Steroids gave me heart failure at 30 and I could die early'
He had heart failure at 30 and believes taking steroids will reduce his life by 20 years - but Joey Farrell continues using muscle-building drugs for "the sake of his career
The professional bodybuilder knows the health warnings and harmful long-term effects, and while he accepts he sounds "contradictory", he warned others not to follow his example.
Meanwhile former Love Island contestant Tom Powell had breast tissue removed after taking steroids, and also said people shouldn't start doing it "whatsoever".
A professor that specialises in steroid abuse has called for regional centres of excellence to tackle what he says is becoming a growing public health concern. There's no official data of how many people in the UK take anabolic steroids but recent estimates suggest about 500,000.
Joey first took steroids aged 20 after getting into bodybuilding - and started injecting them a year later.But in January last year, the 31-year-old said doctors were "dumbfounded" to find out he had heart failure after some blood, The results were really, really bad," said Joey.
"My troponin levels, which is a heart attack marker, were extremely high."After a heart scan, Joey said clinicians diagnosed him with steroid-induced dilated cardiomyopathy - a condition that causes the heart to enlarge and weaken, making it difficult to pump blood.
