put it in a more alarming way: that’s between half a million and one million high school students.
That would be great if steroids weren’t bad for you. We’d have some of the best young athletes here in America.
Rutstein highlights each of the most well-known side effects of steroid use but spares the reader the entire list of 70 physical/psychological effects. In one case, in Germany, a track-and-field star was given steroids without her knowing and it eventually led to a permanent sex change. She is now a he.
Not only does the book outline the ins and outs of steriod use but Rutstein goes into his own personal highs and lows such as a broken nose due to “roid rage” and a run-in with his mom when she found the needles he used to inject horse steroids.
Rutstein’s examples barely skim the surface of what can happen, and the book shows this because he compares his own problems with other, more severe, issues, such as a 16-year-old stabbing to death his 14-year-old girlfriend. That kid is in jail for the rest of his long life. Or the married body-builder couple — the wife shot the husband because he paid too much for chicken.
This book is quite like a really long article you would find in a health magazine but it’s a quick and easy read that anyone in the above fields should invest a couple hours in.
Page 32 | Sept. 8-14 2005 | HippoPress Manchester
New book gives an open and honest depiction of steroid abuse. Serves as an invaluable resource for teens, parents, teachers, and coaches
A 1993-2003 CDC study showed a 65% increase in steroid use among high school students. The same study showed an alarming 140% increase in steroid use among female students. Steroid use among our youth is becoming epidemic.
We are all hearing a lot about steroids these days. The talk is about pro athletes, their records, and what Congress and team owners should do to stop steroid use. But what about the kids? And what responsibility do parents have in all this?
Steroids trickle down. A baseball or football player uses them and a new bar is set in the pros. College level players see this, and if they hope to now make it to the pros, they need to make a better showing. So the ones who really want to get there get on the steroid train. A new bar is then set at the college level, so now high school players who want to get into the college of their choice or garner those athletic scholarships are under more pressure. You see the pattern.
Even more insidious is the body-image provocation. A movie role calls for a star to be particularly buff. We read or hear that he or she works out six hours a day with a trainer, but with steroids, they will be just that bit more cut – the look will have a bit more of an edge. Young people look up to the star and aspire to a similar body type. Realizing that no amount of working out will make it happen, they turn to steroids.
And while steroids are drugs with some horrific side effects, until recently most of us haven’t taken them seriously.
With The Steroid Deceit, Jeff Rutstein demands that we do so.
An abuser as a teen, Jeff Rutstein was a bodybuilder who got into using steroids and couldn’t stop. He even procured them from a doctor! At the end of each cycle he would tell himself that was it, but as he saw muscle mass shrinking, he would get depressed and begin again. And he fell into the substance and alcohol abuse so often concurrent with steroid use. Having run himself and his finances into the ground, Jeff finally quit cold turkey – almost killing himself in the process.
For the past decade and a half, Jeff Rutstein has been the owner of Boston’s elite Custom Fitness. Doctors from Harvard and other surrounding universities and hospitals send their patients to him for the exercise program he has developed to help overcome depression, emotional problems, and substance abuse. His book, Rutstein on Fitness: Strengthening the Body to Heal the Mind has won rave reviews. July will see the debut of Jeff’s new book, The Steroid Deceit, a book in which he uses his story as a cautionary tale for teens, parents, coaches, and anyone interested in keeping our young people off steroids.
Having written a powerful, honest book detailing steroid use in sports and among youth, Jeff tells us:
Why teenagers REALLY use steroids
How they obtain them
The warning signs of steroid use
How to get teens to recognize the real dangers of steroids
About the current move to make athletes culpable for steroid use and just how far we should go.
A compelling and purposeful book, The Steroid Deceit should be read by all student athletes, their parents, their coaches, school administrators, and anyone involved in the health and safety of our kids.
Steroid Deceit: A Body Worth Dying For?, by Jeff Rutstein, Publisher: Custom Fitness, ISBN: 0-9760170-2-4, US $12.95, paperback 108 pages. Available on the Web, through local bookstores, and major distributors. For author interviews contact Jeff Rutstein 1-800-374-9959 or [email protected].