Ok, so get this: injecting oil and alcohol directly into your muscles is actually NOT good for you. Shocking, I know, and yet one Brazilian man had to find this out the hard way.

Romario Dos Santos Alves, a 25 year old bodybuilder, father, and former bouncer, used the substance synthol in his arms and shoulders, pumping his biceps up to 25 inches. He became so hooked on the drug that it nearly cost him his arms and his life.

Alves claims his habit began when he moved to Goiania (in Brazil) from his hometown three years ago. “I saw some really big guys in the gym with huge arms and I started to make friends with them.” He said. “They introduced me to synthol and I got excited about the results – I lost control.”

Check out the before and after pics:

Courtesy of lollipop.sg

The drug caused his muscles to begin to solidify to the point where he needed to purchase needles designed for bulls in order to inject himself. Once his addiction reached its peak, his wife told him that he would have to choose between her and the drug.

“She told me that if I start using synthol again or anything like it she will leave me because of what she went through,” he said. “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.” While getting clean from the drug, Alves suffered severe kidney damage due to the toxins present in the oil. At one point, a doctor even told him that the only way to get the substance out of him was to amputate both of 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.” He said. “It was either that or cut all of my muscles out. And then thank God the doctor told me that they did not have to amputate – they could instead remove the synthol rocks which had formed in my arms.”

Alves claims he is constantly receiving attention, both positive and negative, which makes it all the more difficult to both stay clean and stay positive. One the one hand, he says “Sometimes kids will come up to me and say that I look like the ‘Incredible Hulk’ and hug me and have their photo taken with me. I really like that as I modeled my body on the ‘Incredible Hulk.’” However, he also has to deal with the inverse, such as a story he relates when a small girl refused to enter a church because he was inside and she found his appearance frightening.

At this point he has been clean for over two years and still has aspirations of becoming a professional bodybuilder. Given his desire to look like a famous Marvel character, he should probably also try to land a bro date with this guy.

Courtesy of people.com

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