Part 1/11:
The Struggle for the Ideal Body: A Deep Dive into Bigorexia
In 2012, Romario dos Santos Alves entered a bodybuilding gym in Goiania, Brazil, setting off a chain of events that would alter his life drastically. Excited by the muscular physiques of the men around him, Alves sought to achieve a similar size and was introduced to Synthol, a substance typically composed of oil, alcohol, and Lidocaine. This substance is injected into the muscles to create the illusion of larger muscles, and, initially, the effects were intoxicatingly immediate. However, the allure of this shortcut to hypertrophy came hand in hand with devastating consequences.