BALCO East? (Update here, in one clinical trial this plant steroid was used for menopause)
Yahoo News says it acquired documents verifying that former NFL quarterback Tim Couch, attempting a comeback with the Jacksonville Jaguars, used both anabolic steroids and HGH. The report by Josh Peter of Yahoo, says that Couch used HGH and anabolic steroids for his NFL comeback. The QB was seen receiving an injection of steroids; he also picked up anabolic steroids and HGH at his nutritionist's office. Couch and the nutritionist attribute his amazing comeback to 'laxogenin'. However none of this compound was found in the bogus supplement given to Couch.
If the Yahoo report is correct, this is a rouge nutritionist, illegally trafficking in anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), and other hormonal drugs, then covering his base with a bogus unproven homemade drug concoction.
Where is the FDA and the FBI to bust this fraud? And why did Couch fall for the act?
Documents obtained by Yahoo! Sports indicate quarterback Tim Couch had regimens that called for the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone while he attempted to revive his NFL career after a three-year hiatus from the league.
The regimens outlined in the documents with Couch's name printed across the top called for extensive use of drugs banned by the NFL.
Couch, the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL draft, told Yahoo! Sports he briefly took HGH – which is banned by the NFL – in hopes the drug would help him recover from shoulder surgery. But he denied using steroids or any other banned drugs and said he had never seen the documents.
Couch works with a nutritionist in Florida, a Brian Yusem, whose entourage does not sound entirely professional. Yahoo talks about anabolic steroids Couch used including "Stanozolol, Oaxndrolone (note: it's oxandrolone) and Testosterone Cypionate (note: Yahoo mistakenly capitalizes these generic names). Couch also reportedly used 'Nolvadex (note: prevents side effects of anabolic steroids), which suppresses estrogen levels, and Fluox" (Yahoo misspells this, must be fluoxetine or fluvoxamine, both serotonin antidepressants).
That man is Brian Yusem, a self-styled nutritionist who has distributed human growth
hormone to some of his clients and, in treating certain individuals, recommends anabolic steroids and testosterone. He is associated with a growing number of athletes and is working with a self-taught chemist named Mark Thierman, who served prison time for conspiracy and selling mislabeled, illegal drugs touted as a muscle-building product, according to published reports. With help from Thierman and a product they call Laxogenin, Yusem predicts he will revolutionize sports science.
What is laxogenin? Apparently a plant-derived steroid (big deal) that is claimed as an anabolic steroid. However the product Couch took, as analyzed by UCLA's Don Catlin is diosgenin, not laxogenin. Apparently diosgenin can be converted to laxogenin, which gives you exactly what again? A plant steroid. Sounds like a scam to us.
The Yahoo site says that laxogenin is legal because it is plant derived and thus a supplement, not a drug. Likely wrong. The premise is that any plant derived substance is legal. So heroin, morphine, digitalis, cocaine, THC, and ephedra are now legal as supplements?
Anyone taking this crap, without clinical research is not too bright. And to take it from a group that includes a convicted drug trafficking felon does not change that impression.
According to Yahoo, Couch may not be alone in his use of this nutritionist's services:
As for his ties with athletes, Yusem said he has worked with several, including three college football players, two international swimmers, two professional tennis players and a retired Le Mans racecar driver...
(Yahoo's) anonymous source also provided steroid regimens allegedly prepared for a renowned professional bodybuilder, a retired NFL player, a college football player, a former college football player, a former college basketball coach and a competitive motorcycle racer.
More Yahoo links:
2. Laxogenin analysis.
3. Yusem, who sounds like Florida's answer to Victor Conte. Dude reportedly markets 'supplements', but traffics in HGH and anabolic steroids
4. His chemist (photo to the right; this is scary)
5. The anabolic steroids and other PEDs
(much more after the jump)
Read the remainder of the Yahoo report. We see at least 3 points:
- Athlete use poor judgment trying to gain an edge. Like Romo, Couch went to some bogus charlatan;
- The trainers and nutritionists claim to be scientists; nothing could be farther from the truth. They are bogus, snake-oil, salesmen, with no scientific credentials;
- The FDA and FBI need to move in on this medical/sports fraud. It's getting out of control.
Here is the dope on 'laxogenin': (from Yahoo)
A lab analysis suggests that at least two samples of the product being marketed as Laxogenin were likely inactive. The lab run by Dr. Don Catlin, one of the world's foremost anti-doping experts, conducted a study for Yahoo! Sports that showed two samples of the product contained no banned steroids, and no laxogenin. Laxogenin is a plant steroid that is unavailable commercially, but it can be made by altering the molecular structure of another plant-based steroid, diosgenin.
What chemists found in the two samples of the product being marketed as Laxogenin, Dr. Catlin said, is diosgenin, which can be extracted from the dried roots of wild yam and is available commercially. It's a substance with which Catlin and other anti-doping experts are familiar, and for good reason. When subjected to the proper chemical process, diosgenin can be converted into testosterone.
This nutritionist and his scam?
Yusem said he hopes to attract other athletes in need of help – and he's confident he can restore them and enhance their performance thanks to the Laxogenin product. He said he can sell it to anyone because it's a dietary supplement, not a controlled substance such as steroids.
The chemical formula comes from Thierman, who works out of a makeshift lab in Tucson, Ariz., and was imprisoned in the 1990s for making and distributing Gama Hydroxybutryic Acid (GHB), an illegal substance that was marketed as an alternative to anabolic steroids, according to published reports. Diosgenin and the Laxogenin product Theirman mixes are entirely different products than GHB, which was used by some as a "date rape" drug.
Thierman said he buys a kilo of diosgenin for about $300, synthesizes it into Laxogenin and sells the raw material to Yusem for $4,500 per kilo. Yusem, who has the substance converted into gel tablets and sells a 30-day supply for $120 for clients of his Maxim Rejuvenation and $150 retail, said he can gross $500,000 from that same kilo – and Couch could help drive sales.
Heck, this crap only causes cardiac palpitations:
Shortly before signing with the Jaguars, Couch taped a video testimonial despite suffering a health-related scare under Yusem's watch.
Heart palpitations. Anxiety. Night sweats. Five months ago, according to Yusem, Couch experienced all three.
Laxogenin's potency, Yusem said, sent Couch's metabolism into overdrive and forced him onto a diet of 5,000 calories a day. Yusem also attributed the irregularities to supplements from Maxim's "detox line," which includes products called "intestinal cleanse" and "chemical cleanse" that Yusem said flushed toxins from Couch's body.
"Oh, his heartbeat was going," Yusem said. "He was getting heart palpitations. That was from chemicals. He had night sweats. Like two changes of clothes and washed the sheets. … This is like he was running 10 miles in his sleep."
Couch downplayed the episode. Thierman said he'd never seen or heard of such side effects from Laxogenin "no matter what the dose."
In June, Couch made a visit to Yusem's office. He was waiting in a hallway when a receptionist handed him a small brown bag one might get at a boutique store. She told Couch it contained Laxogenin for him and his wife, former Playboy model Heather Kozar, the 1999 Playmate of the Year. Couch peered inside the bag.
"What's this?’" he asked, looking at a bottle of pills.
"That's for anxiety," the receptionist said.
Couch nodded, and, taking the bag with a reporter present, explained he needed anxiety medication to combat his fear of flying. He hoped to be boarding a plane that month and traveling to the headquarters of NFL teams interested in evaluating his rehabilitated arm.
Read the remainder of the Yahoo report. We see at least 3 points:
- Athlete use poor judgment trying to gain an edge. Like Romo, Couch went to some bogus charlatan;
- The trainers and nutritionists claim to be scientists; nothing could be farther from the truth. They are bogus, snake-oil, salesmen, with no scientific credentials;
- The FDA and FBI need to move in on this medical/sports fraud. It's getting out of control.
I am a registered nurse and have been under the direction of Brian Yusem for over 10 years. I can personally tell you from hundreds of clients I have witnessed and personally recommended cliets, that he is far from a scam artist.
The entire article is totally made up for a one shot glamour article for the benefit of yahoo. Yahoo should be sued for this type of infringment that has no material basis whatsoever.
As far as I am concerned, along with countless other clients, he has been a miracle worker.
People need to get the right information for a change.
Posted by: Sophia | 12/15/2008 at 20:31