LAT: A Question of Fitness (Arnold's ties to body-building mags)

[DeepModem Mom]

A question of fitness
Gov. Schwarzenegger's ties to bodybuilding magazines raise issues of appropriateness. Others say he's promoting exercise.

By Martin Miller, Times Staff Writer


....Last month, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a seven-time Mr. Olympia, agreed to become executive editor of two of the nation's most popular bodybuilding magazines — Muscle & Fitness and Flex. The magazines hope to capitalize on the international celebrity of Schwarzenegger to raise its profile and profitability; in exchange, one of his favorite projects, the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness (which promotes healthy and active lifestyles), will receive $1.25 million over the next five years....

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In his widely lauded role as physical fitness guru, the governor has instructed youngsters that the best way to succeed in sports is through hard work and sweat, not by taking performance-enhancing substances. But the magazines of which he is now editor routinely splash huge-muscled bodybuilders across their pages. At least some of the physiques, say observers of the sport, are probably a direct result of "juicing," a slang term for using anabolic steroids.

Further raising questions about the association is the magazines' reliance on advertisements for dietary supplements, even as the national debate over the regulation and safety of such products intensifies. The vast bulk of the magazines' advertisements — more than 90%, according to a spokesman — are for supplements that promise ways to lose weight or to quickly bulk up....

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State Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) has introduced a bill aimed at closing loopholes in the recent Food and Drug Administration restrictions on the herb ephedra and androstenedione. Ephedra has been linked to heart attacks and stroke. Androstenedione has been associated with testicular atrophy in men, and blood clots and an increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer in women. Other supplements may be added to the bill, which is still being amended.

The bill could reach the governor's desk within several months, Speier said. Schwarzenegger has publicly stated that he is generally opposed to government regulation of supplements....

(The article quotes Bruce Cain, director of the Institute on Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley: "You get the idea he hasn't left his old life behind and it raises questions about whether his judgment is compromised by these connections.")


http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-mags12apr12,1,2295010.story?coll=la-home-health