Question
What’s your take Dan Duchaine? Was he really as revolutionary as people made him out to be?
Whatever happened to him?
Answer
Dan died circa the year 2000 from polycystic kidney disease. It was NOT related to steroid use but rather, genetic (he inherited it from his mother). To understand just what a contribution Dan made to our sport, you need to understand the man.
Understanding The Man
Dan wasn’t a particularly good bodybuilder. In fact, when I first saw his picture I couldn’t believe it – He looked how shall I say, ordinary. Behind that look though lay an incredibly inquisitive mind. That’s what I’ll call it, because that’s what it was.
He wasn’t a doctor. He held no personal training certificates nor did he ever win any titles. It was his penchant for seeing things that others couldn’t that won him worldwide acclaim. One such example was whey protein..
Although many lay claim to being the “first” to introduce it, considerable evidence exists it was Dan who found it while researching at the UCLA medical library. At the time he was being tailed by federal agents after being released on parole, they were sitting in an unmarked car outside his apartment in Venice.
Whey Protein
As they observed him leaving one day, he was carrying bags of what appeared to be a mysterious off white powder. You can only imagine how they must have been salivating.
Upon detaining him, they found out that it was whey protein. He was the first to stumble upon the fact it had an outstanding biological value, was soluble in water much more so than milk and egg and was flavored easily. It didn’t take long for it to take off in bodybuilding.
Dan’s apartment was an endless spectacle of characters going in and out. Champion bodybuilders, life extensionists, strippers and even AIDS patients all sought the guru out. Against this backdrop he experimented with GHB, the dieting drug Fastin, the novel and heretofore never used in bodybuilding Tamoxifen, Arimidex, Clomid and even DNP were all fair game.
By the time he penned the infamous Underground Steroid Handbook II, he had used every compound listed therein and in incredibly creative ways. And the list was massive.
Today anti-estrogens, fertility drugs, thyroid, clenbuterol and other compounds are standard issue in an athletes stack. All of them had roots in the fertile mind of Dan Duchaine.
What Made Dan Duchaine Unique?
And that’s what made Dan unique. His creativity. He went where no medical researcher dared to, took athletes to where they’ve never been before and went to prison for his cause (twice).
It’s also fair to point out there were casualties: A girlfriend had to have her legs amputated after he took her to Mexico for botched calf implants. John Romano got hooked on Nubain (Dan’s favorite) after he introduced him to it. I doubt DNP would have become as well known if Dan hadn’t written about it.
But the good outweighed the bad, and any trailblazer is going to make some mistakes. Dan just had a sixth sense about bodybuilding, which compounds to use and for what purpose. He never got the financial rewards he was due in life, but probably had the largest cult following of all gurus past and present.
His contributions to our sport can’t be overstated.
