I came across a BBC article today (OK, in truth it was posted on my facebook wall!) which details that surgeons in Swansea have seen an increase in men getting non-cancerous chest lumps by taking body building supplements.
On the surface it appeared to be a good story and as a user of such supplements, I was intrigued enough to read on.
Sure enough they have a quote from a doctor talking about an increase in the number of patients he has seen who have developed the lumps known as gynaecomastia.
Now, the first problem with this story I came across was with how said doctor was quoted.
Firstly he talks about how he feels that "a lot of this (developing gynaecomastia) is to do with the increased awareness of body image amongst men."
On a basic level, (I don't know about you!) I don't particularly want to hear a Consultant Breast Surgeon's greatly generalised opinion on matters of men's self image!
He then clumsily mentions (also then clumsily reported) that this male image concern "leads them to go down the road of weight training and taking supplement and anabolic steroids."
He is basically quoted as saying that males who weight train are as likely to take anabolic steroids as they are to take the usual supplements. There is a world of difference between the two! Mainly the simple fact that anabolic steroids are illegal and extremely dangerous.
Which brings me on to my next problem.
Further down the article a quote is used from a man who recently had a non-cancerous growth removed. The journalist has written above his quote that:
He had been taking creatine, a completely legal supplement to help bulk up his muscles.
But he then started to notice something going wrong...
This is not only lazy but its completely misleading!
The article NEVER ONCE mentions that creatine or anything in creatine has anything to do with why this poor man suddenly developed a lump in his chest. From the way it is reported, the readers are made to feel that it is in fact the creatine that has caused the problems in this individual.
Creatine and anabolic steroids are completely different, it is even written in the article that creatine is a completely legal substance. I have done some research and as far as I know, it has never even loosely been connected with gynaecomastia!
What this journalist has done is very loosely tried to link a relatively common problem in adolescent males to something that there is no real scientific evidence to prove. In fact reading it again, there is a distinct lack of connection between anything to do with the 'cause' and the problem throughout the article.
Have a read of this here, I welcome your own comments!: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8383609.stm
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