DRUGS, SPORTS, IMAGE AND G.I. JOE

NEW YORK---Which classic American doll has been a staple of childhood
for decades, has won iconic status in the culture and possesses a
waist so small and hemispheric projections so pronounced that no real
adult could approach them without the help of potentially dangerous
body enhancement therapies?

Barbie? Well, yes. But Barbie has a male companion in the land of the
outlandish physique, and it isn't Ken. Instead, we must look to a
recent model of that old trooper, G.I. Joe, to see a match for
Barbie's cartoon anatomy, and to find a doll that may be as insidious
a role model for boys as Ms. Triple-D top Size-2 bottom is for girls.

Some researchers worry that Joe and other action-hero figures may, in
minor fashion, help fan the use of musclebuilding drugs among young
athletes, even as doctors and sports officials struggle to emphasize
that such drugs are not only risky, illegal and unsporting, but in
many cases worthless in enhancing performance.

Harrison Pope Jr., a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in Belmont,
Massachusetts, has studied how the morphology of G.I. Joe has evolved
since the doll was introduced in 1964. Just as Barbie has become
gradually thinner and bustier, Dr. Pope said, so each new vintage of
G.I. Joe has been more muscular and sharply defined, or "cut," than
the model before.

The most extraordinary G.I. Joe on the market, "G.I. Joe Extreme,"
wears a red bandanna and an expression of rage. His biceps bulge so
much that they are larger around than his waist, and, if ratcheted up
to human size, they would be larger than even the arms of the
grotesquely muscular Olympians of today, Dr. Pope said.

Hasbro Industries, maker of the G.I. Joe dolls, disagrees with Dr.
Pope's contention that the body type of the standard Joe doll has
changed much over the years. The company adds that it has stopped
manufacturing the "Extreme" model, although a recent expedition showed
that the doll was still available in toy stores.

G.I. Joe is the only action figure that has been around long enough
for Dr. Pope to be able to make comparisons between old and new
models. But he said that a survey of other popular action
figures---Power Rangers, Batman and Cyberforce Stryker---showed the
same excessive muscularity.

Dr. Pope said the dolls might be planting in boys' minds a template
for a he man's body that cannot be attained without engaging in
obsessive behaviors to build muscle and strip off fat, and then
augmenting those efforts with drugs like human growth hormone and
anabolic steroids, synthetic versions of the mate horrnone,
testosterone. His study of the evolution of action dolls will be
published early next year in The International Journal of Eating Disorders.

"Prior to 1960, and the introduction of anabolic steroids, even the
most dedicated bodybuilders couldn't get larger than a certain maximum
size," Dr. Pope said. "Steroids made it possible for men to look as
big as supermen, and now we see that standard reflected in our toys
for the very young."

Given the ubiquitous images of muscularity, as well as the mounting
demands on young athletes to sprint faster, vault higher, lift heavier
and otherwise impress cadres of easily disgruritled sports fans,
experts say it is not surprising that the use of muscle-enhancing
drugs has reached pandemic proportions, even among barely pubescent
boys.

About 18 percent of high-school athletes in the United States are
thought to use anabolic steroids, about twice the figure of 10 years
ago, according to some estimates. Although performance-enhancing drugs
are generally banned by athletic organizations, it is considered
laughably easy to cheat and escape detection in drug screens. In
addition health food stores now offer a variety of "nutritional
supplements" reputed to have anabolic properties.

The supplements include creatine, DHEA, beta agonists and
androstenedione, a precursor of testosterone made famous by the
baseball slugger Mark McGwire. Such supplements are not strictly
regulated, like drugs, their side effects are uncharted and their
effectiveness is unproved.

Doctors have long emphasized the dangers of muscle-building drugs.
The use of anabolic steroids lowers the levels of protective
high-density lipoproteins, suppresses sperm productlon and ra1ses the
risk of heart attacks, strokes and liver disease. The chronic use of
human growth hormone in ultra-high doses has its own hazards, among
them an increased risk of arthritic-type disorders, diabetes and some
cancers.

MANY researchers say the paradoxical elernent in the seemingly
unstoppable epidemic of using such drugs, is that most of them do not
work nearly as well as billed. Human growth hormone may increase
muscle mass, but bigger does not necessarily mean stronger, said
Shalender Bhasin, chief of the division of endocrinology metabolism
and molecular medicine at Charles Drew University in Los Angeles.

The extra muscle bulk that comes from steroid use may drag an athlete
down without compensating for the added weight through better
performance. For any event that requires moving against friction or
gravity, Dr. Bhasin said, including sprinting, pole-vaulting or
swimming, and for endurance activities like marathon running, taking
testosterone may be counterproductive.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry