Archive for November, 2009

Steroids can prove to be an effective treatment option when it comes to minimizing damage to the heart in young patients with Kawasaki’s disease, as per a study that was published in an issue of Pediatrics.

Stephen Aronoff, MD, lead author of the meta-analysis and Temple University School of Medicine professor and chair of pediatrics, was of the view that a multi-center study can be more than useful for ascertaining and justifying benefits of steroid treatment for this disease.

The study highlighted the knowledge differences among members of the medical fraternity. While some members are of the view that steroids are effective, some are of the view that steroids are ineffective as suggested by the present guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

From News-Medical.Net:

“This gap in knowledge led us to examine the benefits of steroids more closely. We looked at research worldwide and were surprised to find eight solid clinical trials showing the value of steroids in significantly reducing heart damage in children with Kawasaki’s disease. Steroids, when combined with aspirin and IVGB, reduced the odds of developing inflammation of the heart blood vessels by half,” said Stephen Aronoff, MD, lead author of the meta-analysis and Temple University School of Medicine professor and chair of pediatrics.

This study also brought forward some recommendations for the standard treatment of Kawasaki’s via aspirin and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).

Budding body builders are often seen getting carried away by deceptive ads such as ‘30 pounds in just three weeks’.

No matter how many steroid stacks they fill their days with, they cannot reach even halfway until they know the basics of muscle building and training program to be employed while taking steroids. And if a strong and a massive body is what they dream of, then they should completely forget about making it in three weeks for a good body requires long training regime and immense amount of will power, discipline, and perseverance.

Here are some tips on training programs for people seeking to have great musculature feeding on steroids as well:

Training with heavy weights:

Workout regime for steroid users starts with using heavy weights. This is because in order to develop heavy muscles, they need to be challenged and exposed to progressively-higher resistances on a regular basis. This is achieved when an athlete or the person training increases his weight during exercises on a continuous basis. This helps the muscle become strong and stronger the muscles, the larger their appearance will be. A simple fact of this sport is ‘there is no mass without power’.

Exercises suitable under this regime would include squats presses behind the neck, rows, barbell curls, bench presses and dips to start with.

Considerable rest periods:

Though the muscles are stimulated during the process of training, their growth takes place during their rest phase. Also greater the intensity of the training, higher will be the damage the muscle cells undergo and longer will be the resting period. While training with required intensity, one must not train every day and not allow a big muscle be used twice a week. Thus while training with heavy weights, rest and recovery form an equally important part of the training success. Each day that one trains in the gym, it should be followed by a complete day off to let the body breathe some rest. Muscle builders aiming at optimal strength and muscle gain should carry intense workout for every muscle once every 7-8 days.

However, it is best recommended that any form of training regime be carried forth in the presence of a professional guide only.

His weight unbelievably increased by nearly 25 pounds more, his popularity in boxing had risen to another point and his recent victory over Miguel Cotto only proves that Manny Pacquiao is one of the most famous names in boxing.

As Pacquiao’s weight becomes heavier, his strength becoming stronger and his muscles getting bigger, people would naturally suspect that he is into something illegal.

From being a 120 pounder in 2002, Pacquiao came a long way in boxing. He defeated Jorge Julio in the junior featherweight division in Memphis. The main event was the mega fight between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis.

Ever since that first victory, Pacquiao won 16 more fights, scored an additional 12 knockouts and claimed less than a dozen world titles in four different weight divisions.

Just like what Floyd Mayweather Sr. accused him a few months ago, that Pacquiao was on steroids and human growth hormone.

According to Mayweather Sr., if it were he, he would not fight Pacquiao because there is just something about Pacquiao that is not right.

Pacquiao, however, along with all the players in the Saturday fight were tested for the presence of banned substances, including hundreds of performance enhancing drugs. The results would be available after 10 days.

From News Day:

“It’s a shame but whenever a guy’s successful, people get jealous and try to come up with reasons to knock it down,” Roach said. “Manny don’t need no steroids. He doesn’t even know what they are.”

Athletes using anabolic steroids to run faster and gain advantage in competitive events run a high risk of destroying their kidney function when opting for enhanced muscle strength and mass, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, California.

It was also revealed in the paper that habitual use of steroids can result in serious effects on the kidneys, a fact that was not recognized or highlighted till now.

From News-Medical.Net:

Reports of professional athletes who abuse anabolic steroids are increasingly common. Most people know that using steroids is not good for your health, but until now, their effects on the kidneys have not been known. Leal Herlitz, MD (Columbia University Medical Center) and her colleagues recently conducted the first study describing injury to the kidneys following long-term abuse of anabolic steroids. The investigators studied a group of 10 bodybuilders who used steroids for many years and developed protein leakage into the urine and severe reductions in kidney function. Kidney tests revealed that nine of the ten bodybuilders developed a condition called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a type of scarring within the kidneys. This disease typically occurs when the kidneys are overworked. The kidney damage in the bodybuilders has similarities to that seen in morbidly obese patients, but appears to be even more severe.

When the bodybuilders discontinued steroid use their kidney abnormalities improved, with the exception of one individual with advanced kidney disease who developed end-stage kidney failure and required dialysis. Also, one of the bodybuilders started taking steroids again and suffered a relapse of severe kidney dysfunction.

It was remarked by Dr. Herlitz that athletes making use of anabolic steroids for gaining an advantage over their peers and their doctors must fully evaluate the potentially serious risks to the kidney. The study was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Vivette D’Agati, MD at Columbia Univeristy Medical Center.

If you go to a gym and take a close look at the people working out and then return a year later, you will see that not many members reflect significant changes in their body constitution and are still using the same weights as they did a year back. The reason to this is because most body builders do not employ a proper training program. Many members also consume anabolic steroids to ensure that their body reaches its maximum potential but because they do not employ a decent training regime, they do not see the desired results.

Most people in lieu of achieving an increase in muscle mass and strength unnecessarily create their own impediments, thereby tremendously complicating their expedition of achieving the required results. No matter how strongly do they address themselves as ‘hardcore bodybuilders’, they need to clear some doubts first. Firstly, hardcore bodybuilding never means training six days a week for three hours or imitating Ronnie’s training regime for a competition. In order to become a true hardcore bodybuilder, one has to pursue a sensible training plan for a prolonged period of time that indeed requires lots of perseverance and dedication. Even steroid intake is effective when one combines it with disciplined work-outs.

Listed here is some highly useful information on successful training methods.

Before we proceed, one must know that these regimes when combined with anabolic steroid intake invariably show faster and better results.

High-intensity training routine: The human organism fervidly refuses to bring in any unnecessary changes in himself because it feels most comfortable in its own skin and condition. Science addresses it homeostasis. So in order to pull it out of the reigning passivity, one needs to put in several efforts and labor. The signal that the body demands for accentuating its strength and muscle mass is prompted by really heavy, hard and intense training regimes. These should ideally consist of five to eight sets for large muscle groups and three to four sets for small muscle groups.

Training with low repetitions: Muscle fibers in the body are mainly of two types. Weight training causes absolute muscle hypertrophy in the fast-twitch white muscle fibers of type 2 and so sensible bodybuilding workout regime should be developed in a way that these are properly stimulated. In order to achieve this, heavy reps in the range of 6-10 would be most suitable.

However, it best to initiate this under a professional expert only.

One of the growing problems in sports is the use of prohibited substances, specifically anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes to help muscle grow faster and help them gain advantage in their athletic performance. Some of the sports affected by these banned substances are track and field, baseball, football and cycling.

Several of the famous personalities involved in steroids controversies were track and field players Marion Jones and Ben Johnson; baseball stars Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, and many more. American cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his championship in the 2006 Tour de France. Professional and college football players alike use steroids to help them in their performance.

Current methods of steroid detection involves time-consuming processes and complicated preparation steps. In addition, results take longer to determine.

Anabolic steroids in urine can now be traced in a matter of seconds. Two state-of-the-art techniques desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and tandem mass spectrometry make this possible.

Zheng Ouyang, R. Graham Cooks and colleagues, developed a new method of steroid detection, which can identify seven different anabolic steroids in a few seconds using a urine sample.

The method was described in Analytical Chemistry. It involves no time-consuming sample preparation and takes only a few seconds.

From Science Daily:

Amid growing concerns about sports “doping,” researchers in Indiana and China report development of a faster and more efficient method for detecting the presence of illegal anabolic steroids in urine.

Human growth hormone or HGH can be termed as a protein (somatrophin) including 191 amino acids with its secretion levels the highest in the times of adolescence. This wonder drug is used by celebrities, sportsmen, and other individuals to think and act “young”. This anabolic product not only enhances the levels of lean muscle mass and bone mineral density but reduces the levels of trauma infection rate and total body fat at the same time.

In addition to that, HGH also improves the levels of skin thickness and elasticity, energy level, well-being, mood, stress coping abilities, and cholesterol.

Why is HGH used by bodybuilders and sportsmen?

Human growth hormone is used by bodybuilders and sportsmen as it is an exceptional product when it comes to ensuring enhancements in the levels of body energy, metabolism, brain function, muscle growth, bone strength, cell replacement, sexual and brain functions, and is also used to reverse the effects of aging and alter body composition.

HGH must be used only after a qualified medical advice and the dosages must not be altered at will or HGH abuse must not happen at any stage else side effects such as diarrhea, nausea, insomnia, bronchitis, edema, headache, and gynecomastia may soon come into the picture.

In short, all is well and good till human growth hormone is used diligently. Remember, all steroids are to be respected and not to be abused and HGH is no exception.

A trio of fitness and health experts held a presentation at the Holy Family Memorial’s Rehab Plus Therapy and Sports Medicine last Wednesday. This is in response to the increasing concern of athletic supplements tainted with steroids and other dangerous substances.

Joining Dr. Ryan Dopirak of Lakeshore Orthopedics are Toni Pflieger, registered dietician of HFM’s nutrition services and certified strength and conditioning specialist Nick Karcz of HFM athletic performance.

According to Dr. Dopirak, overall approach to physical fitness is particularly more on proper dietary habits. He also wants people to learn more about supplements.

Although the panel suggested to getting your supplements at a trusted distributor, Dopirak still does not recommend taking them or giving them to kids.

Pflieger, on the other hand, still encourages people to follow a well-rounded balanced diet instead of taking supplements.

One of the supplements discussed was creatine. Creatine is a chemical produced naturally by the body. The US Food and Drug Administration have not approved it because it has no proven effects.

NO-Xplode supplement, which is popular among young people due to its high caffeine content, was also discussed during the talk. The supplement poses potential danger because quantities of ingredients are not listed in the product label. It comes in both pill and powder form.

From HTR news:

MANITOWOC — A trio of area health experts recently gathered to shed light on the increasingly popular topic of athletic supplements.

A new drug for curing asthma patients, RPL554, which faced trials at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in the Netherlands on more than 60 people in 2008, is now moving to the stage of further trials during 2009.

This drug, which is considered by many as nothing but a wonder drug, is likely to prove its worth in treating more than 1.5 million people in the United States alone suffering from asthma and hay fever. It is expected that drug will reach the market in the next three to four years after evaluating its safety and efficacy.

From News-Medical.Net:

Current treatments for asthma and hay fever sufferers are beta-agonists, which open up the airways, and inhaled steroids, which dampen down the inflammation that causes irritation – they are either taken together or singly.

But they have serious side effects, including possible harm to the cardiovascular system and the ’shakes’ reported by many patients from excess use.

Experts say little progress has been made recently with alternative, effective and practical treatment options for a wide range of people with asthma and hay fever and by combining anti-inflammatory properties and the ability to overcome airway narrowing in a single long-lasting dose via the nose, RPL554 could offer real hope of a significant breakthrough.

It was remarked by some researchers that this once-a-day asthma treatment option will be nothing less than a first-line therapy for treating patients suffering from hay fever and asthma. The discovery of this drug would mean that asthmatic patients will now require only a single needle puff from their “lifesaving” inhalers to stop the symptoms.

Steroid intake perpetually form an evitable part of a body builder’s routine. And it is not body builders alone, other sportspersons involved in field and track events and those passionate about enhancing their looks invariably consume steroids to enjoy their benefits.

Anabolic steroids as these are popularly called have gained immense popularity along years because they deliver strength and initiate muscle growth and consequently enhance performance. However, the important thing to be known is until a person undergoes heavy training program, steroids do not show relevant results. Hence it is imperative to choose a program that puts every muscle in the body to work but in the right way. One must know how to initiate training for the development of muscle mass to be fast.

Listed here are exercises required to be performed for various muscles in a week.

This training schedule is only intended as a suggestion and can be changed by every person to meet his individual needs.

Day 1: Chest, biceps

Bench presses and Barbell curls – 3 sets each with 6-8 reps

Incline bench presses, Dips with added weights and Dumbbell curls – 2 sets each with 6-10 reps

Day 3: Thighs

Squats – 3 sets with 6 – 10 reps

Leg presses and curls – 2 sets each with 8-10 reps

Day 5 – Shoulder, triceps

Presses behind neck, lying triceps presses – 3 sets each

Upright row, Side laterals and Triceps pulley pushdown – 2 sets each

Day 7 – Back calves

Standing calf raise, Chins with added weight – 3 sets each

Seated calf raise, Seated cable row, Barbell bent-over row and Lat pull to neck – 2 sets each

A day missed in between is a day you need to put your muscle to rest as muscle growth while taking steroids takes place during the rest period. Make sure you take enough supplements as well to quicken the recovery process of your muscles.