Bananation

Son's muscular body worried parents.
The menace of bigorexia

Merlion Times
April 4, 2004

It was not a regular Monday for Rocky. The usually not so busy health columnist, who is a qualified doctor and a certified personal trainer popped his eyes out when his inbox read 255 unread emails - mostly from worried parents who were concerend about their sons' bodybuilding interest when last Friday, the sudden death of a 33-year-old bodybuilding fanatic was reported on Merlion Times.

According to the deceased's parents, they refer their son, Danny's big, muscular body to an armor.
"It's a tragedy for a young, robust man to die at the prime of his age in such a shocking manner." said Helen, his mother.

Danny Lee , a rising executive in a MNC collapsed at the gym after finishing his bench press. He was pronounced dead when the ambulance arrived. The causes of his death are liver, pancreatic and kideny failures. When we asked the gymers if they recognised him, most replied that his big phyisque is hard to miss. A group of guys giggled and answered: "He has the hottest body here."

After our interview with the Lee's family, we were shown to Danny's room. The walls were hung with framed posters of famous male bodybuilders. On the floors were dumb-bells of various weights, supplements in different sizes containers and piles of physique magazines. We were so astounded by the room that we had to probe into their son's bodybuilding history. Helen was sobbing and her husband, Sean said:

"Danny got interested in bodybuilding during his university days. He was average-built then. We thought he was just doing it to impress the girls and would stop once he acheived a bigger body. But he became more enthusiatic with each passing year. He later joined a reputable gym and hired a personal trainer. His supplements intake also increased. Within a few years, he morphed into an Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Helen took out a navyblue tanktop from his closet nd showed it us.
"He likes to put this on and flex his muscles for us..." Her voice cracked as she hugged the shirt close to her body.

Many parent's could not see that such a manly and healthy sport would threaten life. Most thought that it was alright for their sons to pursue a bigger body to look macho, but what they had overlooked was safety.

Danny's death was the first suspected case of bigorexia- a disorder to acheive a muscular physique. Local bodybuilding association and drug stores were working closely with psychologists on an initiative to educate public about the right way of bodybuilding. Popular muscle building supplements were also tested by the health science authorities to investigate if long-term consumption of supplements by an bigorexic would warrant a death sentence.