a dealer about why he does it. garethjenkins is 29 and lives just outside of cardiff, he is one of the estimated hundreds of thousands of people who regularly take other bullocks derus to build muscle. —— anabolic steroids to build muscle. when you train naturally, which i did fora number of when you train naturally, which i did for a number of years before using steroids, you tire burakov, you ate more, and obviously when you use a performance enhancing drug, which is a steroid, you don't have these muscle soreness anywhere near as much, you feel more weight. i feel better in myself, i feel more manly. i've got a hires extract. there are some serious potential risks from a medical perspective. things like increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. mood swings, infertility. to those not worried you? everything that we do in life carries a risk of heart attack, cancer, whatever it is. whatever it is, i'm going to get those risk anyway. i choose not to do certain

things. this is my life. i don't go out drinking and smoking, i take the route. steroids can cause health problems because they created imbalance of hormones which can create many organs, but especially the heart. gareth says he tries to minimise any risk by taking his steroids in style calls like 15 weeks on and eight weeks of. there is two types of steroids, one is in a liquid form. this is this type. you would inject this directly into a muscle. two times a week. the other type is a tablet form. when i'm using this type of steroid, i would use five a day for seven days. five a day every day. over a period of around six months when you are on the roads, how much do you think you spend on them? as a rough estimate, with the cycle itself and oppose course treatment would be about £500, i expect. that's a lot of money. it is. it's probably a lot

less in six months than somebody would spend on drink at weekend. worth it, do you think so for me, personally, yes. when it comes to the law on anabolic steroids, it is legal to use them. and legal to possess them, right across the uk. what is illegal, though, is to prescribe them, unless you are a doctor. that means either selling them passing them on forfree. if caught, you could face up to 14 yea rs caught, you could face up to 14 years in prison. because gareth's only using steroids, not supplying them, he's not in any trouble with them, he's not in any trouble with the law. it could be a different story with his health, though. later this week he's agreed to go to london for a series of tests that will find out what damage, if any, he's done to his heart. keep your throat still. when i was younger... i was small and a feral child of the

school! so i just i was small and a feral child of the school! so ijust ended up locking myself away in the gym, training and getting bigger and getting stronger. it all sort of fell into one big procedure that i seem to be doing at a lifestyle that i need, pretty much. yes, in the middle is not nice. so, going down to london to have all those tests done, which i'm excited about, to be honest with you, yet and slightly nervous, because they could come back and say they're something significantly wrong and if i don't change my life style, wrong and if i don't change my lifestyle, then obviously i'm going to have health issues. my prediction is that i think i'd be pretty stupid or naive to think that my heart wouldn't have changed. you know, for five years, the use of any performance enhancing drugs as anabolic is going to have that effect. if it hasn't, why have i

been taking this when i could have done it naturally?! so... obviously if it is significant, then it'll be absolutely on my mind that all change my lifestyle overnight. whether people use or abuse anabolic steroids is a matter of opinion. for some in the medical world, if steroids are prescribed by a doctor then it's simple, taking them is abuse. many people who we searched dosages and writer manaj is the risks, though, would say they don't abuse them but instead use them. one thing that is widely agreed on, though, is that the issue is now affecting more people than ever before. we don't know the exact number of anabolic steroid users that there are, but it certainly measures in the hundreds of thousands. we're seeing now a different population of users. while we still have people using for the purposes of body—building, we are seeing a new population of

predominantly young males, but also quite all the males as well, while using prominently for cosmetic purposes. there is a number of pressures on young man, and most of these pressures went around a generation ago. these are things like social media, they can be mainstream advertising. if ever you see a male with their shirt off, the chances are they will have quite a well—defined physique. again, males may not be geared up to dealing with this. this is something that women have had to deal with for generations. but this is quite a new thing for men. for gareth, she is about to undergo a series of tests that will check what damage, if any, used on to his heart. the person in charge is cardiology doctor... we're going to do freitas today, the first is to look at the electrical activity of the heart. the second is to look at the heart muscle itself, the third to exercise your heart rate and we'll see how you perform. is that all right? yes, no problem.

nhs guidelines say that by taking anabolic servers, gareth is risk inside a fight like infertility, meetings, it even heart attacks and strokes. —— gareth is risking side—effects. strokes. —— gareth is risking side-effects. this is the sound of your blood flowing, we are assessing how quickly the blood flows through that valve and we are able to see if there is any narrowing of the valve orany there is any narrowing of the valve or any leakages of that. there is any narrowing of the valve or any leakages of thatlj there is any narrowing of the valve or any leakages of that. i suspect that they will show some form of thickness or abnormality to the heart. it's bound to have changed in some way of the four war five years of taking a performance enhancing drug. the british cardiovascular society says tens of thousands of people could be putting themselves at increased risks of the most serious side—effects by taking demiboy steroids. and cycling towards a cheesecake! i'll get it, i'll get it! cheesecake on the horizon, let's get there. after

putting himself to the limit, gareth will be able to find out how has heart has performed, and what effect his storage use has had. with hundreds of thousands of people now thought to be taking the roads every year right across the uk, clearly they are getting them from somewhere. but government figures show that for the whole of 2015 and 2016, right across england and wales, there were just 25 convictions relating to the illegal supply of steroids, and just seven of those ended with a prison sentence. so, for this man who spoke on condition of anonymity, the law hasn't come close to stopping him from doing. we know you supply steroids, we know you are steroids dealer. obviously it's a legal, you are breaking the law. a lot of people you —— would say that you are but in peebles lives and health at risk. what would you stated that

brazil and i was offered thelj risk. what would you stated that brazil and i was offered the i would start off with the health risks. steroids are readily available to anyone. i would like to see myself as somebody who provides information, to ensure people are doing them safely. people are going to use them regardless of whether they get them from the warm light. if they can talk to me about it, how to inject themselves safely, even if not to take steroids, if they don't think it's appropriate for them, then i will. that's the reason i try, that's the reason i'm involved in this. who are the types of people getting them from you? who is coming to you from steroids cause there is a very broad perspective of people who using steroids, from young people who are looking to bulk up for a summer holiday all looked good. for a summer holiday? or they just want to attract the girls, go out on a night out and attract the girls, these are the guys that are less aware, these are the guys that you have to be more informative when you have to be more informative when you talk to them about it, make them

more aware of the risks and dangers. what about the health of the people you are supplying these drugs do? they can face things like infertility, mood swings, getting strokes, decades earlier than the average, heart attacks, it's illegal for a reason. yes. i don't agree with it being illegal, because i'll tell you, doctors prescribed testosterone to people. there is a reason. . . testosterone to people. there is a reason... what you not able to. i'm saying doctors prescribe it. if it was killing people left, right and centre then they wouldn't be prescribing it. the media sensationalises it. i'm going to tell you now, there's people that abuse steroids and do damage their health, and that's their choice. one man who is all too aware of the risks of taking steroids he's got on the black market is gareth. after using them for nearly five years, he's about to find out the effect they have had on his heart. take a seat. i'm going to go over your

results. so, i've got your ecg tracing and i've seen your echo report and the reports from the exercise test as well. what it shows is that your heart is working well. right. and you've come through your exercise test well as well. but, we do think that you are at the upper limit of normal in terms of the thickness of your heart. that is most likely due to your weightlifting and your steroid use. you are still young, and you've not been using steroids for that long. but if one does continue to do so you are putting yourself at increased risk of heart attack and potentially even strokes as well. you know, steroid usage does have that rarity of bad effects on the heart. i cause myself as quite a sensible person. itake my heart. i cause myself as quite a sensible person. i take my own health into account. it would just be sensible, being by keyword, to

not push that boundary to the point where something isn't reversible. cannot keep using steroids? to not keep using steroids, yeah. all for the better. cheaper, too. it looks like gareth's steroid days might be numbered by so much but he isjust one of hundreds of thousands of users. dealers are likely to get caught, the numbers of convictions for supply is low. doctors want change, worried about potential long—term health problems for users. is change on the way? we know the group that advises the government and drugs misuse is in the middle of and drugs misuse is in the middle of a big review into steroids. we don't know yet what it's going to stay. —— what it's going to say. hello there. storm dylan brought a

pretty lively end to the year across the northern half of the british isles for sure. now it is rolling off into the north sea and things are a little calmer if you are heading out to celebrate new year. but, through the course of the night we will see showers packing in towards the west, still a breezy story as well. as for new year's day, this deep low, this time to the south of the british isles, to concentrate on. it looks like the worst of it will run through the channel, but nonetheless, for southern counties of england could have a stormy start to the new year, intensity winds along the south coast, hats persistent rain a little further north than this picture may imply. some uncertainty. but it is a wet start for southern england and potentially south wales, too. further north, sunshine. for northern ireland and southern and western scotland, quite a showery picture. for the north east, clear skies and sunshine,

but also a chilly start, too. the area of low pressure to the south moves off to the continent quickly. sunny skies through the afternoon. showers will push on to north wales and northern england through the second half of the day. also some heavy ones for scotland and northern ireland. further north, sunshine, but a chilly story, three in edinburgh. ten in plymouth. overnight, the first working day of the new year, new year's day into tuesday, notice the isobars over that little ridge of high pressure, and that will allow temperatures to come down, probably giving the chilliest night of the week ahead. a patchy frost first thing on tuesday. a chilly start to get back to work, but then it all starts to turn wet and windy again as an area of low pressure comes in from the west. maybe snow across northern england for the higher ground, and scotland, elsewhere a wet picture. milder air behind that

though, 11 and 12 in the week ahead, look out forfurther spells in piri rain. south, but four in the weekend, apart from going into tuesday we are looking at a frost free story, but it will be windy, and look out for further spells of heavy rain. you're watching bbc news. our main headlines... a majorfire at the liverpool echo arena multi—storey car park — police say a number of vehicles are on fire and traffic restrictions are in place. police say there are no casualties but tonight's international horse show has been cancelled. six people have died after a seaplane crashed into a river in australia — it's thought four of the victims may be british. the plane has hit the water and it has subsequently sunken. it is sitting in approximately 13 metres of water. iran imposes restrictions on social media and uses watercannon

to disperse protesters, as demonstrations against the ruling clerics continue.