Archive for November, 2011

Georges Laraque recently said that he often had to drop the gloves against the use of performance enhancing drugs during a 13-year career.

“Quite early in my career I started asking the (National Hockey League Players’ Association) to take action against all the performance-enhancing drugs some players would use to become bigger in order to stop feeling the pain,” Laraque writes in The Story of the NHL’s Unlikeliest Tough Guy, a new autobiography published by Viking Canada, excerpts of which were reprinted in the Toronto Star.

From Montrealgazette.com:

Laraque, who piled up 1,126 penalty minutes as one of the NHL’s most feared fighters, writes that the use of drugs created an uneven playing field for pugilists.

“The use of steroids by tough guys makes it unfair for the ones who decide to remain clean,” he writes. “But even more than steroids, some other drugs would really make fighting even more dangerous for the clean ones like me. Substances like Ephedrine, for instance, totally desensitize the player who takes them.

“The job was hard and harsh enough not to have to compete against ‘killers’ swollen with steroids. The NHLPA listened to me, but refused to take any action on that front, for obvious political reasons. They wanted to keep drug testing as a card in their negotiations with the league.”

According to information released by the board, former University of Iowa researcher Gary Hunninghake has resigned his Iowa medical license and also paid a fine to the Iowa Board of Medicine.

The 65-year-old researcher was charged by the board with inappropriately prescribing himself steroids and other medications besides other charges.

From Thegazette.com:

In April 2011, the board ordered Hunninghake to complete a comprehensive sexual misconduct and professional boundaries evaluation, which he did May 23-25, 2011, according to the documents. Also in April, the board ordered Hunninghake to complete a physical, neuropsychological, mental health and substance abuse evaluation, which he did June 6-8.

Hunninghake, of Coralville, resigned from the UI effective May 31 after he spent a year on paid leave. He received his $360,000 annual salary while on leave from the university through his resignation date.

Hunninghake was under investigation by UI police for possible child pornography when he stabbed himself in Chicago in April 2010, according to a Chicago police report of the stabbing incident. Hunninghake’s Iowa City attorney, Leon Spies, has said the UI investigation found no basis for criminal charges.

As per the board documents, the allegations occurred primarily between 2006 and 2008.

Promoter Gary Shaw recently spoke on a number of issues, including thoughts on performance enhancing drugs in boxing.

All world title fights should be tested, Shaw recommended.

From Fighthype.com:

“I think steroids are rampant in boxing. I think it’s disgusting and unfair. I don’t know why the commissions aren’t taking more action. In baseball, it’s gone from aesthetic to the Department of Justice. You don’t think they should be investigated in boxing? We all know in boxing the problem is rampant… If I had Floyd Mayweather, I’d do the same thing… I heard Lou Dibella say the only way Ortiz could have a rematch with Berto is random drug testing.”

The promoter also recommended that steroid testing should be brought into the place and sanctioning bodies should get behind such testing.

Two officers of the St Helens police have admitted being part of a gang involved in supplying steroids.

St Helens CID detective DC Paul David Fletcher, 46, one of the officers, also admitted three offences of misconduct in a public office.

From Liverpoolecho.co.uk:

Fletcher, of Downall Green Road, Ashton, had previously denied all the charges and was due to stand trial on November 15, but he appeared at the crown court yesterday for a pre-trial hearing and changed his pleas.

He also admitted a total of six offences of being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs between December 4, 2010, and February 2, this year.

Five of the charges involved Fletcher being involved in supplying the drugs, including human growth hormone and testosterone to an undercover officers known only as “Neil”.

Terry Bridge, a fifth man in the dock, admitted having a total of 19 different drugs, including a variety of testosterone substances and diazepam.

A single three-week course of prednisone can successfully treat Clopidogrel hypersensitivity without needing to interrupt treatment with the antiplatelet agent, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by a group led by Dr Asim Cheema (St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON).

From Theheart.org:

Cheema commented to heartwire: “There have been a couple of smaller studies suggesting that a course of steroids can successfully treat clopidogrel hypersensitivity, but this is the largest and most comprehensive experience so far on this topic. We have also been able to characterize the effect as a delayed sensitivity reaction. This means it normally takes a few days to occur. This is quite unusual with drug reactions, which normally exert themselves much sooner than this.”

Cheema explained that hypersensitivity to clopidogrel can occur in up to 5% of patients and usually manifests itself as a skin rash. He added that it is important for doctors to realize that the reaction generally takes a few days to appear, as this can make it difficult to establish a definite cause.

The study was published in the September 27, 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Half of patients treated with omalizumab were able to stop taking potentially harmful steroids and most needed them less often, according to experts.

Asthma UK urged health chiefs to consider offering the jabs to more people.

From Mirror.co.uk:

Spokeswoman Emily Humphreys said: “This medicine can be life-changing. It can help people reduce their dose of oral steroids, which we know have substantial side effects.”

Just 1,000 of the UK’s 250,000 severe asthma sufferers are thought to receive the £12,000-a-year fortnightly injections, which go under the trade name Xolair.

Dr Rob Niven, of the University Hospital of South Manchester, added: “People with severe asthma live in fear of the next potentially fatal attack. Any research that supports an option that reduces the additional side effect burden of steroids is encouraging.”

Lower fractures rates are seen in patients who receive kidney transplants who are withdrawn from corticosteroid-based immunosuppression (CSBI) as early as possible after transplantation compared with patients who continue receiving corticosteroids.

The finding was presented by a research presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2011 Annual Meeting.

From Medscape.com:

Corticosteroids are known to be toxic to osteoblasts, and the drugs are typically given in exceptionally high doses after kidney transplants, potentially causing substantial bone loss, said coauthor Thomas L. Nickolas, MD, from Columbia University Medical School in New York City.

“Kidney transplant patients typically initially get very high intravenous doses of corticosteroids that are tapered down to a high oral dose, then to a small oral dose, by 6 months, but it is in that first 6 months after transplantation when the majority of bone loss occurs,” he explained.

Studies show that the bone loss at the lumbar spine and the hip during that initial 6 months posttransplantation can range from 2% to as much as 10%, he said.

The study was supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Testosterone suspension is considered the best anabolic steroid in today’s world of performance enhancing drugs, particularly when it comes to enhancing body strength and performance of professional athletes preparing for sports meets. This anabolic steroid is a safe and effective performance enhancer that can be easily purchased online, with or without a prescription.

Considered the first anabolic androgenic steroid developed and used to build muscle mass, testosterone suspension has been one of the most successful anabolic steroids even in recent decades. Athletes, especially bodybuilders and athletes trust this derivative of testosterone primarily because of its unprecedented efficiency.

This anabolic steroid is the best when it comes to increasing the activity of satellite cells designed to distinguish strengthen existing muscle fibers and promote new muscle fibers. Testosterone suspension is also admired by athletes because it has the unique ability to repair damaged muscles in a short period. This potent anabolic steroid helps people lose extra weight under belt without losing on physical strength, performance, and muscle mass.

If that was not all, testosterone suspension also demonstrate the effectiveness to increase glycogen storage in muscles and boost retention of nitrogen in protein synthesis in addition to increasing the hardness of muscle, vascular, and general appearance of the body. Besides all these advantages, this steroid is also crucial to increase IGF-1 cells (insulin-like growth factor-1) and red blood cells.

When administered at doses of 350-1000 mg per week for men, orally or 50-100 mg per day for men in injectable form, testosterone suspension produces dramatic results that can be measured in terms of performance improvements. To explore the optimum benefits, that athletes stack it with performance enhancers like Equipoise and Deca-Durabolin.

Infertility is one of the most dreaded of all side effects associated with the use of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs, especially aromatizable steroids. However, this severe health complication can be easily eliminated or reduced by placing trust on Femara (Letrozole).

Femara or Letrozole is one of the most admired drugs in the world of professional sports, which is heavily dominated by use of steroids and performance boosters. It is admired for its unique ability to treat infertility and inhibit excess estrogen formation. In the world of healthcare, Femara is recommended by medical practitioners as adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive early breast cancer after the standard Tamoxifen therapy has failed.

The chemical formula of Femara is C₁₇H₁₁N₅ and its chemical name is 4,4′-(1H-1,2,4Triazol-1-ylmethylene)dibenzonitrile. The drug has the molecular weight of 258.31 g/mol at the base and the list of ingredients includes microcrystalline cellulose, polyethylene glycol, sodium starch glycolate, talc, colloidal silicon dioxide, ferric oxide, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, lactose monohydrate, magnesium stearate, maize starch, and titanium dioxide.

One of the biggest reasons why Femara is very much popular in the world of sports is because it can reduce excess estrogen formation by as much as 98 percent.

When used in doses of 2.5-3.0 mg on a daily basis, Femara demonstrates its real benefits. The drug, however, is not indicated to pregnant women because it can pose danger to the fetus. The use of Femara is not advisable to people who make use of heavy machines or drive since its use can lead to dizziness that can lead to fatal accidents. When abused or taken in large quantities, Femara can lead to side effects like headache, vomiting, constipation, nausea, and hot flashes.

Homobrassinolide, the plant steroid found in mustard plant, worked similarly to the response anabolic steroids produces — except with minimal side effects.

The finding was published in a new study that appeared in FASEB Journal.

From Geekosystem.com:

For all those people that have weight-gaining or muscle-growth issues, or for those that would absolutely take steroids if not for the awful side effects, there just may be a future miracle drug for you.

Komarnytsky and colleagues exposed rat skeletal muscle cells to various amounts of homobrassinolide, then measured the protein synthesis in each structure — not exactly a large amount of steps. Along with the discovered increased protein synthesis, the scientists also found decreased protein degradation. The team then gave the rats the homobrassinolide for 24 days via oral intake, and measured the changes in body weight and composition, and food consumption.  Using dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry analysis, the team found an increase in lean body mass in the rats who were administered the oral steroid over the rats who did not take the steroid.

Slavko Komarnytsky, a researcher involved in the work, hopes, “that one day brassinosteroids may provide an effective, natural, and safe alternative for age- and disease-associated muscle loss, or be used to improve endurance and physical performance.”