Is there a connection between steroid use and improved hand-eye coordination?
In “Game of Shadows,” it’s reported that Barry Bonds said steroids improved his vision, but Gaffney hasn’t heard of any scientific connection between the drugs and increased hand-eye ability. “The drug that really helps with hand-eye coordination is amphetamines, or greenies,” Gaffney says. Ann Peters, a doctor at the Longevity Medical Clinic in Gold River, Calif., prescribes HGH for “age management” purposes, and says her patients report improved vision with hormone therapy. These results usually occur in her older patients. Is it possible that this hand-eye benefit is purely psychological? Unlikely, says Gaffney. When drugs are tested, “placebo responders” do arise—people who feel a medicine’s good effects even when they’re not given the medicine. But these effects are fleeting. “When you get a ‘miracle cure’ or placebo response, it usually doesn’t last more than a few days,” Gaffney says. “I would find it hard to believe that a psychological benefit would be sustained over a gruelin
