Posts Tagged ‘Steroid use’

Jan Molenaar, the gunman, may soon find more trouble coming his way as tests of body fluids taking during autopsy will soon be revealed to the world.

Reports have linked Molenaar, the body builder, to steroid use but the same has been vehemently denied by his brother, Peter.

From NZherald.co.nz:

Anabolic steroids are related to the hormone testosterone. Steroids are used in medicine to stimulate bone growth and appetite, induce male puberty and treat chronic wasting conditions such as cancer and Aids.

They are banned by all major sports bodies because their use is considered cheating due to their potential to artificially boost strength.

Abuse of steroids has been linked to harmful physical side-effects such as raised blood pressure and cholesterol and coronary disease. The few long-term studies of psychiatric effects indicate side-effects including raised aggression and mood swings.

The deaths of Texas college gridiron player Taylor Hooton, who committed suicide, and Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife and 7-year-old son in Georgia, USA, before killing himself, have fuelled debate about the propensity of steroids to prompt violent irrational behaviour.

Violence and temper outbursts have been linked with steroid abuse and are colloquially referred to as “roid rage“.

Media and baseball fans have entered into an anguished debate in relation to use of drugs in sports ever since Barry Bonds entered a San Francisco courthouse to testify about the use of drugs by him.

Linda McMahon who has been accused of doing little to nothing to curb steroid use is hoping that she will be a successful candidate for the senate bid as public has appointed users of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs such as Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger as governors.

From Cbssports.com:

But because wrestling is not taken as seriously as baseball or football, oversight of its health hazards has been relatively low profile. Congressional investigators interviewed representatives of pro wrestling after they staged the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa-Jose Canseco extravaganza. The wrestling inquiry took place behind the scenes, off camera. No one in the WWE had stolen Roger Maris’ place in history or cheapened 500 career home runs. So a public hearing was deemed unnecessary.

But while Congress criminalized steroid possession without a prescription 20 years ago, it still hasn’t made a move on corked bats or Gaylord Perry. The cheating element of PEDs wouldn’t matter so much if not for associated health risks.

In choosing their nominee, Connecticut Republicans discounted a scathing Hartford Courant editorial written by the father of the late wrestling star Chris Benoit, who killed himself, his wife and 7-year-old son in 2007. Michael Benoit attributed the murder-suicide to brain trauma detected in his son during postmortem testing. (There was also evidence of steroid use.) He blamed the McMahons for demanding excessively dangerous stunts in the ring.

The world of baseball is today full of speculations as to whether or not two “cheaters”, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, will be excluded by the Hall of Fame voters for making use of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

Involvement in sports with real or perceived weight specifications is commonly linked with steroid use among teens and unhealthy weight control behaviors, as per researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The link between weight-centered sporting events and unhealthy weight control approaches is concerning, as per Marla Eisenberg, Sc.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the University Of Minnesota Medical School, Department Of Pediatrics.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“It is encouraging to see that the majority of young people who reported using steroids in 1999 stopped using them as they got older,” said Patricia van den Berg, Ph.D., lead author of the study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “But even given this decline, between one and three in 100 teens still reported using steroids within the last year when asked again 5 years later.”

Researchers conducted the longitudinal study with more than 2,000 adolescents to examine changes in eating patterns, weight, physical activity, and related factors over five years. Participants completed two surveys, one in 1999 and one in 2004, to determine if there were changes in steroid use.

Overall, 1.7 percent of boys and 1.4 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 23 reported steroid use in 2004. Those that reported use early on were 4 to 10 times more likely to use later in life.

More and more teens are making use of anabolic androgenic steroids, which can be classified as synthetic derivatives of the male hormone, testosterone, for improving performance, body strength, lean appearance, and stamina.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the present governor of California and former bodybuilding champ, recently surprised some during the most-talked-about torch exchange of the 2010 Games.

Schwarzenegger was invited by Sebastian Coe for the London Games and Coe demonstrated when asked if Schwarzenegger will be the torch bearer.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Serving politicians are seldom granted the honour; nor are former bodybuilders with a history of steroid use. Schwarzenegger may have won the Mr Olympia title seven times but the Olympics run to a rather different set of rules.

Nonetheless celebrity counts for something and, at an occasion which has fashioned itself as the “green” Games, so does a strong record on green issues during his term as governor of California – a record cited by John Furlong, the head of Vanoc, the Games’ organisers, in defending the invitation. “He has taken an extraordinary position on the environment and has developed a great relationship with the province of British Columbia,” he said.

Certainly it proved to be a hugely popular decision with the Vancouver public, whose enthusiasm for the Olympics, and desire for the 2010 Games to be seen around the world as a success, seems to be building with every passing hour.

Britain’s only medalist from the Turin Winter Games four years, Shelley Rudman, was the only obvious choice to be selected at a team reception in downtown Vancouver.

According to a new study designed for evaluating whether androgenic anabolic steroids may be addictive in nature, hamsters exposed to the compounds noticed addictive behavior over a period of time.

The research that was conducted by the University of Southern California’s Keck School of medicine was released at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s (ACNP) annual conference.

From News.bio-medicine.org:

“Most people use anabolic steroids to enhance their physical performance, but they deny that steroids may be addictive,” noted lead researcher Ruth Wood, PhD, Professor of Cell and Neurobiology at USC. “Unlike other commonly abused drugs, the primary motivation for steroid users is not to get high, but rather to achieve enhanced athletic performance and increased muscle mass. The complex motivation for steroid use makes it difficult to determine the addictive properties of anabolic steroids in humans. Our goal was to create an experimental model of addiction where athletic performance and other reinforcing effects are irrelevant.”

Wood’s study is among the first to examine the potential for anabolic steroid addiction. The research was modeled after well-established methods used to study highly addictive drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Hamsters were implanted with small cannulas for self-administration of commonly abused steroids into their brains. The animals then spent four hours per day in a chamber with access to two delivery mechanisms. When the hamster operated the active mechanism, he received 1 microgram of testosterone, or one of several commonly abused steroids: nandrolone, drostanolone, stanozolol, or oxymetholone.

It was suggested by the study that coaches and athletes must be aware of the addiction aspect besides other possible risks of using anabolic steroids.

The Cardinals’ hitting coach, Mark McGwire, remarked in the visiting dugout at Citi Field that he has moved on from the steroid era and does not want to answer any more questions about steroids or from where he got them during his illustrious career spanning 16 years. When asked, McGwire said he will not be judging Alex Rodriguez in his quest for 600 home runs.

McGwire was welcomed back into the Cardinals’ fold in downtown St. Louis during a fan fest.

From NYdailynews.com:

But that was apparently one of the last times McGwire would address his steroid use. Yesterday, when asked if a man named Curtis Wenzlaff provided him with steroids, McGwire responded that he had already “answered all those questions.” Wenzlaff was first identified by the Daily News in 2005, days before the congressional hearing, as the man who provided Big Mac with a powerful array of performance-enhancing drugs early in his career with Oakland. Two FBI sources confirmed the Wenzlaff information, which stemmed from the seminal FBI steroid investigation called “Operation Equine,” carried out in the late ’80s and early ’90s. McGwire’s name surfaced during Equine along with that of A’s teammate Jose Canseco, but the FBI was targeting dealers, not users.

McGwire socked 583 home runs in his career, including a then single-season record 70 in 1998. He admitted in January that his steroid use included the ‘98 season. For the past four years he’s been on the Hall of Fame ballot, McGwire has fallen well short of the 75% vote needed to be elected to Cooperstown. McGwire said that decision is “out of my control.”

It is worth remembering here that McGwire came clean about his long-time use of steroids in January during a televised interview with Bob Costas.

The use of anabolic steroids was found to be linked with criminal acts such as fraud and possession of illegal weapons as per a Swedish study. A fresh warning was issued by the study about the possible dangers of these muscle building drugs as use of steroids leads to increased aggression, criminal behavior, and violent outbursts.

It is worth noting here that this relationship has been on a high ever since availability of steroids was made easy on the Internet.

From Bio-Medicine.Org:

241 Swedes who tested positive for steroid use out of a sample of 1,440 tested for the drugs from 1995 and 2001 at a laboratory in Huddinge, Sweden were found to have a strong connection to some criminal acts but not others.

The steroid users were roughly twice as likely to have been found guilty of a weapons crime and 1-1/2 times as likely to have been found guilty of fraud.

Anabolic steroids are drugs that are related to male sex hormones which can be taken through injections or orally. Several athletes, bodybuilders and others, both male and female, use steroids without a prescription to build muscle bulk and strength to look better.

Some of the side effects of taking steroids include liver cancer, kidney disease and bad acne. In addition in men steroids have been found to shrink testicles, cause lower sperm count, raise prostate cancer risk, increase infertility and cause baldness. For women, they can cause facial hair growth, menstrual problems, male-pattern baldness and a deeper voice. In adolescents growth can be stunted.

Steroid abusers also show depression, extreme mood swings, delusions, impulsiveness, paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, and impaired judgment.

The study was published in journal Archives of General Psychiatry and the researchers were led by Dr. Fia Klotz of Uppsala University in Sweden.

According to scientists from the University of Michigan, a compound called benzodiazepine-423 (Bz-423) – a chemical cousin of the anti-anxiety drugs Valiumâ and Xanaxâ – is effective for suppressing cell growth in a psoriasis model.

This finding was disclosed in a study published online in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Currently, the best treatments for skin lesions associated with psoriasis are topical steroids, but the problem with those drugs is that they’re not selective for the disease-causing cells. They affect normal cells as well, and repeated use over time can lead to tissue destruction,” said Gary Glick, who is the Werner E. Bachmann Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and a professor of biological chemistry in the U-M Medical School. “There are also protein drugs approved for use in treating psoriasis, but those drugs are injected instead of applied topically, which makes them more costly, less convenient and more likely to cause side effects since they are delivered throughout the body.”

“What makes our compound particularly exciting is that it has the potential to be applied topically, and it shows very good selectivity for models of the disease-causing cells versus normal cells,” Glick said. “So we believe the problems associated with repeated topical steroid use could possibly be alleviated with compounds like this.”

Psoriasis is a disease in which cells multiply in an unchecked manner and therefore inhibiting cell growth is required for disease control.

When it comes to treating a common viral lower respiratory infection in infants, bronchiolitis, steroid medications are not effective in terms of ensuring improvements in the level of respiratory symptoms or preventing hospitalization.

The finding was revealed by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) and appeared in an issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

From News-Medical.Net:

“This study provides solid evidence to guide treatment of this common illness,” said Joseph Zorc, M.D., an emergency physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a lead co-investigator. “Current recommendations suggest that simple supportive care is the best available treatment for bronchiolitis. This study will help resolve some of the uncertainty for physicians and families and prevent unnecessary side effects.”

Both physicians note that glucocorticoid medications still play an important role in other respiratory illnesses of childhood such as asthma and croup. They point out these medications are not the androgenic steroids sometimes abused by athletes, and that the side effects seen with long-term steroid use are not a risk in the short-course treatments used for croup and asthma attacks.

Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, chair of the PECARN network’s steering committee, and the senior investigator of the study, said that the authority of a research network like PECARN is highlighted and reaffirmed when it comes to resolving the difficult-to-answer questions.

When it comes to hiding your success secret (steroid use) during doping tests, diuretics are exemplary drugs. Let us read about them to gain a clear and complete understanding.

Diuretics are prescription or over-the-counter drug products such as bumetanide (Bumex) and furosemide (Lasix) that augment diuresis or fluid removal from the body via urination. They are commonly used by steroid users before the start of a competitive event for gaining advantages over their peers. The fact that use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs can be kept hidden with the use of diuretics is something that is admired by sportsmen, especially bodybuilders and strength athletes.

In addition to enhancing performance, diuretics are also used for losing excess body weight without any troubles. Easy and safe to use, diuretics can be used by any one but only after a round of consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. It is important to note here that use of low-grade or abuse of diuretics can lead to potential side effects such as potassium deficiency and dehydration.

In the world of medicines, diuretics are also used to treat people suffering from edema and high blood pressure. This is done by stimulating an increase in the urine production for fluid release and getting rid of excess body salts besides reduction of blood volume.

Availability of Diuretics

Diuretics are usually available in an injectable form but one can find natural diuretics in the form of apple cider vinegar, beverages containing caffeine, and cranberry juice to name a few.