Romario Dos Santos Alves, 25, of Brazil is a bodybuilder. He is also considered a monster and a freak by many children who see him. Not only does he terrify children, but he now faces a long list of health problems, all because of a muscle enhancement drug called Synthol.
The married father of one child and former bodyguard says he wanted to have a body like the Incredible Hulk. His story begins about three years ago when he moved from his hometown of Caldas Novas to Goiania.
“I saw some really big guys in the gym with huge arms and I started to make friends with them. They introduced me to it (Synthol) and I got excited about the results — I lost control,” he told the Daily Mail, according to News.com.au.
Synthol is a muscle filler, and usually consists of oil, benzyl alcohol, and lidocaine. The product is 85 percent oil, 7.5 percent lidocaine, a painkiller, and 7.5 percent alcohol, used as a sterilizing agent. It is injected deep into the muscle, and the enlargement effect is immediate.
Apparently, Romario became so obsessed with the effects of the muscle filler, he actually became addicted to using it. Not only did he inject his arm muscles, but he injected his shoulder muscles as well. He injected so much Synthol into his muscles that they “started to solidify and I couldn’t even inject my arms — they were full of rocks,” he said.
“I decided the only thing I could do was buy specialist needles to inject, the kind of needles used on bulls — there are no stronger needles around. I know it seems stupid, but I had to get my fix.” Romario was able to trick his wife into injecting his muscles in places where he couldn’t reach. “I told her there was no problem with it — that it left the body after a short time,” he said.
But it didn’t take long before his wife figured out the truth, and she gave him an ultimatum. She told Romario he had to choose between their marriage or the oil. “She told me that if I start using it again or anything like it, she will leave me because of what she went through. That was the hardest part of our life because I had depression and I was removed from my job because I tried to kill myself.”
Romario ended up in the hospital. Besides his mental instability, the filler was causing constant pain in his muscles, and because of the toxins in the oil, his body was going into kidney failure. Doctors told him to save his life, they would need to amputate his arms.
“I remember the doctor told me that they would need to amputate both arms. They said everything in there, all my muscles, were rock. It was either that or cut all of my muscles out,” he said. But thankfully for Romario, at the last minute, the doctors told him they could try to remove the muscles that had turned into rock.
Today, his grotesque appearance still generates fear, especially in children, and this has not helped his mental health issues. “One time I was working in a Catholic Church and a woman came up to me and said that her 12-year-old daughter wouldn’t come in because she was afraid of me,” he says.
:She said that she thought I was a beast, a monster — I just put my head down and didn’t say anything.” Although Romario has not used the muscle enhancing drug for two years now, he is still tempted by other drugs used by some bodybuilders.
Romario is very truthful about muscle enhancing drugs and his desire to use them. But when it comes to Synthol, “I still feel like taking it but I won’t take it again. If you take it once there will definitely be a second time — it’s addictive,” he says.
