Archive for May, 2010

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one of the five leading causes of death worldwide, is characterized by an inflammatory response to inhaled fumes that can result in severe complications such as limiting airflow, loss of lung function, and breath shortness.

As per a study by Sebastian Albertí (Institut Universitari d’Investigacions en Ciències de la Salut, IUNICS, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) and colleagues, the effects of an inhaled steroid (fluticasone propionate) could significantly minimize the capability of major pathogens to invade the respiratory epithelium.

From Medicalnewstoday.com:

Patients affected by COPD often suffer episodes of worsening of symptoms called acute exacerbations, mostly caused by bacterial infections. These episodes of exacerbation impact negatively on the health status of the patients, worsen their prognosis and are associated with a very significant social and economic cost.

Treatment with inhaled steroids, such as fluticasone propionate, reduces the frequency and severity of acute exacerbations in patients with COPD, but their role in controlling bacterial infection is controversial.

In healthy subjects the lung is sterile, but in patients with COPD it is not and bacteria like S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae is frequently isolated.

This finding is expected to offer implications to medical practitioners all over the world to treat COPD patients.

When it comes to stimulating ovulation and testes, HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a trusted name. Let us read about this exceptional drug to create and develop a complete understanding.

HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a drug used to mimic the lutenizing hormone (LH). It belongs to the drug class of Gonadotropin and is used to induce ovulation in the world of medical sciences. HCG is useful for binding and initiating the receptors on Leydig cells to trigger testosterone secretion and synthesis processes. In addition to that, it is also considered useful for facilitating the production of gonadal steroid hormones as it stimulates testes’ interstitial cells to produce corpus luteum and androgens in the ovary.

Chemical Properties

The IUPAC name of HCG is (2S)-2-amino-6-[[(2R)-1-(carboxymethylamino)-1-oxo-3-sulfanylpropan-2-yl]amino]-6-oxohexanoic acid and its chemical formula is C₁₁H₁₉N₃O₆S_.

Benefits of HCG

HCG is used by bodybuilders and sportsmen for restoring back a part of naturally produced testosterone, the male sex hormone, in the body especially after the end of a steroid cycle. In male athletes and sportsmen, this wonder drug is used to treat undescended testicles besides ensuring improvements in body appearance.

This drug is also considered to be effective for reducing body weight and ensuring solid muscle gains.

Recommended Dose

The recommended dose of HCG is 1500-3000 IU after every 4-5th day and for a maximum period of 2-3 weeks. It is worth noting here that this drug is not meant for a pregnant or pregnancy-suspecting woman unless otherwise advised by a qualified medical practitioner.

After HCG use, Nolvadex may be used to reduce or eliminate the possibility of estrogen formation.

The risk of cerebral palsy can increase in unborn premature babies when repeated courses of a corticosteroid called betamethasone are administered to these children to improve the rate of survival.

The finding was part of results from a multi-center study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by Ronald Wapner, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center and attending obstetrician and gynecologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Up until the year 2000, obstetrician-gynecologists frequently repeated the course of steroids every week, up to 10 to 11 times, in women who remained pregnant after the first course. A NIH panel that year, concerned with the lack of safety data for this practice, suggested multiple courses should be strictly reserved for patients enrolled in clinical trials.

In one of the first such trials to examine the long-term effects of the treatment on the children, women who remained pregnant a week after the initial course of corticosteroids were randomly assigned to weekly courses of corticosteroids or placebo until their babies were born.

The study, performed by members of the NIH-sponsored Maternal-Fetal Medicine Network followed a total of 556 infants at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia and 12 other sites around the country, and found that by ages two to three, the two groups of children were physically and neurologically identical, except that six out of 248 children who received multiple courses of corticosteroids had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, compared to only 1 out of 238 children in the placebo group. The mothers of all six children with cerebral palsy in the corticosteroid group had received four or more courses of the drug.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and the study results were published in an issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers have been able to uncover a potential new treatment approach for helping patients suffering from asthma by blocking a powerful immune system chemical, which is present in large quantities in patients as per a small study in Thorax.

Severe asthma, which is rare, can be noticed in 1 out of every 10 asthmatics and progressively high doses of steroids are needed to control the disease symptoms.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Seventeen people with severe asthma who still had symptoms, despite being treated with a range of drugs, were also given 25 mg of a drug that blocks TNF alpha production (etanercept) twice weekly, injected below the skin for 12 weeks. Fifteen completed the course.

At the end of the study period, these patients experienced a significant improvement in symptoms and lung function. Two patients were able to discontinue one of their drugs.

The treatment also curbed the inflammatory reaction in the lungs, known as bronchial hyperresponsiveness. And there were few side effects.

The authors caution that further research will be required before this approach can be recommended, but they say that it offers a potentially new avenue of treatment for severe asthma.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), which is noticed in many chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis, was investigated by the research team.

If you have been searching for a powerful anabolic-androgenic steroid then Halotestin is what you are searching for. Read on!

Halotestin is a potent anabolic-androgenic steroid that is highly effective for developing muscle mass and muscle gains. This derivative of testosterone, the male sex hormone, does not come with any side effect unless abused or of a sub-standard quality.

In the world of bodybuilding and professional sports, Halotestin is generally used as a replacement for testosterone when there is some issue with the growth factor apart from being used as a performance enhancing drug.

In the world of medicines, Halotestin is also used as an anti-estrogen in women with breast carcinoma (cancer).

One of the biggest advantages with Halotestin is that it does not aromatize to estrogen, which means that the virilization and risk of androgenic side-effects is eliminated or reduced to a significant extent. The other significant advantage with Halotestin is that it is 19 times more anabolic and 8.5 times more androgenic than Testosterone, which is quite unbelievable to say the least. It also slows down the manifestation of estrogenic effects such as increased water retention that makes muscles more distinct and defined.

Recommended Dose

The recommended dose of Halotestin is 40 mg/day for a maximum period of 4-6 weeks at a stretch followed by a cooling period of 4-6 weeks.

Best place to buy Halotestin

The best place to buy Halotestin would be the Internet as you compare quality and price with different sellers.

Transplant researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute were helped by a novel immunosuppression minimization protocol for minimizing rejection and infection rates and dramatically improving intestinal transplant graft survival.

The protocol was found effective for enhancing overall quality of life of patients besides helping them avoid the use of different anti-rejection drugs, which can result in severe infections and big complications.

From News-Medical.Net:

The protocol involves giving a one-time pre-transplant dose of either the drug thymoglobulin – a drug that kills and depletes T cells – key immune system cells that target the donor organ, or a similar drug called campath, which depletes both T and B cells, immune system cells involved in organ rejection.

Following transplantation, the 103 patients who received thymoglobulin and the 20 patients who received campath received the standard anti-rejection drug tacrolimus and none of the patients received steroids. Tapering of tacrolimus was attempted after 120 days.

While 43 percent of patients experienced some level of rejection before initial weaning, none showed evidence of chronic rejection. Patients under the campath protocol did slightly better than those treated with thymoglobulin.

Kareem Abu-Elmagd, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of the Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and lead author of the study, remarked that the protocol helps in minimizing the amount of anti-rejection drugs for the affected patients along with helping them stay for long.

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy can provide considerable relief to children suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This finding was disclosed in a Saint Louis University study that suggested that benefits are useful to solve sleep problems for 80 to 90 percent of children.

This study is the largest to date in evaluating how children with varying OSA severities fare before and after surgery, by using preoperative and postoperative sleep studies.

From News-Medical.Net:

Mitchell’s research also showed the importance of postoperative follow up, especially for children who had severe OSA.

“Even though OSA resolved in the overwhelming majority of children after the surgery, it is still crucial to identify and treat children with persistent OSA,” Mitchell says. “Otherwise these children will continue to experience the health, behavioral and learning problems associated with OSA.”

Several options for treating persistent OSA exist, including: nasal steroids, allergy treatment, additional surgery or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask. Over time, some children who did not experience immediate resolution will normalize, Mitchell says. Children who are overweight must lose weight in conjunction with the surgery for a successful outcome.

Obese children and children with Down’s syndrome or other genetic disorders that affect the craniofacial anatomy were excluded from the study because the rate of OSA is known to be higher.

Ron Mitchell, M.D., professor of pediatric otolaryngology at Saint Louis University and the study’s author, said that obstructive sleep apnea has a considerable effect on children’s quality of life, much like chronic asthma or rheumatoid arthritis.

Corticosteroids are ineffective for improving survival in patients with late-stage acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), according to results from the ARDS Clinical Research Network of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a sudden and life-threatening condition that affects approximately 150,000 people annually in the United States alone.

From News-Medical.Net:

There is no specific drug treatment for ARDS. The focus of care is to get enough oxygen into the blood until the lungs are functioning again. Patients are placed in the intensive care unit and supported with mechanical ventilators and fluids. Some patients recover and can breathe on their own within a week or so. Others might need to be on mechanical support to help with breathing for longer periods of time, but they can develop long-term complications from ventilator use or other treatments.

Because ARDS is related to inflammation in the lung, steroids are sometimes used in the hopes of helping the lungs heal. Earlier small or observational studies have suggested that moderate doses of steroids given 7 or more days after the onset of ARDS might improve lung function and increase survival. But a larger randomized clinical trial – considered the gold standard in medical research – was needed to determine whether moderate doses of steroids are beneficial for patients with late-stage ARDS.

NHLBI Director Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD said the findings provide invaluable information for determining the safest yet the most effective ways to treat patients with this devastating condition.

In response to the recently released report by the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Science and Public Health, a leading medical authority has criticized the use of anti-aging hormones.

Dr. Thomas T. Perls, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine has long been condemning the promotion and distribution of growth hormones for non-medical purposes such as sports and anti-aging.

From News-Medical.Net:

There have always been nostrums and potions peddled for eternal youth. Most recently these have been what some entrepreneurs call “bio-identical” or “all-natural” hormones. What they mean by these terms varies from substances made from vegetables – such as soy or yams, which some claim have estrogen-like effects to, more commonly, drugs that are exactly the same as hormones prescribed by endocrinologists for specific diseases. Dr. Perls remarked: “The terms bio-identical or all-natural, particularly in the case of the drugs prescribed by endocrinologists, misleadingly convey a sense of safety to the gullible customer. Arsenic is all-natural to, and it even has some medical uses, but it is anything but safe.”

“The AMA’s review of the risks and benefits of these hormones in the setting of anti-aging and athletic enhancement is very important given its inclusion of the consensus and position statements of the key professional medical societies as well as the federal agencies that guard public health.” states Dr. Perls in the editorial.

The editorial summarizes the AMA’s assessment for each of the purported anti-aging hormones and essentially the bottom line of his argument is that in terms of anti-aging, the risks of these hormones out-weigh the little or no benefit. Dr. Perls denounces the marketing of these hormones, particularly growth hormone and anabolic steroids (anabolic steroids are variations of testosterone), for anti-aging. He also provides guidelines for spotting “red flags of quackery” and basic advice that physicians can lend to their patients in their pursuit of healthy aging.

The example provided by the AMA in its recently published assessment of the benefits and risks of growth hormone, testosterone, estrogen, and DHEA for anti-aging was appreciated by Dr. Perls.

When it comes to promoting temporary localized growth, Formebolone is a trusted name. It is believed that this mild form of methandrostenolone (Dianabol) has a slow but steady action mechanism but offers great benefits. Read on!

Formebolone is an anabolic steroid with a difference. Not only this steroid product is useful to add muscle mass but it is also easy to use and administer.

Bodybuilders and sportsmen keen to develop small organs like calves, biceps, triceps, and deltoids trust this anabolic product for quick action and benefits. This anabolic steroid can be described as a potent anabolic agent with strong androgenic properties. It initially gained popularity for treating individuals with stunted growth and infertility. It was also used to add muscle mass in weak or malnourished people.

Formebolone is also known as Formyldienolone, Esiclene, and Hubernol. Its molecular formula is C₂₁H₂₈O₄ and it has a molecular weight of 344.44 g/mol at the base.

Recommended Dose

The recommended dose of Formebolone is 50 mg per day in oral form and 2-4 mg per day in injectable form. When injected, injection sites need to be changed at regular intervals for preventing abscess formation.

This anabolic product is not meant for women as its potent virilizing effects can result in deepening of voice, abnormal hair growth, and enlargement of the clitoris.

Tips and Precautions

Formebolone use leads to gynecomastia and water retention and antiestrogens such as Clomid, Arimidex, Tamoxifen, or Nolvadex must be used to reduce or eliminate the formation of estrogens.

We hope that this information on Formebolone, the slow yet steady stimulator of muscle mass gains, was useful to you in more than just a way.