bones

Waghmare, just 40 kg at five foot eight, wanted to gain muscle, and took advice from a friend and started taking steroids.Taking supplements or pills for weight loss, fat loss, weight gain, muscle gain? Vishal Waghmare’s story should serve as a warning to all those who blindly pop capsules for speedy, magic results.Waghmare, who took steroids to gain weight, ended up with severe pain, stiffand crumbling hip joints. He spent six bedridden months before going to hospital for a hip replacement surgery. Now he can barely walk and needs physiotherapy to regain his mobility.On Tuesday even the Food and Drugs Inspector RV Jhadbuke, visited Waghmare in hospital to investigate the matter, “We have to see what steroids he was taking, whether they were banned drugs, and how the chemist sold them to him without a prescription,” said the Inspector.Waghmare, who was in the computer software section in the octroi department, was willing to talk about his ordeal.“I started taking steroids in January last year to build muscle. My friend advised some medicines and I bought them from a chemist’s and started taking them twice a day. Within a month I gained four kgs and was feeling very good. For six months I took the medicine and gained almost 20 kg.”Waghare said he had taken Dexamethasone. This is a potent synthetic member of the glucocorticoid class of steroid drugs that has anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant properties. The other medicine he took was `Ciplacting Gain Weight’.Over time, Waghmare could not attend work as his bones started to feel stiff. It was so bad he was unable to move his legs. Still, he continued to take the medicines, only stopping them when he got severe body ache and fever.The local doctors who asked for his medical history told him to immediately stop using the steroids, warning him about their side effects. “I stopped the medicines at once, but I was not aware the damage was done and that I would become paralysed,” Waghmare said.A month after he discontinued the steroids, he started getting severe pain in his legs: “One day it was so bad, I remember going to office and suddenly falling down while walking. The pain was so severe that many times I thought I should end my life, I could not tolerate it. Ever since the fall and even today, I am not able to walk,” he added.Waghmare , who got married just two years ago and had only started his career, really regrets taking the steroid. “One mistake left me paralysed. I am the oldest in the family. My father has retired and my younger brother has just finished his education. I had taken on all the family responsibility but now I depend on them for everything,” he said.A couple of months ago the family approached Dr Pradip Bhosale, head of the orthopedic department at KEM hospital. “I was shocked to see that at this age the hip bones were dead. Generally this happens either from a blood disorder, or a history of regular consumption of alcohol, or the use of anabolic steroids. With what the patient has told us, it is 100 percent confirmed that both his hip joints collapsed and become rough as a side effect of these steroids, said Dr. Bhosale.Dr. Bhosale said the use of anabolic steroids over a long period of time affected blood supply to the hip joints which slowly became irregular and eventually died. In view of this, preservation of Waghmare’s hip bones was not possible and hip replacement was the only option left, said Bhosale.Waghmare underwent two surgeries, one for the left and the other for the right hip, which was done just last week. “The patient is doing well, we put ceramic artificial hip joints,” added Dr. Bhosale.“I am thankful to doctors for giving me a new lease of life. At the same time I want to be an example to others, especially to youngsters, of what can happen if one takes muscle building steroids without a doctor’s guidance,” Waghmare said.Dr Piyush Nashikkar, orthopaedic registrar at KEM hospital said: “In the past too, we have seen a couple of cases of young patients who were using steroids, suffering from weak joints. In many cases we have managed to save their joints with medicines. In Waghmare’s case this was not possible, as he was in the last stage of bone deterioration. Waghmare will need physiotherapy now.”