I remember an account from a journalist who sat in on a presentation by a doctor to the assembled Olympic athletes on the American team in the 1960s, in which he asserted that “tissue-building” (anabolic) drugs did not work. One of the weightlifters in the back snorted, and the journalist asked him why. The lifter pulled out a photo.

“Who’s that?” the journalist asked.

“That’s me,” the burly lifter said, “six months ago.” The drugs worked.

The lifting community didn’t come to the drugs predisposed toward believing in them. They’d tried expensive soy protein powder and vitamins before — there was way more money in selling those than in selling expensive-to-ship, low-margin iron weights — and when the first lifters tried anabolic steroids, they assumed their results were coming from the new isometric routine they were trying at the same time.

It took decades before American medical scientists were willing to test the effects of steroids as used by athletes, and — surprise! — they boosted performance in a few short weeks, and most of the results lasted long after they quit.