Steroid Nation

Mega-Roider Manny Ramirez courted by the Oakland As; Should aging stars be allowed testosterone replacement?

Last year, multi-juiced offender Manny Ramirez retired from baseball rather that face up to the consequences of cheating the system multiple times.  However, Moneyball, Billy Beane, now pursues Manny as a low-cost, run-producing, veteran on the rebuilding As.  To CBS Sacramento:

The Oakland Athletics still have strong interest in signing slugger Manny Ramirez, who presents a low-risk investment for the rebuilding franchise.

If things come together, the 39-year-old would sign a deal for slightly more than the league minimum of $480,000.

He first must serve a 50-game suspension without pay for violating baseball’s drug policy for the second time. With no rainouts, the first game Ramirez would be eligible to play is June 2 at Kansas City.

The sides could reach agreement as soon as the next few days or sometime next week, and Ramirez then likely would travel from Florida to Arizona to undergo a physical before joining Oakland’s spring training camp for full-squad workouts starting Feb. 25. Pitchers and catchers report to camp Saturday.

The Athletes may be desperate for some run production, and Ramirez must be hungry to get back in the game.  He is getting to the age where perfomance at the higest level will deteriorate rapidly, to a point where the fountain of steroid youth gave him an opportunity, expect the steroid testing outed that plan.

Interesting debate: Should aging athletes be given testosterone replacements?  There are a ton of aging men who line up for testosterone shots from their friendly GP.  While not endorsing that, it is an interesting question.  Manny, if not allowed a steroid boost, will find his performance significantly degraded from even last year.

Kirk Radomski, steroid dealer, pushes supplements

Kirk Radomski, who supplied all kinds of unhealthy PEDs to professional athletes is now concerned about health.  As noted in the Daily News, Radomski pushes supplements, like Mass Arrival X0Treme.

A man wearing a blue lab coat and a shower cap pushes a hand truck loaded with 249 boxes of dietary supplements out of the factory loading dock and toward the GMC Acadia. The next chapter in the life of Kirk Radomski — the man who supplied steroids and human growth hormone to dozens of major leaguers for 10 years — has begun.

“I want to see people lose weight,” Radomski says as he and his partner, Steve Cohen, loaded boxes of “Mass Arrival X-treme,” a supplement that boosts testosterone levels, into Cohen’s vehicle. “I want to see people get bigger muscles. I want to see them live healthier live...

“I’m a convicted felon, but that didn’t stop people from coming up to me and asking my advice about supplements,” he says. “I really couldn’t recommend a lot of products. There are a lot of companies out there that shouldn’t be in business. They put illegal ingredients in their products.

Radomski is free to engage in business activites, of course.  What is bizarre is that people ask him about supplements and nurition.

Like asking a street narcotics dealer what to use for pain relief.

Will Connecticut elect the steroids WWE fighting-senator, Linda McMahon?

Voters in Connecticut decided to run WWE executive Linda McMahon against Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal.  Mrs. McMahon funded her campaign with generous amounts of cash from her personal fortune.

McMahon's husband Vince McMahon is the chief exec of the WWE and is a widely known and admitted friend and user of steroids.  Why not have Mrs McMahon join government as the steroids senator..we have at least one steroids governor in California...(the Wall Street Journal)

 Democrats picked the former mayor of Stamford as their best hope to win the Connecticut governor's mansion for the first time since 1986, while wealthy wrestling executive Linda McMahon will take on Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in the race for the state's open U.S. Senate seat.

Mrs. McMahon will have a hard fight in this heavily Democratic state. But her vow to spend up to $50 million of her own money on her campaign will make her a formidable opponent to Mr. Blumenthal, who has had a strong but narrowing lead in recent polls.

The race will likely continue to receive intense national attention, as an upset by Mrs. McMahon in the race for the seat held by retiring Sen. Christopher Dodd would help tip the balance of power in the Senate toward the Republicans.

PED using Olympian Antonio Pettigrew found dead at 42; PED use involved?

Forty two year-old former Olympian and admitted PED user/drug cheat Antonio Pettigrew was found dead at age 42.  Pettigrew served as a track coach at The University of North Carolina.

ANTONIO Pettigrew, who was stripped of a 2000 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medal for doping, has been found dead at the age of 42.

There was no word on the exact time or possible cause of death for Pettigrew, whose body was discovered on Tuesday according to a spokesman for University of North Carolina, where Pettigrew was an assistant athletics coach.

Pettigrew, who won the 1991 400 metres world title in Tokyo, was a member of the 4x400 metres American relay team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Pettigrew and his teammates - including Michael Johnson - of their medals after he admitted, during a trial against former coach Trevor Graham, to doping.

Pettigrew qualifies as a "non-analytic" PED user: He never tested positive for PEDs, however he admitted to use under oath in court.

Pettigrew used at least EPO and HGH. Studies have shown HGH enlarges the heart muscle.  EPO is related to sudden death in cyclists -- it changes hemodynamics.

Could HGH and EPO use have lead to a cardiac problem in Pettigrew produced sudden cardiac death? No one will know exactly, but it's intelligent speculation.

It is reported Victor Conte thought EPO was one of the best PEDs.  Will we now start to see 40+ former athletes drop dead from PED side effects?

Reds Bronson Arroyo unapologetically takes banned supplements: Wastes money

Cincy Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo says he takes MLB banned supplements, and brazenly awaits the consequences.  (USA Today)

Unless Arroyo is taking nasty stuff with honest to goodness 'roids, he is simply wasting his money.  Caffeine may benefit his performance some, but really taking unproven, untested supplements that promise everything is simply foolish.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo reaches into his locker, pulls down a clear cellophane bag and slowly opens it.

He shakes out the contents like a kid on Halloween night. There are different-colored pills, powders, liquids, proteins, caffeine concentrates and ginseng, products such as creatine, Triflex and xelR8 found at local vitamin stores. Most of the products have not been approved by Major League Baseball for use by players, Arroyo says. Some of the items have the potential to trigger a positive test under baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy. Arroyo takes them anyway.

"I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I'm out of (my) mind because I'm taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list," Arroyo says. "I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there's four more things. There's a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in '05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven't failed any tests, so I figured I'm good."

News for Arroyo: You may not be crazy for all those supplements, but you are foolish.  Most are not worth a damn thing.  Sorry to bring science into superstition.

California physician Ramon Scruggs pleads guilty

The US District Attorney received some PR, and California steroids doctor Ramon Scruggs copped some pleas it was announced yesterday.  As readers recall, Scruggs was a major supplier of steroids and PEDs to professional athletes, and apparently normal people too.  To the Imperial Valley News:

United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Anthony D. Williams announced that Dr. Ramon Scruggs pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of conspiracy to illegally distribute anabolic steroids and illegally smuggle human growth hormone into the United States, and one count of money laundering, in violation.

Dr. Scruggs, 61, of Tustin, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 6, 2008.  He was charged with conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, specifically, the illegal distribution of anabolic steroids and the illegal smuggling of human growth hormone into the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; the distribution of anabolic steroids, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841; misbranding drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 331(k); conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956; and money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(A).  Under the plea agreement, Dr. Scruggs is pleading to the counts charging him with conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and to bring human growth hormone into the United States and one count of money laundering.

In pleading guilty, Dr. Scruggs admitted that between 2000 and 2003, he distributed anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (“HGH”) to individuals in a manner outside the usual course of professional practice while operating his medical practice at New Hope Health Center in Costa Mesa, California.  Dr. Scruggs further admitted that he knew that such distributions were not for a legitimate medical purpose, and that they were instead for non-legitimate purposes,  including performance enhancement.

Dr. Scruggs admitted that he illegally distributed between 250 to 1,000 10cc vials of anabolic steroids.  He further admitted that on or about May 17, 2003, he illegally distributed the anabolic steroid testosterone to a person in Santa Clara County, and that he caused this distribution of anabolic steroids without a medically adequate examination.

Dr. Scruggs further admitted that he asked others to assist him in the illegal distribution of steroids.  On March 11, 2003, an individual under the authority of Dr. Scruggs wire-transferred $3,605 from a bank account under Dr. Scrugg’s control at that time, Bank of America Account #02020-01935, from San Francisco, California,  to the People’s Republic of China.  The purpose of this transfer was to make a payment for HGH Dr. Scruggs had prescribed for patients without a medically adequate reason or a medically recognized need.

So the Scruggs book appears closed.  Scruggs supplied dope to athletes like Troy Glaus.  Although no one would condone Glaus's actions given the widespread use of PEDs, Glaus might have thought he was cautious going to visit a doctor who apperaed to use PEDs in his practice.  In this case, the doctor is more at fault than the patient...and  problaby liable to a lawsuit too.

Steroids ruin Earth Day

Steroids didn't really ruin Earth Day, celebrated by President Obama who flew into Newton Iowa, about an hour from.  However, studies show a significant amount of the drugs in ground water.

It’s been 39 years since the first official Earth Day in 1970. Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day as a protest "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.” And, according the Earthday.net, the world of unaddressed pollution being accepted as the “smell of prosperity” would no longer be the norm.

Unfortunately, it seems that the original message has been subtly redefined. Yes, we have made major strides at reducing visible pollution, but our poisoning of our planet continues unabated. We decided that carbon dioxide made our air look bad and worked to curtail its emissions. At the same time, a much more insidious toxin called carbon monoxide became predominant in carbon emissions.

Plants, those green things we count on to provide us with oxygen, take carbon dioxide and turn it into breathable oxygen for the planet and turn the carbon into their own growth. On the other hand, carbon monoxide is highly toxic, although useful in a myriad of chemical application.

We don’t see nearly as much garbage in our rivers and streams as we did 40 years ago, but groundwater contamination from invisible, man made, pollutants is a huge problem. We genetically modify and chemically alter our foods now. We modify animal feed to fatten them up quicker for market purposes. Steroids and antibiotics are also used to fatten up the animals we eat. And we spray our foods with pesticides to improve our crop yields. Is this good for us?

Don't blame us.  We ate some delicious antibiotic free chicken at Panera the other day.  No mention of steroids or not...

British teenage cadet dies after taking anabolic steroids

A 17 year-old British teenager died in hospital after what appears to be ingesting anabolic steroids.  To the Times:

Post-mortem tests will today be carried out on a 17-year-old body builder who is thought to have died after taking steroids to bulk himself up for selection into the Royal Marines.

Matthew Dear of Southend, Essex, had been an Army cadet since the age of 12 and was planning to hea take the grueling selection test for the Marines when he turned 18, in three months' time.

He was admitted to Southend University Hospital eight days ago after becoming seriously ill and died yesterday morning.

"He lived for joining the Armed Forces but fell to pieces before our eyes," his father, Chris Dear, 43, told the Daily Mirror.

We heard other health professionals describe a systemic collapse after using anabolic steroids.  There are cases of teenagers like Taylor Hooton who suicided after anabolic steroid use.  This case, however is physiological and medical collapse.

He was discharged the following morning but was rushed back to hospital that night after losing his sight and was moved into intensive care. The teenager, who had three brothers and a sister, finally died yesterday morning. "They said his brain died and his kidneys packed in," his father told the Mirror.

Police said that tests were being carried out to establish what tablets the teenager had taken, and that a pathologist would examine the youngster’s body.

Those on the inside know about use of PEDs in the military.  Those recruits don't come back all big and bad just from good food.

Illegal cosmetic enhancements prove deadly for women

In the category of 'appearance enhancement' comes this piece from the New York Times.  Many women undergo illegal procedures -- like silicon injection -- that 'enhance their appearance but carry significant and unjustified risks.

Like almost every woman, Fiordaliza Pichardo just wanted to look beautiful, so a few years ago, she began getting silicone injections from a woman she met through a friend in order to plump up her thighs and derriere.

She never expected to pay such a high price for her looks.

In March, a day after receiving an injection,

Ms. Pichardo, 43, died of what the medical examiner later determined was a silicone embolism in her lungs.

Incredible that women (and men) go to these lengths to 'enhance' their appearance.  (listening Sylvester Stallone?)

Nationally, reports of buttock enhancement using silicone and similar thick liquids have surfaced from the Northeast to Miami, and the Food and Drug Administration is also planning to issue a warning on the dangers of such practices, Siobhan DeLancey, a spokeswoman, said Thursday.

“This seems to be kind of an underground occurrence, so it’s difficult to get numbers of actual events and to know exactly what these people are being injected with,” Ms. DeLancey said. “It’s important to note that none of the products that are reportedly being used are approved for this purpose.”

Ms. DeLancey said silicone was not approved for injection into tissues at all, only for use in the eyes and in certain implants where it is contained and cannot leak into tissue. She said the F.D.A. had the ability to conduct criminal investigations, and would encourage victims to come forward “so that we can document the problem.”...

Although side effects are fairly rare, silicone can migrate through the bloodstream, creating potentially fatal clots in the lungs, as it did in Ms. Pichardo’s case, said Dr. Nathan M. Graber, director of environmental and occupational disease epidemiology for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. It can also migrate through tissues, leading to ugly lumps and chronic pain

In the personal realm, as well as in the professional world, the artificial enhancement of performance, and beauty, and prominence continues to march on, despite health risks.

Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka found dead

An Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka -- 27 -- was discovered dead today.  Young cyclists appear to die more frequently than one would expect.  Not saying this was involved here, but one thinks of the morbid effects of EPO, either alone or added to all the other drugs these guys ingest.  (The Age)

Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka has been found dead at his Adelaide home, it has been reported.

The body of Dajka, a world and Commonwealth Games champion, was discovered late Tuesday, the Nine Network reported.

A cause of death has not been released, Nine said.

Dajka, 27, was dumped from Australia's team for the 2004 Athens Olympics just weeks before the Games for lying to a doping inquiry.

In 2005, he was given a three-month suspended jail term for assaulting Australia's head track coach, Martin Barras - an offence that also led to a three-year ban from professional cycling.

Following the suspension, which was lifted in late 2006, Dajka admitted having alcohol related problems and to have suffered depression.

Dajka won a Commonwealth Games gold medal at the Manchester Games in 2002 in the teams sprint, and was the 2003 world championships kierin winner.

The ink between doping and depression, doping and alcohol and other street drugs has yet to be explored.

More here on the cylist.  Obviously depression was a problem.  Don't underestimate the effects of doping on mood.

Lance Armstrong breaks collarbone in Spanish pile-up. All those dope tests wasted?

The Philly Daily News says Lance Armstrong suffered a broken clavicle (collarbone) in a pile-up at a race in Spain yesterday.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong crashed during a pileup in the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon cycling race in Spain and suffered a broken collarbone.

Armstrong will need surgery, leading to questions about whether he'll be able to contend for an eighth title in July.

"I'm alive!" he wrote on his Twitter feed. "Broken [right] clavicle. Hurts like hell for now. Surgery in a couple of days. Thanks for all the well wishes."

Armstrong will fly back to the United States to have surgery.

Astana team leader Johan Bruyneel said on his Twitter feed there were no complications in the break, and suggested Armstrong could be riding soon.

In London, The Times thinks Armstrong's exit might be good for pro cycling:

 Until last weekend, when the real business of Armstrong as an elite cyclist and Tour contender began, everything had gone to plan. There had been much glad-handing around the world, some showboating in a couple of lesser races in Australia and California, the now-traditional casual put-downs of anti-doping campaigners and a little sledging towards his major rival — on this occasion, his own Astana team-mate, Alberto Contador...

...For his detractors — and there are many both in Europe and in America — the prospect of the multi-millionaire packing up his train set and heading back to Texas will be a huge relief. While publicity accompanies his every move, and a key part of the raison d’etre for his comeback is his global cancer campaign, suspicion also shadows him at every turn of the pedals.

The platform of transparency and openness with which he trumpeted his return has quietly been forgotten, while Don Caitlin’s unimpeachable testing programme — that Armstrong insisted would go ahead — was poorly thought through and never got off the ground. Arm in a sling as he flies home to Texas, he will now be desperate to prevent his racing comeback following the same fate.

Steroid prophet Rick Helling, hired by MLB Player's Association

The LA Times says that Rick Helling, once the prophet of steroid corruption in the MLB, will be hired by the players union.

Rick Helling's major league career was nothing remarkable. He won 20 games for the Texas Rangers in 1998, albeit with a 4.41 ERA, but mostly he showed up every fifth day and ate a lot of innings.

But Helling, a Stanford product, was active in the players' union. In the winter of 1998-99, following the season in which Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated America with the race to set the single-season home-run record, Helling stood up at a union meeting and said--this according to an excerpt from Joe Torre's book, "The Yankee Years"--what prompted Time magazine to label him "The Man Who Warned Baseball About Steroids."

He told his fellow union leaders that steroid use by ballplayers had grown rampant and was corrupting the game.

"There is this problem with steroids," Helling told them. "It's happening. It's real. And it's so prevalent that guys who aren't doing it are feeling pressure to do it because they're falling behind. It's not a level playing field. We've got to figure out a way to address it.

"It's a bigger deal than people think. It's noticeable enough that it's creating an uneven playing field. What really bothers me is that it's gotten so out of hand that guys are feeling pressure to do it. It's one thing to be a cheater, to be somebody who doesn't care whether it's right or wrong. But it's another thing when other guys feel like they have to do it just to keep up. And that's what's happening. And I don't feel like this is the right way to go."

What Helling had just done was the equivalent of turning up all the lights, clicking off the music and announcing the party was over. "He was the first guy," David Cone said, "who had the guts to stand up at a union meeting and say that in front of everybody and put pressure on it."

Back in the day, Donald Fehr disputed Helling's account.  However:

The news: Fehr hired Helling as a special assistant this morning. From the union's news release...

Interesting.

Surgery for male gynecomastia (man-boobs) goes up in the UK

The Telegraph reports that men's breasts are expanding, as is the surgery to reduce gynecomastia -- the man-boobs often related to anabolic steroid use. (see photo of typical case at left)

Drug specialists are also reporting a rise in the number of young men turning to the illegal use of anabolic steroids to improve their physique.

New figures from the British Association of Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, due to be published on Monday, are reported to show the number of men opting for breast-reduction procedures last year rose by nearly half.

In the space of five years, the figure has increased from 22 operations in 2003 to 224 in 227.

The Government's official advisers on drugs have noted that anabolic steroids are becoming popular among non-traditional drug-users keen to improve their physique, rather than just athletes.

Anabolic steroid use now ranks among the leading drugs treated in substance abuse treatment centers.  That means an increase in correcting the gynecomastia caused by the estrogenic effects of the drugs.  It also means problems with consequences of the needles used in injectable steroids.

Latest estimates from the British Crime Survey suggest that 179,000 people aged 16-59 have used anabolic steroids but Professor Iverson has previously said the figure might be more than 200,000.

Mike Linnell, of the Lifeline drugs charity in Manchester, said that needle-exchange projects are reporting rising numbers of men injecting steroids for cosmetic reasons.

He said: "What we have seen over the last two years is a growth in people who are not drug-users in the traditional sense. They are coming in because they used anabolic steroids because they wanted to look good. It is all about image, about looking good. This is now right across the board."

Use of anabolic steroids can be for sports advantage, or for simply narcissism, as with the Adonis Complex.

Texas releases high school steroid testing results

 Texas released preliminary results of high school steroid testing over the weekend.  Headlines screamed that only 4 of  10,000 tests caught positive results.  Depending on your view this was proof that high school dope testing wastes time and money, or that the testing scared many potential users to come clean.

Too bad Texas doesn't record weights of players.  Likely all the data to evaluate the effectiveness of the program will not be collected.  Tim Warsinkey of the Cleveland Plain Dealer carries a reasoned opinion today:

 Nearly every time I venture into Ashtabula, I remember football player Benji Ramirez.

It was 20 years ago last October that Ramirez collapsed during practice and died at now-defunct Ashtabula High School. A story in Sports Illustrated that winter labeled Ramirez the first U.S. athlete to be killed by steroid abuse, a conclusion that was then and remains controversial. Some believe a heart condition and not steroids killed Ramirez.

 Two decades later, the real issue is steroids remain powerful, affordable, available, dangerous and, in terms of getting caught at the high school level, virtually risk-free.

High school steroid use is a hot topic once again because Texas just released preliminary results of its random steroid testing program. The first 10,000 tests produced just four confirmed cases of steroid use, the Associated Press reported last weekend. Another 22 cases were deemed "positive" results because student-athletes broke testing rules.

Proponents of the $6 million, two-year program labeled the results a victory because they say

The tests acted as a deterrent. Critics scoffed and said it's money wasted on a nonexistent problem.

Most experts contend ab out 2.5 - 4% of high school males and about 1.0- 1.5% of high school females use steroids at least once in their career.  Low, but important rate.

Of course there will be much denial and ignorance about the rates, and the effects.  However the Plain Dealer wraps this up well:

Florida, New Jersey and Illinois conduct more limited steroid testing. The Ohio High School Athletic Association surveyed its members about testing in 2007, and the overwhelming response was that schools cannot afford it and don't believe it is a panacea. The OHSAA has emphasized educating athletes about the health risks associated with steroid use.

Educators would rather spend money combating bigger problems such as alcohol and drug abuse. I agree with that sentiment, but at the same time worry steroid abuse goes virtually unabated among high school athletes. Since Benji Ramirez's death, we might be better educated about steroids, but what have we learned?

American Gladiator's Nitro confesses that steroids blew up his manboobs

Medically called gynecomastia, and induced by anabolic steroids, former NFL lineman Dan Clark claims anabolic steroids caused his breasts to swell up so much he needed reduction surgery.  However, he looked good in a bikini on muscle beach.

As a side effect of the estrogenic effects of steroids, gynecomastia results when the glands present in male breast tissue reacts with hypertrophy.  Plastic surgeons now find themselves busy reducing the body-builders and athletes who abuse the drugs so much they suffer this side effect, as well as the testicular shrinkage effects.  To the Examiner:

After just 10 weeks of injecting steroids, former Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Dan Clark gained 32 pounds of muscle. But after 20 years of using the drugs — when he was Nitro on "American Gladiator" — he also got shrunken testicles, major man boobs and dull throbbing pain during sex.

Page Six reports that Dan's tell-all memoir, "Gladiator: A True Story of 'Roids, Rage and Redemption," reveals that his breasts got so big he had to have reduction surgery.  Dan writes in his book:

Bitch tits, man boobs, breast-chesticles is what they're called on the street. Gynecomastia is the scientific name. No matter what you call it, I [had] it. I hate[d] taking off my shirt."

The good news is, Dan finally quit doing steroids, got some therapy, and is now a consultant on the new "American Gladiators."

Amazon.com will ship "Gladiator: A True Story of 'Roids, Rage and Redemption" Feburary 10.

Suppose he could have used a sports bra when he took off his shirt.  Even 'Nitros' plastic fiugure shows some gynecomastia.

Aleksey Cherepanov, Siberian Express derailed: Ranger's Russian hockey prospect death may involve doping and inflammation

An ex-New York Ranger Russian hockey prospect -- Aleksey Cherepanov -- dropped dead at an extraordinarily young age in October.  An inquiry in to the 19 year-old's death revealed 2 pertinent issues (according to RT Sports):

• The report says that Cherepanov 'used stimulants'
• The hockey player suffered from myocarditis

Young ice hockey star Aleksey Cherepanov, who died of a heart attack during a game in October, had been taking performance enhancing drugs. That’s according to a report by the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office.     The 19-year-old collapsed during a Continental Hockey League (KHL) game in the Moscow region.

The official statement of the investigation committee says:

"No traces of alcohol or drugs were found in his blood and urine, however, tests for chemicals showed that Aleksey Cherepanov had been using stimulants for several months."
 
It was also discovered that Cherepanov, nicknamed the Siberian Express, was suffering from chronic myocarditis, which meant he should not have been playing sport. According to a post-mortem examination, the sportsman developed the disease approximately a year before his death.

There seems to be confusion in the Western press reportage. The New York Times reports that no drugs were named;  the Russian Times clearly says stimulants.  Stimulants can rarely be involved in cardiac events, in say a vulnerable heart.

The Times also reports that myocarditis 'does not allow enough blood to reach the heart'.  Really? 

Myocarditis means inflammation of the cardiac muscle (which is all of it, as the heart is one large muscle).  The word ending means inflammation, perhaps due to a virus, or even due to a connective tissue disorder.  Myocarditis could be bacterial, or parasitic, or allergic, or...you get it due to something that inflames the heart.  And saying the heart was inflamed says nothing about blood flow.  (where did the Times get this idea?).

To simplify the issue, the heart becomes inflamed, which causes a number of problems.  One would be enlargement of the organ.  When the heart enlarges it actually stretches the fibers that cause contraction.  The heart becomes less effective at pumping thus leading to failure...heart failure.  It is like the apparatus became stretch, flabby, and weak.  This condition often leads to a heart transplant.

The other issue in myocarditis would be electrical changes, reflected in the EKG.  This would cause electrical irritability, and sudden death due to an arrhythmia.  Boula!  A viral myocarditis is a frequent issue in young adult sudden cardiac death.

Investigators in Russia said Monday that Alexei Cherepanov, who was the Rangers’ first-round pick in the 2007 draft, used performance-enhancing drugs for several months before he died during a Russian league game in October.

They also said that Cherepanov, 19, should not have been playing professional hockey because he had myocarditis, a condition that does not allow enough blood to reach the heart...

The federal Investigative Committee in Russia said in a statement that experts concluded from analysis of blood and urine samples that Cherepanov had “engaged in doping” for several months. A spokeswoman for the committee refused to specify which drugs were found in Cherepanov’s system.

We would not be so quick to say that myocarditis absolutely rules out athletic competition.  It's complicated, and one must exert caution, but nothing is absolute...like Lance Armstrong not fathering a child without sperm.

The Russian athlete could have suffered from something as common as a cold which affected his heart.  A Stimulant might have exacerbated the condition.  On the other hand a drug can cause myocarditis.

The Russian press reports other problems:

The investigation also found that: "the paramedics called in for Cherepanov committed a number of gross violations”.

The report says they “arrived 12 minutes after the call and did not have a properly charged defibrillator. In addition, the brigade's chief doctor wrongly diagnosed a ‘natural death’.”
 
The Omsk Avangard forward was one of the most promising hockey stars in Russia. A first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Cherepanov was expected to move to National Hockey League.

The Prosecutor General’s Office says they will continue their investigation and warned that  the doctors involved in Cherepanov's treatment may face legal action.

One just cannot emphasize enough that stimulants, and steroids, and HGH, and EPO are DAMN DANGEROUS.   Don't believe the soft peddlers who essentially want an athletes to believe these drugs are like downing jelly-beans.  Dangerous in particular persons.  (that is a diseased heart on the right; it's ugly)

No fowl called: Unlike American sports no steroids in your turkey today

As American prepares to sit down to a fine Thanksgiving feast, they should be thankful that -- unlike USA athletes -- the turkey at dinner is steroid free.  In the US, it has been illegal to pump up the turkeys with steroids for decades.  However, the athletes we watch today, may be full of some juiced gravy.   To the LA Times:

Here are a couple more turkey facts to get your teeth into -- one of them something you don't need to think about.

You may see some turkeys advertised as "hormone free."  The Foster Farms website -- to name just one example -- says of its fresh turkey: "You can feel good about serving it to your family as we promise that it will be the freshest available at your store and will never contain added hormones or steroids."

The Whole Foods Market website also proclaims that its turkeys lack added growth hormones -- and then notes, in small letters, that "federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in raising pork and poultry."

However, unlike many American athletes, those turkeys are not pumped full of the sauce:

So don't be overly impressed by such claims. It's been illegal to treat poultry with hormones since the 1950s. "And they were never, ever used in turkeys," says Francine Bradley, extension poultry specialist in the Animal Science Department at UC Davis.

In short, the only hormones  turkeys have are the ones they produce themselves.

Similarly, any claim you may see about a steroid void is another red herring since the use of any steroids in turkey production is also illegal.

If a sports fan eats too much this Thanksgiving, try to avoid the example of those NFL players who used StarCaps, full of a diuretic which will rid you of those excess pounds...dangerously.

20% of Greek kids/young adults would use performance enhancing drugs

In a sample of Greek adolescent and young adults, 20% say they would cheat with PEDs/steroids if the drug would improve their physique; eleven percent of males said they would use PEDs if a coach recommended it.  To Ekathimerini

Almost two in 10 young people who take part in sports would use banned substances if it helped their physique, according to a survey conducted by a new nongovernmental organization.

Neoi questioned 700 people aged between 13 and 28 and found that 3 percent of them admitted to taking banned substances, which included ecstasy, cocaine, creatine and various anabolic steroids.

However, 11 percent of the males who were questioned said that they would take a banned substance if their coach recommended it. Half of all the respondents said that the main danger in taking steroids is that they could cause an early death, while 46 percent said that the media is their main source of information about banned substances.

Greece has had more than 20 athletes in various sports banned this year after they failed drug tests.

This article doesn't make the questions clear, however the 3% of Greeks taking one of a variety of drugs appears low when compared with other surveys.  Perhaps the question was related to athletic achievement?

Myostatin blocking gene therapy to be introduced for dogs; when will the first human athlete abuse it?

Prof Lee Sweeney of the University of Pennsylvania will be behind the introduction of a gene therapy approach to treat aged dogs who suffer muscular weakness.  Apparently elderly dogs who become progressively weaker (this is generally called old age) need treatments so their owners can take the canines on walks.  The therapy involves the injection of a genetically modified myostatin inhibitor that produces incredible muscular hypertrophy; the injection goes into the animal's liver.

Once this gene therapy reaches the public, h ow long will it be before an existing sports record becomes totally obliterated by newly enhanced and genetically modified athletes?

This raises several issues just in the vet use of the technique:

• Isn't aging natural?  Do elderly dogs -- as lovable as they are -- really need to be revitalized so the owners can walk them?  At what cost?
• Might counseling on the normal aging in biology be more effective?  Aging is part of every organism.  Why fight the changes that are inherent in the DNA of the animal, to protect the fragile emotional status of the owner?

To the Telegraph:

An American professor is preparing to market a form of canine gene therapy, which would see dogs injected with substances which switch off the genes that regulate their muscle growth.

Prof Lee Sweeney, from the University of Pennsylvania, has pioneered research into gene transfer technology, a field in which poorly functioning and abnormal genes are manipulated, switched off or replaced.

Ten years ago he created "mighty mice" in the lab with enormous muscles and strength in old age. Now he says experiments on dogs have been so successful that he is preparing to market the treatments to owners of ageing pets across the United States.

He said: "We are now in the final stages of getting all the approvals to offer this through the veterinary hospital as a treatment to try to improve strength in pet dogs.

"As the dogs get weak their owners get upset that they can't walk around any more. So we're hoping that within the next year we will begin the era of genetic enhancement in dogs."

Under the therapy, dogs would be given an injection into the liver of an inhibitor which switches off the gene which produces myostatin, a protein which inhibits muscle growth in animals and humans.

One would hope Sweeney has considered the implications of his genetic enhancement.  The first issue is the economic issue of enhancing an aging dog to mollify the owner.  Obviously an aging animal in the wild gets eaten, which is not a good outcome for a domestic pet.  Domestic pets decline gradually, with the resultant dysfunction experienced by all aging organisms; pet owners keep the animals comfortable until the inevitable sad day when the pet can longer function well.   But does this justify an attempt to allay the aging process in a canine?  At what price? 

Sweeney must consider that if the gene therapy is marketed to vets, that soon, genetically enhanced greyhounds will be winning the dog races.  Once the Schwarzenegger greyhounds win races, human athletes will take notice; actually they already have.  To the Telegraph again:

He (Dr. Sweeney) gets between five and 10 emails a week from athletes, some from Britain, and so many phone calls that his secretary has stopped putting them through.   And that is in a quiet week.

If he publishes an academic paper or does a media interview, a flurry of 50 or   more calls and emails usually follows, as it did 10 years ago when he first   revealed his 'mighty mice' to the world at a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology – laboratory mice with enormous muscles that retained their   strength and regenerative ability even when the animals reached old age.

Sweeney's super-strong rodents were the product of his pioneering research   into gene transfer technology and the implications were clearly not lost on the athletes and coaches who got in touch, one of whom offered $100,000 for what the mice were getting.

Shockingly, Sweeney also received a request from a high school American football coach for his entire team to be genetically modified.

Sweeney told him what he is still telling everyone a decade later, that bulking up on gene therapy is not yet safe enough for humans and would require heavy-duty immune suppression. He always gets the same response.

"Even if I explain to them that to make it work might require all sorts of heroic measures, they basically say, 'Fine. I'll do it'. And if it's a matter of money, they'll get the money."

Sweeney has never been contacted by a name he recognises – "I don't get Barry Bonds calling me up" – and says most of the would-be guinea pigs appear to be young athletes trying to make the big time.

"Some of them are from Europe," he says. "I get quite a few   from the UK and Germany."

He says he would feel uneasy about passing on their names to the anti-doping authorities but is sufficiently concerned to have accepted a seat on the gene-doping panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), who are funding   eight research projects on gene-doping detection in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of the cheats.

Sweeney is bracing himself for another surge of calls and emails next year when his work moves from the laboratory to the commercial world with a muscle-building gene therapy for dogs.

Even though Sweeney knows the illicit demand for the mystatin inhibitor, he will market the drug anyway...ah the power of economic windfalls can outstrip the ethical considerations of the enhancements.

We have a chapter on genetic enhanced performance (GEP) or Performance Enhancing Genetics (PEGs) that looks at the issues. Sweeney has considered the issues too as summed up by the Telegraph:

Sweeney hopes his new canine anti-aging treatment will be just the start.  Humans have the same gene that Sweeney is manipulating in dogs and the nex  step will be to treat people with serious genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Ultimately, he hopes to give the elderly, like the pampered  pooches of Pennsylvania, greater muscle strength and mobility in their final   years.

But any breakthrough will inevitably be seized upon by dope cheats in the same way that clinical drugs such as steroids, human growth hormone and the red blood cell-boosting EPO soon found their way into kit bags. With the prospect of as yet undetectable, lifelong enhancement, how could any drug cheat resist?

As gene transfer technology enters the medical mainstream as a treatment for numerous diseases from blindness to cancer, scientists are agreed it is only a matter of time before it crosses over into sport.

Some predict that London 2012 could be the first genetically modified Olympic Games. Others say the Beijing Games may already have that dubious honour.

Here is a therapeutic enhancement that may render all PEDs obsolete.  The results are shockingly dramatically impressive; the technology undetectable at present; and the technique will soon be available.

Performance Enhancing Drugs are simply amateurs when compared to the potential power of Performance Enhancing Genetics.  Looks like that brave new world of astonishing sports feats will be ushered in very very soon.

Pumped up on the Playground: Swiss schools may ban energy drinks

Swiss solons see energy drinks as a threat to student's health and welfare.  Apparently Swiss youngsters are hyperventilating in school...and it's not the teachers causing the problems.

Fearing strung out students and disorder in the classroom, certain schools in Switzerland have placed restrictions or outright prohibitions on energy drinks.Now Toni Bortoluzzi, a politician on parliament's social security and health committee, has called on authorities around the country to ban the fizzy drinks.

"Stimulating beverages should be banned in all schools, even vocational schools," he told the Sonntag newspaper. "There must be no more hyperventilating pupils in classrooms."The Swiss People's Party parliamentarian has likened energy drinks to a quasi-drug.

"Smoking pot is also not tolerated," he argued, but said he did not intend to take up the matter in parliament. Instead he urged school authorities, municipalities and cantons to intervene.  Bortoluzzi has received the support of the Swiss Federation of Cantonal Chemists, a body responsible for food safety."This goes in the direction of doping," the group's president, Peter Grütter, said of the beverages, which can include caffeine, ginseng, ginkgo bilboa and sugar.

(Original article here)

Interesting that Tom Hildebrandt at Mt. Sinai presents data that there are pathways to steroids use, some of which may be health supplements.  More:

Caffeine

One can of Red Bull, the world's most popular brand, contains about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee and youngsters are having problems moderating themselves, says a school headmaster from Gerzensee, in canton Bern.

"Some students come with packs of ten Red Bulls and drink two or three right there," he said. Energy drinks are banned there, and in the town of Neuendorf, south of Basel

Did Marion Jones start her long slide into doping with Red Bull?

Lengendary Canadian shot putter Bishop Dolegiewicz dies 'young'; Steroid shorted?

Legendary Canadian shot putter Bishop Dolegiewicz passed on to his eternal award last week.  The large shot putter admitted to the infamous Canadian Dubin Commission that he utilized steroids when competing. (New York Times from 1989).  Bish was a frequent Olympian, who's records were wiped out when his drug use was exposed.  By all accounts he was a good guy.

''At the higher levels of competition,'' he said of the throwing events of track and field, ''I would be hard-pressed to find the name of an individual who hasn't used steroids.''

Although the athlete himself, his friends, and reasonable medical opinion strongly speculate that the drugs cut his life short, denial continues to reign at this level.  (to The Star)

Canadian shot putter Bishop Dolegiewicz, a three-time Olympian who had a larger-than-life personality to match his mountainous physique, died Tuesday night in his sleep at the age of 55.

Dolegiewicz, a Toronto native who starred at Parkdale Collegiate, won two gold medals at the Pan Am Games, two silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and 13 medals at Canadian championships. He was 11th at the 1984 L.A. Olympics and fourth in 1980 in a world's strongest man contest.

He was later stripped of his Canadian shot put record after admitting during the Dubin Inquiry to using steroids for more than a decade.

Bis not only lost his medals, he lost his life early, leaving a 30 year-old widow.

Dolegiewicz, who had success as a coach at Southern Utah University, was suffering from cardio and circulation problems. He died in Lehi, Utah, leaving behind his wife Anna, 30, a thrower he coached.

Former teammate Bruce Pirnie said Dolegiewicz's testimony at the Dubin Inquiry, where he also admitted to supplying steroids to athletes, cost him his coaching job at the University of Saskatchewan and took a toll on his health. Justice Charles Dubin also died this week.

"It's definitely (a coincidence) that Bish and Justice Dubin should pass away at the same time," said Pirnie, adding that Dolegiewicz had a positive coaching legacy in Canada. "Saskatchewan still sees the benefit of Bish's imprint. They turn out more throwers than anyone in the country."

Former Canadian discus champ Rob Gray was saddened by the news. "Whatever you say about the guy, he was a great competitor, a mountain of a man and a great athlete," said Gray, who also admitted to steroid use. "He was a big, strong guy because he worked his butt off and showed us how hard you had to work to get to the next level. It's hard to call him a role model, but he was in some ways."

Dolegiewicz told the inquiry he regretted using steroids because of the toll it had on his mind and body and that as a coach he strongly warned athletes against them.

"I give people the examples of individuals that I have known that have gotten sick from the use of steroids and I try to come across and give the kids the message, `Look, you're going to pay the price at some point in time,'" Dolegiewicz said during his testimony.

Interesting that Bish's fellow athletes don't make a connection between 'roids, weight, cholesterol, high blood pressure, lowered HDLs and increased LDLs, all medical measures that bode harm in a big guy.

Pirnie said he had been pondering whether steroids had a role in Dolegiewicz's health issues. "I would be very surprised if there wasn't a connection," he said.

Gray said, "I suspect it has got a lot more to do with that he was a 6-foot-6, 330-pound man who was probably overweight."

Not to moralize too much on the high horse, however those athletes should consider reality when juicing.  Nothing comes free; that's not a moral lecture but a practical point.  A young athlete may feel life is forever, or that he will do anything to win even if it shortens life; however that is simply denial.  Dying (relatively) young is not a winner.

Why do sportswriters insist on rewriting medicine: Using bumetanide for weight loss in the NFL

Why do sportswriters insist on rewriting the medical textbooks?  Because athletes decide to take advantage of a drug for their own particular use?  For instance this post which once again identifies a diuretic as a 'weight loss' pill.  The writer even thinks the drug is used to cut weight (as I said, cut off an arm or something to lose weight) rather than as a masking agent.

Just as the underground economy subverts the real economy, the underground medical practice subverts the actual researched indications for these drugs.  And like the honest taxpayer who foots over his fair share to the Govt is cheated by the guy who trades cash under the table, the dishonest athlete cheats the drug free athlete (and I can't believe I defended paying taxes; that may be the dumbest analogy ever written).

Take the diuretic bumetanide (Bumex).  That's a ridiculous generic name, even for this writer who worked with furosemide (Lasix) while in medical school.  A diuretic (known in the press as a 'water pill' which isn't accurate because urine is far more than water) blocks physiological workings of the kidneys which then allow much more urine to flow -- but at a cost.  The cost is the disequilibrium of fluid and electrolyte balance. Such a drug would be 'indicated' for heart failure, kidney disease, and perhaps liver failure where for various reasons the kidneys cannot filter the blood as well as in health.

The side effects?  As mentioned fluid and electrolyte imbalance which can lead to fatal heart rhythms. The heart depends on electrical communications and electro-chemical interactions to keep beating (calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride).  When a diuretic produces the diuresis (fluid output) it pulls those electrolytes with it, thus inducing the electrolyte problems.  There is a reason your grandmother takes potassium (K) with Lasix or HCTZ in the morning.  If not she lands in the hospital as my late mother did often in the past year for K depletion.

When the athletes take a diuretic - for NO MEDICAL reason -- they not only simply abuse the drug, but may produce a dangerous electrolyte imbalance.  That can lead to death as it has with some NFL players in the past.  So Deuce McAllister, for whatever reason he took the drug, risks some major problems with the illicit use.

When you hear of an NFL player taking Bumex, which is a major kick-arse diuretic, the only reason would be to dilute the urine, which would dilute the metabolites of other drugs -- either drugs like steroids, or perhaps other illicit drugs (thus we can suspect but not assume the 'masking' agents are masking anabolic steroids).  None of the NFL player would suffer from heart, kidney, or liver conditions, and maintain an NFL career.

When the press calls Bumex or any diuretic a weight loss' drug, they are rewriting the medical text books.  Any normal person will simply rehydrate in  a matter of minutes (hours) to rebalance fluids and electrolytes (the most guarded physiological parameter in biology).

This reminds me of my cousin who wrestled in high school and college.  He and his friends would try to lose weight by sweating, spilling into pop bottles, cutting their hair, shaving, and any way to reduce some bodily mass as quickly as possible (he once confided to me he was gong to ejaculate to try to lose a few grams; at least that's what he said).  It's all temporary weight.(side effects after the jump)

Are doctors using performance enhancing drugs?

An article from the the Sacramental Bee, by Dr. Michael Wilkes, looks at the use of 'stimulants' and PEDs for physicians.

Doctors have long prescribed pills to help people concentrate, stay awake, go to sleep, remember facts, control their moods and enhance endurance in such tasks as flying and studying.

Now, doctors are also using these drugs – not to correct abnormalities but to enhance their abilities.

Advertisements for Provigil and other drugs promise that they will help doctors stay awake.   

The practice of medicine requires long hours, constant learning and a high level of dedication. Physicians work at all hours of the day and night, making life-and-death decisions.

Don't patients benefit if doctors take pills that will help them stay awake during a long overnight shift in the emergency room or provide better concentration to a surgeon doing a 10-hour operation?

Dr. William Cheshire, writing in the journal Virtual Mentor, asserts that the field of medicine has traditionally drawn a line between treatment (to restore or preserve vital functions) and enhancement (to provide abilities that go beyond normal function).

If the practice of medicine has been devoted to treatment, does that preclude doctors from dealing with enhancement? Certainly in some areas, such as plastic surgery, enhancement – not treatment – is the rule.

In some nonmedical fields, enhancement might provide a competitive and selfish advantage – e.g., working longer hours to impress the boss or taking steroids to beat other athletes.

I have spoken with doctors who feel that enhancing pills help protect their patients and society. For example, they ask, what if two patients urgently need surgery? Without a drug to stay awake, the surgeon could perform just one surgery. With medication, he could operate on one patient and then the other.

Wait a minute, though. Do we want doctors operating after they have taken these pills?

I have colleagues who say these pills are no different than a couple of cups of coffee – just a bit stronger. Is that true? What happens when the pills wear off, and what about the side effects?

There is little or no data on how these drugs affect a doctor's performance.

Until we have more data, doctors should not be allowed to take these medicines when on duty.

If doctors are tired, they should sleep. If they can't concentrate, they should explore why. Medicating our physician to work longer, harder and with superhuman concentration is just not in society's interest – at least not without substantial research.

   

As we say, one of the largest challenges in the new science age of the 21st century comes in determining the ethics behind performance enhancement: how far, how much, how moral.  This central question cuts across all ages, professions, and economic groups.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama disses anti-doping and steroid efforts in Congress

Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama took a huge swipe at anti-steroid activists today, perhaps tossing out some baby with the John McCain bathwater. From the WaPo:

...Obama suggested this morning there were more important things on which the government should focus.

"Kids are watching sports. They're modeling themselves on athletes," Obama said. "It's a serious problem, but it's one that you want to see the leagues themselves handle in a more appropriate way. We've got nuclear weapons and a financial meltdown to worry about. We shouldn't be worrying about steroids as much as I think sometimes we do."

However the candidate apparently wants government time spent on the NCAA D-1 football playoffs:

Although he says government should be more hands-off on steroids, Obama did suggest other sports areas in which his administration might meddle.

"I would have my attorney general investigate the possibility of instituting a college football playoff system through executive order. I'm tired of this nonsense at the end of every college football season," Obama said.

There is a fine use of government time.  Where do these candidates come up with their ideas (that had to be said tongue in cheek)?  Or perhaps this is all about taking a swipe at opponent Republican John McCain.

Let's remind the candidate about steroids and doping involved in the Mitchell Report, the Roger Clemens case, the San Diego Tribune NFL steroid scandal sheet, the on-going saga of Lance Armstrong, and the Olympic scandals.  Let's remind the candidate that often not much happens to combat doping and steroid use in the professional leagues (NFL, MLB) until the Congress becomes interested.  Let's remind the candidate that the US derives so much from Olympic involvement (generally the most benefit from the Olympics goes to NBC TV or whomever is broadcasting the event) that the country needs to get with the program in meeting IOC and WADA anti-doping standards.  Baseball will likely be eliminated because the leagues cannot meet WADA doping standards.

In most progressive European countries there are national anti-doping ministers at a governmental level.  Not the United State.  Most European countries also have passed sports fraud laws.  We sure don't hope that under an Obama administration doping and steroid awareness returns to the good old days of benign neglect or active ignorance.

Appearing on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" program, Obama did not mention the Arizonan by name. But the Democratic presidential nominee did make clear that he would steer a different course than McCain has in the past when he was asked "how much government should be involved with sports and performance-enhancing drugs."

"I gotta admit that seeing a lot of congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time," Obama said.

McCain has long been closely identified with efforts on the Hill to expose steroid use in baseball. In 2004, when McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, his panel held a high-profile hearing on the subject, and McCain's scrutiny helped force Major League Baseball owners to implement a new drug-testing policy.  McCain said the following year that the league "can't be trusted" to handle the issue on its own, and threatened to write legislation cracking down on performance-enhancing drugs. A House committee also held highly publicized hearings on steroids in baseball in 2007.

It does sound like Obama agrees with the opinion that Congressional time is better spent on 700 Billion dollar bailouts, which occur every day.  In fact that sounds like the more potent steroids are getting injected right into Wall Street corporate America.

Wish Senator Obama would read here about why Congress should be involved in steroid and doping issues.

Olympians in Beijing complain of spiked drinks: Where were Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson?

An Australian paper reports that at least one athlete claimed she fell ill in a Beijing bar with a spiked drink.  However, no evidence that the intent was to dope the athlete with a PED.

A number of Australian Olympic team members had their drinks spiked in a Beijing nightclub while celebrating the end of their competitions.

A female athlete - understood to be an archer - fell ill while at the China Doll bar, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has confirmed.

Another victim complained to Fairfax newspapers of suddenly feeling ill, vomiting and then passing out on a couch in the popular nightclub.

The attacks led to the AOC sending out a text message to all team members and staff, warning them to stay clear of the bar before the final weekend of the games, when most celebrations would begin.

"One athlete in particular thought she had her drink spiked in a bar and then the word went out that maybe we shouldn't frequent that bar," AOC spokesman Mike Tancred told Fairfax.

"It was fairly early on, but she had finished competition and that was the only reason she was in a bar."

As more athletes began celebrating the end of their Olympic campaigns, more reports of drink spiking emerged from the China Doll.

The AOC does not believe the alleged spikings were aimed at making the athletes fail anti-doping tests.

Paralympians last night received a warning about unruly behaviour, following the revelations of drink spiking.

We refer to the Ben Johnson charge that Carl Lewis spiked his drink with Winstrol.

Pheonix connecting dots between anabolic steroid use and suicide

Be careful with any interpretation of this, but a Phoenix medical clinic is under investigation following 3 patient deaths given anabolic steroids. ( KNXV-TV)

All three men have at least two things in common, they were taking steroids and they were getting them at Revolution Medical Centers, a Phoenix-based clinic that's currently under state and federal investigation.
 
"We're looking to see if there is a causal relationship between the death and the treatment or therapy they were being given," said Dr. Craig Runbeck, executive director, Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Board of Medical Examiners.
 
"You're hitting your body with a biochemical sledge hammer and you're pushing things way beyond where they were designed to be," Runbeck said.
 
The autopsy reports make no mention of anabolic steroids, but police reports and medical records do.
 
"Patients die everywhere," said Dr. Jeremy Bula, owner of Revolution Medical Centers. "They didn't die as a result of anabolic steroid use."
 
But one patient left behind a note.  "Stop using steroids. They will destroy your life or anyone with you," the note said.  Moments later, Brian Stubstad committed suicide.

A completed suicide is usually a very complicated multi-factorial act.  No one should point a finger at one particular cause.  However, it is true that anabolic steroids can be mood altering -- this is indisputable.  Is the use of anabolic steroids necessary and sufficient to produce an act of violence?  Probably not in most cases.  Can the use of AASs be contributory.  Absolutely....in a vulnerable person.  (Anabolic steroids are now a major drug of abuse; medical clinics are developing withdraw plans for users)

According to documents obtained by ABC15, he was a patient at Revolution Medical Centers for two years.  His chart indicates he had taken trembolin, a powerful steroid that's not approved for human use.

"Anytime you use a drug that's not approved for human use, there are unknown side effects," Runbeck said.

Was Brian Stubstad speaking from the grave?  According to medical records, he was complaining of depression and mood swings shortly after receiving steroids from Revolution Medical Centers.  In the weeks leading up to his suicide, there were police reports, a pattern of violence, and even an order of protection alleging death threats.

"The story sounds very familiar," said Don Hooton, whose son Taylor began using anabolic steroids five years go.  Six months later, 16-year-old Taylor was dead.  "He was going through severe mood swings," Hooton said. "It went far enough that he went upstairs, took two belts and hung himself."

 

Ode Magazine piece misses the mark on doping

A piece in Ode Magazine starts off asking about the role of society vis a vis the Tour de France doping.  Unfortunately by the third paragraph the article drifted astray -- way astray.

If a conclusion is drawn it should be ascertained from the valid data preceding it.  Let's take a look:

I just read the news about the third doping case at this year's Tour de France: Italian rider Riccardo Ricco has tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO. And of course, as it happens so often with sportsmen who are associated with artificial performance-enhancing measures, Ricco was "booed by spectators when he was taken off the Saunier-Duval team bus by police Thursday," the AP report said.

Poor Ricco! I don't think using drugs was such a great idea, but I do feel we need to ask ourselves some serious questions before we condemn him. After all, in the rest of society, performance-boosters have become increasingly commonplace.

OK, now here it comes, the litany of horrible pharmaceutics:

* People take Prozac so they can better manage psychological pressure. * Students take Ritalin to improve their grades. * Middle-aged men take Viagra to spice up their sex lives. * Shy people take Paxil so they can handle social situations. * Writers, musicians and other artists take other stimulants to stand out in their fields.

Cliche list.  Inaccurate information.

• Prozac is not prescribed 'to manage psychological pressure'.  Fluoxetine is prescribed for mood disorders, anxiety disorders like OCD, Autism, and other medical disorders. The key is 'disorder'. The diagnosis 'psychological pressure' will never be found in a medical record.
• Students do not take Ritalin to improve their grades.  Methylphenidate is prescribed for patients with ADHD to ameliorate inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.  An improvement in grades may be a benefit with the appropriate work effort.
• Middle aged men do not take Viagra 'to spice up their sex lives'  (what an incredibly insensitive remark).  Viagra is used for impotence -- the inability to achieve an erection.  "Spice up".  Yeah, We suppose crutches are used by amputees to beat the airport rush.
• Shy people take Paxil so they can handle social situations.   There's an example of an egregious abuse of drugs. huh?  Patients with social anxiety are clearly cheating the system and should simply stay isolated at home.
• Writers etc. tale stimulants to stand out in their field.   Huh?  Ok, you lost us at 'stand'

Seems this writer distorts medicine, or twists medical treatments to support a illogical argument that EPO abusers like Manuel Beltran is paying for the sins of the Prozac Society.

And Marion Jones took insulin mimicking those horrible diabetes who inject insulin so they can eat pizza...

In modern society, athletes have become heroes. Sports stars aren’t so much role models for society as reflections of it, albeit reflections with exceptional talent. Athletes take performance-enhancing substances mainly as a consequence of our sky-high expectations and the huge commercial interests involved.

Ultimately they are part of the same achievement-oriented society we are, in which he use of stimulants has become normal. The appropriate response is not moral outrage, but a relaxing of the enormous pressure we put on them: Just do your best, kid. That’s all you can do.

OK, we understand the conclusions; however please present preceding arguments developed to support the conclusions rather than a roll call of popular press target medications.

PEDs, and medicines are simply molecules.  Molecules are not evil.  The use or abuse of the molecules is the issue.

Fitness champ Julie Coram retains law firm to fight steroid charges

We carried the story of fitness model Julie Coram from Canada, who won the Miss Manitoba Fitness title on May 31, and who tested positive for several anabolic steroids including the horse steroid Equipoise (boldenone).  She also reportedly tested positive for oxandrolone, (Anavar) and the weak androgen DHEA.  Now, Ms Coram hired a law firm to represent her interests in this controversy.  Story carried in her local newspaper -- the Selkirk Journal.  (note the active controversy ensuing after our prior post on the event)

Julie Coram’s reign as Miss Fitness Manitoba may be going from the stage to the courts.
The former Selkirk resident has employed the services of New York law firm Collins, McDonald & Gann to defend her rights in a drug test dispute after allegedly testing positive for steroids at a physique competition in May.

In a press release forwarded to the Selkirk Journal Monday, attorney Michael J. DiMaggio claims the positive drug test administered at the Ainsley McSorley FAME Model Search Championships were unreliable and have damaged his client’s reputation.

“We’re just beginning to look at the facts of this case but our initial examination reveals a testing process that is so vague and lacking in controls that the results are profoundly suspect,” DiMaggio said.

Coram, who was named 2008 Miss Fitness Manitoba at the Manitoba Amateur Body Building Association provincial championship on May 31, was tested after winning the female muscle model category at the FAME event one week earlier.

The FAME World Tour promotes itself as a natural fitness circuit along with its sanctioning body, the World Natural Sports Organization. Coram was reportedly red flagged by FAME judges who asked for a urine sample.

It now appears there is controversy about the testing procedure.  Once again, forensics rears it's ugly statutory head.

According to FAME anti-doping officials, Coram was found to have three steroids or steroid derivatives in her system, including one sometimes used to treat injured horses.

Once test results were confirmed by the World Natural Sports Organization, Coram was stripped of her FAME title, her pro card and banned from competition by the WNSO.

Coram remains Miss Fitness Manitoba however, at least for the time being. Because she wasn’t tested at the provincial event – and because the FAME results weren’t known before she was crowned Miss Manitoba – the MABBA is awaiting legal advice on whether to accept the FAME results. They have turned the matter over to the Canadian Body Building Federation and the sport’s national governing body, the Canadian Centre of Ethics in Sport.
MABBA competitors are part of a pool of individuals who could be tested randomly at any time by the CCES. The MABBA tests only randomly however due to the expense – reportedly $400 per test.

MABBA officials have openly questioned the FAME test’s validity, a stance that was mirrored in DiMaggio’s press release.

“Elite amateur organizations like the IOC, CBBF and IFBB could hardly take these results seriously,” DiMaggio said.

(more after the jump) (We will also check to see if the anabolic androgens are metabolites of any supplements.)

NFL prospect Heath Benedict died of irregular heartbeat; enlarged heart and drugs (Viagra) noted

Heath Benedict, a small college big time football player found dead at his home last March, appears to raise many questions.  At 6-6 and 320 pounds, any NFL prospect draws attention to possible steroid use, An early death compounds the concerns.  At the time this was said (USA Today)

Heath Benedict, a two-time Little All-American offensive lineman at Newberry College in South Carolina, was found dead on a couch in his Jacksonville home.

Jacksonville police said no foul play is suspected in the death of the 24-year-old Benedict, a 6-6, 326-pounder who finished up his senior season in the fall and left school to train for next month's NFL draft. He was nine hours short of a business degree.

Benedict took part in the Senior Bowl in January, the first Division II player to do so since 2004, and was invited to last month's NFL combine.

"He was a big, tough man, but he had a very gentle heart," Newberry president Mick Zais said. "He was a teddy bear."

Benedict, who redshirted at Tennessee in 2002 before moving to Newberry, was a native of the Netherlands. He played high school football at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J.

More than a gentle heart - an enlarged heart with an irregular heartbeat.  What might cause cardiac hypertrophy?  A congenital condition, or drug use.  Drugs like anabolic steroids or more notoriously HGH can enlarge the heart, thus causing major problems.  And what was found at Benedict's house?  These drugs (The State):

Former Newberry College football standout Heath Benedict died of an irregular heartbeat caused by an enlarged heart, according to the Duval County Medical Examiner’s Office in Jacksonville, Fla.

The report also reveals a syringe and three bottles were found near his body on March 26. One of the bottles contained water, but the other two were labeled “L-Via” and “L-Dex,” liquid forms of the drugs Viagra and Arimidex.

Deputy chief medical examiner Jessie Giles made it clear Benedict’s death was caused by dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart-muscle disease that leads to a fatal irregular heartbeat. However, Giles said the role Viagra, an erectile dysfunction medication, and Arimidex, an anabolic steroid used by post-menopausal breast cancer patients to reduce estrogen levels, could not be determined.

“The role, if any, of anabolic steroid or other similar drug/preparation use ... is unknown and beyond the scope of this office,” Giles wrote in the report.

The newspaper distorted the facts somewhat.  Arimidex (anastrozole) is not an anabolic steroid, however is a masking agent or an anti-estrogen drug.  It acts by inhibiting conversion of androgenic steroids to estrogen, thus reducing side effects like enlarged breasts.

Injections of Viagra and Arimidex is somewhat bizarre.  Was this player attempting to maximize his NFL potential, yet trying to avoid detection at dope testing?

Stories recently centered on Viagra as PED, apparently used by big time drug-cheat Roger Clemens.  (Sporting News).  Listen to this quote attributed to Clemens:

Roger Clemens, among other athletes, used Viagra to improve their athletic performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

Clemens got the pills -- which are not banned by Major League Baseball -- from a teammate and kept them in a GNC vitamin bottle in his locker, according to an anonymous source cited by the newspaper. He also reportedly told a friend that the drug made him feel flushed and made his heart race. 

The newspaper also quotes BALCO founder Victor Conte as saying, "All my athletes took it," in reference to a Viagra-like drug.

The drug and its over-the-counter substitutes reportedly have numerous off-label uses. These include helping build endurance and delivering oxygen, nutrients and performance-enhancing drugs to muscles more efficiently.

Researchers at universities across the country are now trying to determine whether anecdotal evidence that Viagra aids in training and improves performance is based in scientific fact.

Heart racing?  Perhaps leading to cardiac arrhythmias in an athlete who might have primed his heart with anabolics?  This isn't good.  More on the topic later...

Add#1We added a continuation of the State article which stated that Benedict showed "two puncture wounds in his arm, which isn't consistent with anabolic steroids.

Add#2:  We found a research study where Arimidex increased testosterone in 'elderly men' from about 375 to 575.  Not a bad increase.  The mechanism appears to be by blocking the negative feedback from estrogen on LH/FSH or GNRH release in the pituitary.

 

Growth Hormone: New biomarkers, and calls for more regulation

First we go to News-Net Medical for a report on the search for new biomarkers, that may be useful in the anti-doping crusade.  Investigators have been looking at proteins that change when exogenous HGH is administered.  Biomarker detection would aid a regulatory agency like WADA when trying to detect drug cheats l ike Marion Jones, who abused HGH on the way to her discredited Olympic medals.  (Update: The debate about the performance enhancing effectiveness of HGH continues on)

Researchers have found potential new biomarkers for growth hormone, which they say could help the sports community in detecting growth hormone abuse. The results of the animal study will be presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Many athletes are misusing recombinant human growth hormone, a drug intended for people who are growth hormone deficient, because of its supposed ability to decrease fat and increase muscle. However, detection remains a challenge. The growth hormone drug appears only briefly in blood and is identical to the growth hormone that the body naturally makes, said study coauthor John Kopchick, PhD, of Ohio University.

"Variability is a problem with current testing for growth hormone doping," Kopchick said. "It is gender and age-sensitive. We're looking for a test that will give standard results for everyone."

The authors are attempting to identify proteins in the blood that could be biomarkers for growth hormone action. A biomarker is a substance that can be detected in higher-than-normal amounts in the blood, urine, or body tissues and thus could be used for screening.

A bookmarker would alert authorities that doping has occurred.  For instance the decrease in LH seen when testosterone is administered would be considered a biomarker.

Kopchick's group injected six male mice with growth hormone once a day for a week and also injected six male mice with saline, to serve as controls. On the eighth day they determined the protein changes in the blood of all mice.

Several proteins or their isoforms (genetic variants or protein sub-populations that are modified differently) greatly increased or decreased in the growth hormone-treated mice, compared with controls, the authors reported. They included transthyretin, clusterin, albumin, and apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA1).

If the results translate to humans, these proteins have the potential to be new biomarkers for growth hormone action, according to Kopchick. Regulatory agencies could use new biomarkers for growth hormone in their attempts to halt the abuse of this drug among athletes, he said.

"Extension of these results to humans is of paramount importance, and these studies are ongoing," he said.

The second report originated with a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, where Dr. Thomas Perls describes the huge anti-aging industry's use of HGH.  Dr. Perls will point out that HGH use in Anti-aging is entirely unresearched, and potentially dangerous.  To Science Daily:

Since their previous article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2005 on the clinical and legal aspects of growth hormone for anti-aging, in which researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago alerted the medical community and lay public to the deceptive mass marketing and illegal distribution of growth hormone for anti-aging and athletic enhancement, the authors provide new evidence demonstrating that these deceptive and dangerous activities have grown worse.

Remarks Dr. Thomas Perls, Director of the New England Centenarian Study and an associate professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, who has monitored the anti-aging industry for over the past ten years, "despite the overwhelming evidence that the risks and dangers of growth hormone far outweigh the clinically demonstrated insignificant benefit in normally aging individuals, the prescribing, distribution and sale of hGH for alleged anti-aging aesthetic and athletic enhancement has dramatically grown over the past few years. Clearly, the coordinated and aggressive marketing campaigns of the anti-aging and age-management industries are highly and most unfortunately effective."...

Contrary to published claims, neither long-term safety nor health benefits have been demonstrated in normally aging individuals taking hGH. A review of clinical studies among healthy, normally aging individuals found that hGH supplementation does not significantly increase muscle strength or aerobic exercise capacity. However, documented adverse effects include soft tissue edema, arthralgias (joint pains), carpal tunnel-like syndrome, gynecomastia (enlarged breasts) and insulin resistance with an elevated risk of developing diabetes. Increasingly more and more animal and laboratory studies suggest an increased cancer risk.

Dr Perls came up with the following recommendations:

The authors suggest that several measures need to be taken to address the inappropriate distribution and use of hGH.

Among their recommendations:

• The public must be accurately informed by physicians and scientists who do not have a vested interest in hGH, about health risks, fraudulent marketing and illegal distribution of this drug.
• Organizations that promote or indirectly profit from the medically inappropriate and illegal distribution of hGH that have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to offer American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award (PRA) category 1 CME credits or other categories of CME credit should, at a minimum, have their accreditation revoked.
• U.S. manufacturers of hGH must be more effective in, and held accountable for, controlling the distribution of the drug to companies providing the drug for illegal uses.
• Congressional hearings and media attention surrounding hGH should focus less on athletes and prominent entertainers who are also victims of deceptive marketing and pushing of hGH, and much more on the distributors who are violating federal and state laws by making the drug available for non-approved uses.

Doc and Ditka damn NFL dalliance on disabled vets; Say steroid use contributes to health disabilities

Mike Ditka tends to speak up on issues; we reported his dissatisfaction concerning the NFL's poor handling of gridiron health issues.  Ditka and wounded NFL vets claim the NFL drags feet when it comes to taking care of football-related injuries and disabilities of aged NFL veterans.  Ditka found new allies in tough talking doctors with serious charges about the NFL and the NFL Players Association. The docs say PEDs will make the entire demeaning situation worse over the upcoming years. To the New York Daily News.

...Simpson (is) an obesity expert who has a stake in the physician-owned Surgical Specialty Hospital of Arizona. "I saw guys who couldn't walk and guys who could barely walk, and I thought it was disgraceful how these guys have been abandoned by the NFL and the Players Association."

Simpson (who met Ditka at a Gridiron Great's function)and officials from OAA Orthopedic Specialists in Allentown, Pa., will be in Chicago on Tuesday to announce they are teaming up with Gridiron Greats to offer free health care - including spine surgery, joint replacement, pain management, obesity counseling and physical therapy - to the ailing and financially strapped ex-players.

Gridiron Greats will screen players for financial need, and then refer qualifying retirees to the Allentown and Phoenix facilities. Executive director Jennifer Smith hopes hospitals and medical groups near other NFL cities will offer their services, too.

Mike Ditka ain't happy.  EX-Dolphin Mercury Morris ain't so pleased himself:

"If I were the NFL, I'd be embarrassed," says former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris, who will take advantage of the program to determine if he needs surgery for wrist and knee injuries. "Why does it fall on these hospitals to provide the care the NFL and the union should be providing?"

Dr. Simpson implicates NFL team physicians in this mess; he's talking malpractice here:

Simpson wants to change the way the NFL looks at medicine: Team doctors, he says, are more worried about getting hurt players back on the field than treating injuries.

"Doctors that put players on the field that don't belong there, that's malpractice," Simpson says. "Doctors who shoot up players with cortisone and xylocaine so they can play, that's malpractice. We will report that to boards of medical examiners. There are clearly patterns of abuse here."

As for the steroid & PED business:

Simpson says he expects the number of NFL disabled to skyrocket in the near future because of performance-enhancing drugs.

"Steroids contribute to the overall injury patterns," he says. "You don't see as many injuries in older players as you do younger ones. We suspect there is a steroid component to that. People don't understand the impact these drugs can have long-term."

(more after the jump)

 

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  Prince Fielder's power numbers are way down.  Not due to the the juice, but due to the juice, the fruit and vegetable juice. (Tuft's Daily)

2.  This blog post says ladies should not eat chicken...too many steroids injected in the Byrd wings.  There goes wings at Hooters (Love is Colorful)

3. More stringent tests for horses thinking of doping for the Olympics.  (Horse Deals)

4.  Harry Truman and the CIA started America doping (We know the Lies)

5.  Barry Bonds last home run ball fetches over 375,000. (Toledo Blade)

True Lies: Tammy Thomas convicted of perjury and obstruction

An angry Tammy Thomas heard San Francisco jurors convict her of lying to BALCO investigators this afternoon.  Thomas, who used so much anabolic steroid she needed to shave (? brand of shaving cream) her beard, grew hair on her cheat, lowered her voice, and grew her genitalia, deceived the investigators looking into the BALCO operation that snared a number of Bay Area and national elite athletes.  From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Former cyclist Tammy Thomas was convicted Friday of lying to a grand jury investigating a steroid distribution ring that has implicated some of the biggest stars in baseball, football and track.

Thomas, the first figure connected to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative case to go to trial, shouted at the jury after being found guilty of three counts of perjury and a count of obstruction of justice. She was acquitted of two counts of perjury.

Apparently not realizing she controlled her own destiny both when she took illegal anabolic drugs, and when she deceived investigators, Thomas -- a law student -- became visibly and orally angry at the pronouncement; now convicted it will be doubtful she would be accepted into a state bar.

"I already had one career taken away from me," she yelled, referencing her lifetime ban from cycling. "Look me in the eye. You can't do it."

Her father, who has sat in the front row of court during the two week trial, also raised his voice and said, "They can't do it."

Thomas then shouted and gestured at prosecutors: "Look me in the eye .... You like to destroy people's lives."

Thomas, who must have been bright enough to be accepted to law school, must not understand that her sentencing is on the docket.  Why become so aggressive in court?  Why show a temper to the judge who will sentence you?  Those androgens still working somewhere in the limbic lobe (in fact use of AAS affects limbic neurons)?

Legal experts said Thomas faces a prison sentence of between six months and several years. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 18...

The jury found Thomas guilty of falsely telling the grand jury that she had never taken steroids and had never received any performance-enhancing drugs from Arnold, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to making two undetectable steroids.

Thomas made her denials even though she was banned from cycling for life in August 2002 after the performance-enhancing drug Norbolethone was detected in her urine.

The drug, once an obscure steroid used in human tests in the 1960s, was rediscovered by Arnold, who supplied the Burlingame-based BALCO with undetectable performance-enhancing drugs.

Thomas's choices remain inexplicable.  Her choice of doping with extremely strong androgenic anabolic steroids led to virilizing side-effects.  Her choice of doping led to a lifetime ban from cycling.  She then choose to deceive investigators -- even when given immunity on front of the Grand Jury  Furthermore, one wonders if she wasn't given an opportunity for a plea bargain, rather than court.

All this adds up to some unsavory evidence of personality directions that look a wrong turn.  Cheating her competitors.  Ignoring the consequences of telling the truth even when given immunity.  Makes one wonder if the AASs affect judgment long after existing the body.

Barry Bonds, take notice...your lawyers did.

More Tammy Thomas posts here, here, here, here, and here.

Review from Stanford says HGH no benefit as PED

In a comprehensive review of HGH used as a PED (performance enhancing drug) a team at Stanford says that current evidence suggests no anabolic effect for the hormone.  (although this paper is called a study, it isn't; it is a review or meta-analysis of past papers)

Athletes who take human growth hormone may not be getting the boost they expected. While growth hormone adds some muscle, it doesn't appear to improve strength or exercise capacity, according to a review of studies that tested the hormone in mostly athletic young men.

"It doesn't look like it helps and there's a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance," said Dr. Hau Liu, of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., who was lead author of the review.

Growth hormone, or HGH, is among the performance enhancers baseball stars Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were accused of taking in the blockbuster Mitchell Report. Clemens denies using the hormone, while Pettitte admits using it.

Will there be new studies of HGH as a PED?  Maybe, maybe not.

But the new research has some limitations and sheds no light on long-term use of HGH. The scientists note their analysis included few studies that measured performance. The tests also probably don't reflect the dose and frequency practiced by athletes illegally using the hormone. Experiments like that aren't likely to be conducted.

"It's dangerous, unethical and it's never going to be done," said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.

There were significant differences noted with HGH, in the analysis.  Lean body mass increased in the HGH subjects.  Strength (measured in the studies) did not increase in the HGH subjects.  However side effects became more prominent with HGH use -- edema (tissue swelling) and and joint aches (like carpel tunnel syndrome).

As we pointed out in the Huffington Post, HGH by itself may not be anabolic.  There is evidence that the hormone is synergistic with anabolic steroids (or insulin or T4), which means that the effects of these hormones add to each other.  Further, we don't know the effects of the drugs on the most genetically gifted athletes - professionals.

However, a study is a study.  HGH by itself in these doses used in young healthy men does not appear to be an impressive anabolic drug.

 

Catching-up: gene doping, Florida steroids and more

Here are a few commentaries from last week we need to note:

1.  in 'Designing Improved Humans', Henry Miller, M.D., discusses performance enhancement's march to gene doping:

The well-publicized use by athletes of performance-enhancing drugs including androgenic steroids and human growth hormone has gotten more people than ever before thinking and talking about the subject. But the issue is neither new nor limited to a small number of people...

Technology will soon offer even more extreme possibilities for enhancement. Scientists, using gene therapy to increase the levels of a single enzyme, recently created a strain of mice with increased physical abilities by genetically altering a gene that affects metabolism. By injecting an active form of the gene PEPCK-C into an embryo, the scientists found that the mouse more efficiently burns body fat for energy and produces less lactic acid during exercise...

These experiments have reinvigorated a long-running debate about the ethics of creating designer humans. “We’re in an era when breakthroughs in biology and intelligence are outpacing the culture’s capacity to deal with the ethics,” said Joe Tsien, Ph.D., the Princeton University molecular biologist who directed the development of a “smart mouse” almost a decade ago. “There will be issues of access and who can afford it and whether the social wealthy class will have the intellectual advantage over poor people.” As though attending M.I.T. instead of Florida A&M doesn’t confer an intellectual advantage.

Artificial enhancement was also addressed in the Sports Illustrated article here.

2:  The Broward-Palm Beach New Times looks at the HGH-promoting Anti-aging clinics in Florida.  The article begins idyllically:

Grass doesn't get any greener than on major-league baseball's spring training fields. It's the annual dawn of each season, when vivacious young hopefuls play catch with millionaire all-stars. That was the scene on a February morning at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Then turns incongruously ironic:

One year ago, this citadel of major-league baseball wasn't so serene. Investigators contend that South Florida is not just a popular spring training destination but also the epicenter of a nationwide network distributing illicit prescription steroids and human growth hormones.

To follow a minor league player, juicing through an Anti-aging clinic.

J says he paid about $1,000 per stack. A "stack" is a combination of steroids and HGH that comes as a package. It's generally used for a one-month workout cycle. When his first stack arrived, he says, he called a number he had for Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center to figure out how to use it. "I didn't want to inject the wrong thing — this into that or in the wrong order or whatever, and have something bad happen." The conversation was awkward initially, but he got the information he needed.

Near the television in his apartment, J has a photo of himself and two friends posing in a weight room. He was a late-round draft pick out of high school only a few years ago. The signing bonus offered to him was less than $100,000, but it was enough for him to decide to forgo college (and scholarship eligibility) and move straight into rookie-league ball, the bottom of the minor leagues. He had mild success his first season but got hurt halfway through. He was injured again early into his second season.

Reminds us of the story yesterday documenting a minor league draftee testing positive for a PED.

This is a very well researched piece; it should go into the reference bank of Anti-aging clinic performance-enhancement doping.

GAT Rocket fuel? Jose Canseco now joins GAT as 'expert'

GAT  -- German American Technologies, one more sports supplementation clone company -- says that Jose Canseco will be coming aboard as an 'expert' in nutrition and performance.  We suppose when you market a line of me-too supplementation products that offer little or no benefit, you need some celebrity endorsements to gain an edge.  Worked for BALCO didn't it.

STAMFORD, CT--(Marketwire - March 12, 2008) -  GAT (German American Technologies) recently signed baseball superstar and fitness expert José Canseco as its newest spokesperson.  Mr. Canseco is long known for his batting prowess during a career that most sports experts reflect upon as stellar, including his well-earned MVP status.  Canseco is among the company's growing roster of athletes benefiting from use of premier GAT supplements Jetfuel, Sonic Pump, XC4 and new Testagen.

Who would these 'sports experts' be who feel Canseco's career might be 'steller'?  Mike Greenwell, who recently dissed Canseco, feeling a juicer like Canseco cheated him out of honors?

Canseco has made no secret that he believes pro-hormonal steroids are actually a natural part of a healthy bodybuilding lifestyle. As noted in part one of his autobiography, the 2005 Juiced, he credits himself with popularizing use of performance-enhancing steroids to baseball, fueling the rise to stardom of many 1990s players now regarded as legendary. His eagerly awaited, soon-to-be released part two, Vindicated, is expected to hit bookstores on opening day 2008.

Steroids aside, GAT is leveraging Mr. Canseco's expertise in sports performance and exercise on a wide spectrum of supplementation enhancements.  Charles Moser, president and CEO of GAT, states, "José Canseco has proven himself over several decades to be an able teacher about enhancing bodybuilding and fitness regimens.  He is a no-nonsense authority who has a positive insight on bodybuilding supplementation.  As a member now of our expanding TeamGAT roster, we expect José to bring a vibrant, constructive message to the global bodybuilding community and sports on the benefits of non-steroidal sports nutrition.

Has Canseco ever discussed 'pro-hormonal' steroids?   Forget these products, just eat a bunch of eggs with the 'pro-hormonal steroid' cholesterol  in abundance.

And when did Canseco prove himself to be an 'able teacher about enhanced bodybuilding and fitness regimens'?  To Roger Clemens at parties?  To Juan Gone, and to Raffy Palmeiro?

GAT is renowned world wide for its quality performance supplementation products. Its products include its flagship Jetfuel, the premier fat burner and energy booster; Testagen, its groundbreaking premium testosterone amplifier; Sonic Pump, its continuous nitric oxide booster; XC4, its superb creatine ethyl ester matrix, and Testrol, its wildly popular anabolic testosterone potency activator.

'Wildly popular anabolic testosterone potency activator'?  Let's see the research on that claim.  And if it is so wildly popular why does the company need Canseco to shill for them?

Sports Illustrated takes a look at HGH and anti-aging

In a well-written Sports Illustrated piece, Jack McCallum looks at how enhancement pervades American culture, in sports, in the arts -- in almost all aspects of life.  A nation on dope.  A Steroid Nation.

We are a juiced nation.

We are a nation on dope.

We are a nation looking for enhancement, a way to age gracefully, perform better and longer, and, at the outer edge, vanquish what was once considered that alltime undefeated opponent known as aging. We do that by Botoxing our wrinkles, lifting our faces, reconstructing our noses, despidering our veins, tucking our tummies, augmenting our breasts and taking a little pill to make sure we're ready when, you know, the right time presents itself. We also do it by injecting human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone, America's new golden pharmaceutical couple...

The truth is, sports do not define the culture -- they reflect it. Society's image of the ideal body is shaped largely by forces outside the chalked lines. And the belief that life can be improved, even extended, by drugs comes not from sports but from the burgeoning field known as antiaging medicine.

This is good stuff.  We should take the time to analyze this article, however right now, we can only point you to the SI site to read the work.

We point out that the steroids/PED/HGH aspect may only be the tip of the iceberg on this issue.  How far will enhancement - drug, hormonal, cosmetic, surgical, silicone -- take humans?  Will we be cyborgs in the future, part man, part machine, part materials, part hormones?

(and by the way, we have a small quote in the article, but by far the most profound quote -- OK not all that profound...but it is small)

 

 

Bobby Murcer confesses to steroid use...for treatment

Yankee great Bobby Murcer, now battling 'brain cancer' says he takes steroids.  Hey, but these are therapeutic steroids.

Murcer's battle with cancer is well known.  Treatment for the tumor consisted of chemotherapy and radiation therapy last winter.  Murcer resumed activites as Yankee broadcaster recently, however his doctors noted an ominous shadow on a brain MRI.  Story in the NY Daily News:

After getting the good news Wednesday that the ominous spot on his brain was not the return of cancer, an "ecstatic" Bobby Murcer expressed thanks to all his fans and well-wishers for their answered prayers.

"I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for their prayers," Murcer told the Daily News from his home in Oklahoma City. "It was a pretty scary thing and I didn't realize how complex this whole thing was going to be, but the good news is the spot turned out to be scar tissue and not a new tumor. I'm ecstatic."

The 61-year-old Murcer, who is battling a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer, is in a special experimental program at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston.

After six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation last winter, he was able to resume his broadcasting duties with the Yankees. But last week a routine MRI revealed a spot in the same area of his brain from which the initial tumor was removed in December of '06, prompting doctors to order a biopsy. Yesterday, the biopsy revealed the spot to be only scar tissue and not another tumor.

As Murcer related, the procedure was almost as intense as the original surgery.

"I didn't know they were going to have to go back in there with a needle into my brain to take the tissue out," he said. "The whole thing took about three hours and I'm pretty wiped out right now. Wiped out, but ecstatic. I thank the Good Lord for looking over me."

Murcer said he plans to spend the rest of the spring at home in Oklahoma City resting up, but vowed, as he did last year, to be back in the booth for Opening Day.

Murcer then 'admitted' to steroids.  Actually these would be corticosteroids, used to prevent reflex brain swelling.

"Tell everyone I'll see them then," he said. "And, oh yes, tell them to forgive me, but I'm on steroids now! I know they don't want to hear this, but that's what the doctors have me taking."

See, there is a place for steroids in medicine, when used properly.  And no one will ask Murcer to testify before Congress...let's keep Bobby Murcer in our thoughts.

 

New book on gay health targets steroid abuse

A new book on health care issues in gay men lists steroid use as problematic. The Windy City Media Group looks at a new book on gay health by Dr. Frank Spinelli.

Dr. Frank Spinelli never saw any books that directly focused on current, wide-ranging health issues affecting gay men, so he wrote one.

The result is The Advocate Guide to Gay Men's Health and Wellness ( Alyson Books; $18.99 ) , a first-of-its-kind resource for life-enhancing holistic medicine. Informational and inspirational, the book provides an in-depth, easy-to-read look at the issues that affect the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical well-being of gay men...

Spinelli stresses the importance of a good physical exam annually, one geared to a gay man.

The book itself is geared for the 40-and-over crowd, “but there's something in it for everyone,” he said, pointing out sections about gay sex and STDs.

“Being gay has a lot to do with how you see your health, how you talk to your doctor, including what you talk to your doctor about,” Spinelli said.

Dr. Spinelli says anabolic steroid and HGH use needs to be addressed in the gay community:

The book also addresses steroid and recreational drug use within the gay community—and, yes, both are a major problem, he said.

“When I moved to New York, I had never even heard of a circuit party, let alone knew what went on at them, including the amount of drugs consumed at them,” Spinelli said. “I really see crystal meth as a major problem in the gay community. I can't even begin to imagine how much we've underestimated its use. It's probably much higher than its given statistically.

“Anabolic steroids definitely are a problem within the gay community. They definitely are having an impact in the community. Same for human growth [ hormone ] .”

The book also offers information about gay man's physical exams and tips to avoid contracting a new bacterial skin disease that has been silently plaguing the gay community since 2002. Also, Spinelli writes about eating disorders, among other topics.

We would suspect of "Appearance Enhancement" as the root of the steroid and HGH use in this population.  Certainly a topical subject.

Andy Pettitte obtained HGH from his father -- and local trainer

The more the Mitchell Report-baseball steroid-HGH tales fill out in de-tail, the more sordid the details become.  The latest sad story comes from Texas, where Andy Pettitte's father acquired illegal HGH for himself -- a seriously ill heart patient -- and his son -- the sore-elbowed pitcher...from a sleazy gym 'trainer' who graduated with son Andy.  One more illicit triangle.  One more example of the sleazy distribution networks for illegal PEDs.

The trainer's name is Kelly Blair who appears pectoral deep in doping athletes.  Blair operates a gym where pro athletes abound, including Roger Clemen's son Koby.  How tangled is this dope ring?

The link between Pettitte's father and the trainer became apparent in the Congressional questioning last week (Kelly Blair's website):

From the New York Daily News:

The (Congressional) committee published the deposition Wednesday upon concluding its madcap inquiry into Roger Clemens' denunciation of the Mitchell Report. In a remarkable act of candor, Pettitte insisted on making his story public by putting it on the record:

Q: Do you have any idea where your father obtained the HGH?

A: Yeah, I do now. Yes.

Q: Where is that?

A: The gym that he works out in. A guy that's the trainer there.

The News has learned that Kelly Blair is the unnamed trainer. The gym that he owns is 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness, which recently moved to a more modest location in Pasadena because, Blair told someone close to the gym, he couldn't afford the lease. Blair did not respond to recent requests for comment and did not participate in this story. He has been outside of the United States for the last several weeks.

Reports suggest soccer star Ronaldo's early steroid use led to current knee injuries

A Brazilian physician sounded off, opining that international soccer star Ronaldo's pattern of knee injuries appear consistent with early use of anabolic steroids.  The Brazilian Football Conference (CBF) subsequently threw the doc under the soccer-bus, firing him following the Renaldo remarks.

Dr Bernando Santi suggested that Ronaldo's knee injuries resulted from doping that began when the soccer star came under the tutelage of a European professional team -- PSV Eindhoven.  Story at Goal.com.  (full name = Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Limarecent)

El Fenomeno’s career could be over after he ruptured the tendon in his left knee on Wednesday night. This is the third time that the player has suffered such an injury, and his career has been ravaged by similar physical problems over the past decade.

Ronaldo Was Doped

Bernando Santi says that the reason why Ronaldo has suffered so many injuries is because when he signed for PSV Eindhoven in 1994 as a 17-year-old, he was regularly pumped full of anabolic steroids in order to build up the player physically and help him grow.

As a result Ronaldo then developed muscles that were unable to co-exist with his knee’s bone structure, leading to devastating problems in later years.

"I spoke to colleagues in Holland who know people at PSV,” Santi told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.  “I did not get to talk to PSV doctors. They gave supplements to Ronaldo, who was very thin, and among those supplements they included some anabolic substances which could make him grow a bit more.”

Santi is in no doubt that it was these drugs that have caused the injuries.  "It is a consequence of having grown beyond what his muscles were prepared to grow," he insisted.
"He gained muscle mass very fast, when he still had not reached maturity. The bill for the use of steroids shows up long term, 10, 15 or 20 years later."

Dr Santi isn't the only physician who believes Ronaldo blew out his knee:

Brazilian legend, Socrates, who is actually a fully qualified doctor in medicine, says that Ronaldo’s problems are as a result of the “abuse” he was subjected to earlier in his career.

"This was a pre-announced injury," the ex-Corinthians and Fiorentina star said.

"There is a difference between Ronaldo's muscle mass and the tendons on his knee. We have all seen Ronaldo grow too fast at the start of his career. That destroyed his knees forever.”

Interesting take on the soccer star's knee injuries.  Almost impossible to prove without a long term epidemiological study, the relationship between over-developed muscles of an athlete due to steroid use, and later-life tendon and ligament injuries remains intriguing.

 

Did MLB physician -- Cornell's Millman -- warn Rocker, I-Rod, A-Rod, and Palmeiro about steroids?

Former pitching flake John Rocker claimed yesterday that (NY Daily News) lectured 4 Texas Rangers, including A-Rod, I-Rod, Raffy Palmeiro, and Rocker himself on steroids use.

The loudmouth former reliever said he and then-Rangers teammate Alex Rodriguez, among others, were advised in spring training of 2002 by management and players' union doctors on how to use steroids in a way that is "not going to hurt you."

Rocker said a doctor hired by the Players' Association pulled aside himself, A-Rod, Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro following a spring training lecture and candidly told them how to use steroids.

"Look guys, if you take one kind of steroid, you don't triple stack them and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did," the doctor told him, Rocker said yesterday during an interview on the Buck and Kincade Show on WCNN-680 The Fan in Atlanta. "If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

Alzado, a former Oakland Raider, died of brain cancer in 1992.

Interesting that the Mitchell Report named a couple physicians who lectured baseball too.  Mitchell was not kind in relating their story.  One is substance abuse expert Robert Millman who teaches at Cornell Medical Center.

During baseball’s winter meetings in Nashville in December 1998, baseball executives and team physicians heard a presentation from Dr. Millman and Dr. Solomon on baseball’s drug policy. One attendee, Dr. William Wilder, was then the team doctor for the Cleveland Indians. In a memorandum to then Indians general manager John Hart that he wrote after the meeting, Dr. Wilder reported that the presentation focused on the benefits that could be obtained from testosterone. He was disturbed by the presentation, observing in the memorandum that whether or not testosterone increased muscle strength and endurance “begs the question of whether it should be used in athletics.” He believed there was “no reason that some preliminary literature can’t be sent out to the players concerning the known and unknown data about performance enhancing substances,” and recalled that Houston Astros’ team physician Bill Bryan presented a good overview of these issues with respect to supplements at meetings the previous year.   Dr. Wilder reiterated these observations and views in our interview with him.

Bill Stoneman, who retired in 2007 as the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, had a similar recollection of a presentation by Drs. Millman and Solomon. He remembered wondering at the time why Major League Baseball had permitted the presentation, which to his recollection included the assertion that there was no evidence that anabolic steroids with the message of leniency that was being conveyed.

Seven reasons why Congress should be concerned with steroid/dope use in sports.

“The responsibility” of government “for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is, in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.” Winston Churchill

Why should Congress investigate steroid and doping in baseball, among other things?  Why should federal security agencies (FBI, IRS) probe steroid dealers and juicing sports stars.  After all, the war in Iraq drags on, costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives; the economy appears to headed into the dumpster, based on the Iraq deficit spending as well as the loans from the Chinese and Japanese; and the nation continues to be obsessed with terror, meanwhile not starting at ground zero by conserving energy which is a significant part of the Middle East equation.

Let us count the ways.

1.  Sports, including baseball is a multi-billion dollar business.  The New York Yankees value hits a high at $1.2 billion, while the lowest value for a baseball club is the Florida Marlins at $244 million.  Add up the value of the other 22 teams in baseball, then move on to the NFL, NBA etc.

MLB revenue alone was $6.075 billion.  MLB commerce by definition is interstate, unless every game is the Royals v. Cardinals, or the Cubs v. White Sox, or Mets v. Yankees.

Using PEDs to artificially pump up statistics, to influence the outcome of games, and to gain an advantage of non-PED users must invoke sports fraud somewhere along the line.  Interstate sports fraud.

2.  Those wonderful stadia where baseball players perform their heroics use taxpayers monies.  Local taxing authorities provide much of the economics might for these stadia, while the owners and players collect billions of revenue.  However, the bonds floated for construction of these edifices utilize federal tax free bonds.  Once again billions.

3.  The drugs used by juicers fall within federal regulation.  The DEA regulates the use of anabolic steroids, as Schedule 3 drugs.  Any use of these drugs must include a valid prescription by a licensed registered physician, prescribed for a legitimate medical condition.  We cannot tell the amount of concern, worry, time, and expense spent at the medical level when any scheduled drug is prescribed.

4.  The supply networks for these illegal drugs all operate outside the law.  The juice is brought in from Mexico and from European counties.  The Russian mafia controls some of the traffic.  Chinese HGH makes its way into the black PED market.  Rouge chemists synthesize steroids outside any regulation or control of the USDA, the DEA, and legitimate regulated pharmaceutical companies.  The federal government subsumes responsibility for stopping these illegal drug distribution networks.

5.  Use of anabolic steroids, HGH, EPO, stimulants and other methods of doping fall within the interest of public heath.  The Center for Disease Control tracks the use of these drugs.  There are several reasons for concern:

• The use of PEDs leads to long term side effects.  Psychiatric, cardiac, endocrine, and digestive side effects cost time and money to treat.  Aggressiveness costs lives in homicide (when juiced cops assault suspects, or pro wrestlers kill their family) and suicide, endocrine problems costs money in treatments (for gynecomastia etc.), and the various liver, blood, skin, and other medical side effects .  Cardiac side effects lead to blood insufficiency, and heart failure over chronic use; see how many chronic users of anabolic steroids and HGH will undergo heart procedures which likely were exacerbated by dope use.
• If you don't care about the human aspects of disease, you might care about the monetary results of public health problems.  Those problems above will be paid by your insurance company or by Medicaid and Medicare, this raising your rates and likewise raising your taxes.
• Steroids are addicting.  That leads to abuse, and combined with other substance abuse constitutes a very real problem in public health.  Substance abuse treatment centers now see patients addicted to steroids (#4 in the UK).  Guess who pays for these costs?  The taxpayers.
• There is evidence that the shiny pumped bodies of dope-bloated sports heroes exacerbate Muscle Dysmorphia in patients, thus increasing street use of steroids.  Again these non-athlete users of anabolic steroids and PEDs suffer all the medical and legal problems mentioned above.

6.  Despite the nausea caused in some quarters about sports stars serving as heroes and role models for youth, the phenomenon is real.  Part of the deal Roger Clemens gets in his 36 million a year, stems from his entertainment and hero value.  If Clemens were paid what he is worth to society then his salary would be much less.  However, the fact of the matter is (and Clemens probably hasn't given it a thought) that his inflated salary comes from the kids and adults (who wish they were kids) who fantasize about athletic feats.  With that adulation comes responsibility, including the responsibility at a minimum not to get stuck in the butt with illegal drugs.

Don't want that responsibility?  Don't like the idea that millions of kids put your poster on their walls (and you collect the royalties)?  Then play sports for the love of the game in back lots or softball diamonds;  you will find the pay scale is much less than pitching for the Yankees.

Lucky 7.  The moral argument carries much less weight these days.  In the avaricious society that constitutes America, greed and publicity far override values such as honesty and moral direction.  We hesitate to even include cheating as a reason Congress should look at PED use, because of the widespread acceptance of dishonest methods as a way to acquire fame and money.

Perhaps if cheating once again became verboten the Keith Obermanns of the world could spend less time on their view that their government deceives the public.  Lying and cheating tolerated at any level increases the tolerance of dishonesty at the next level.

Apparently the people who would direct Congress to sit down only for Iraq, the economy, and other weighty issues don't care about public health, sports fraud, illegal drug use, and the overall tenure of a cheating culture.  Fine, then who cares if your sewers flow smoothly, if you have running water, if electricity and phone service work, or if traffic drives on the right side of the street;  all these issues are trivial compared to an 600 billion dollar war.

Only with the last round of Congressional hearing did the MLB strengthen anti-doping measures.  It's about time that the MLB improves and tightens the entire anti-doping act once again; what better way to put motivation into the owners and the union than to show off MLB (and other sports) shortcomings on a national stage.

Shaun Assael ("Steroid Nation") interviewed by LA84 Sportsletter

This link goes to the Sportsletter interview of experienced ESPN writer, and "Steroid Nation" (no relation to us, Forest and Bubba) author Shaun Assael.  Assael's beat includes the evolution of PEDs and steroids way back.  The interview delivers a broad and honest perspective on the infiltration of PEDs into athletics, by a guy who personally knows some of the protagonists.  Here is an excerpt about Dan Duchane, one of the more nutty 'colorful' characters in the steroid scene:

SL: You write a lot about Dan Duchaine, the co-author of the "Underground Steroid Handbook," who believed that he "could unlock human potential through chemistry." Where did Duchaine's vision go so wrong?

SA: One of the things I write about in the book is that steroids are drugs that meet at the crossroad of optimism and avarice. In the early '80s, I think Duchaine saw them as a drug of optimism. The Olympics were coming to Los Angeles, and he believed steroids could turn men into supermen.  AIDS was making its migration down the Pacific Coast, and he believed         steroids could heal the sick. As I write in the book, he saw steroids as a drug without a constituency.

Where I think he went wrong was in not understanding that steroids are  like a smoldering fire: they're very hard to control. And, Duchaine couldn't control his appetite. When he decided to go to Mexico and start smuggling this stuff, that was a pretty good sign that he had decided to break with mainstream society. So, while his co-writer, Mike Zumpano, decided to join conventional society, Duchaine went further and further and further outside of the mainstream. At the end of the book, one of the things Ithink you see is that, while he put on a brave front, he came to regret it. That's why he is such a cautionary tale.

I think Duchaine is one part of the story of steroids that opens the eyes of people who don't know a lot about the culture. I think he brings the reader into the culture in much the same way that Timothy Leary brought   his followers into the drug culture.

This is a well thought-out interview which packs tremendous perspective and knowledge from one of the most knowledgeable journalists on the PED scene.

[For full disclosure, Mr Assael sent us a copy of "Steroid Nation".  We shredded it, mixed it with alcohol and sesame seed oil and injected it into a large muscle group.  We find our writing is Pulitzer Prize quality now, and the old bench press is hitting 300...]

Roger Clemens and Pete Rose: Cooperstown duet?

Someone explain the paradoxes embedded in the baseball press.  The Cincinnati Enquirer compares Roger Clemens's situation to Pete Rose's predicament.  Seems the Clemens imbroglio is not dissimilar to the Rose play.  Deny, intimidate, then years later...

We in Greater Cincinnati have been down this road before, the one in which the accusers get smeared, the investigators get smeared and the good names of our precious civil liberties get smeared.

The case Roger Clemens is making for his innocence on the accusation of taking steroids beginning in 1998 is eerily similar to the case Pete Rose made against the accusations he bet on Reds games. The vices are widely disparate but equally disconcerting.

Pardon us if we don't have much patience with Clemens. We have a pretty good idea how this one's going to come out in the end...

If Clemens expects to regain his good name - and especially if he wants to be elected to the Hall of Fame in five years - he's going to have to get a lot more convincing than he is right now or than he promises to be on "60 Minutes" Jan. 6.

He's going to have to prove he didn't do it. If  he says he didn't know what was in the needle (as in Barry Bonds' flaxseed oil defense on the matter of using steroid cream), Clemens will lose the popular vote.

Fair enough.  Good analogy.  But then this:

There are plenty of good, smart, honorable people who believe the issue of steroids and HGH shouldn't matter in regards to the Hall. They say both Clemens and Bonds had first-ballot Hall numbers even before they are alleged to have begun juicing. I agree with that.

In track a juicer loses all title to records.  Guess baseball doesn't buy what track and field buys: integrity.  However:

Recently, I spoke at length with three highly respected Northern Kentucky prep baseball coaches - Bill Krumpelbeck (Covington Catholic), Pat Roesel (Ryle) and Bob Myerhoff (Beechwood). All say they are concerned with what the numbers show about steroid use in high schools, even though they have no reason to suspect their players are juicing. That's enough reason for me to say steroids matter.

As regards the Hall, I'll vote for anyone who has the stats - even the juicers - but only if a new wing, "The Steroid Wing," is set aside in Cooperstown where guys like Clemens and Bonds and McGwire would go. Their numbers would hang in this separate place on plaques larger than ordinary, wide and high enough to house their spacious, pumped-up heads.

Whew, all over the emotional map.  From guilty to enshrine the guilty anyway, to concern about high school athletes.

Again, the argument could be made (and will be made here) that if a sport wishes to prevent steroid use,  the violators should be crushed without mercy.  Allowing dopers who dishonored the sport, a ticket to the greatest honor in the game, simply excuses the behavior.  It's called 'enabling'.  Honoring the dopers with a shrine reinforces the behavior.  That's the fact....just saying...

If the baseball Hall of Fame bans Pete Rose, who did not 'cheat' on a single hit, should baseball allow in a pitcher who cheated on home runs, or a pitcher who cheated on pitches?  Place your bets down.

Dan Naulty: an honest man discusses MLB steroid use

Former Yankee, ex-Twin Dan Naulty talked to George Mitchell.  Naulty did more than talk, he emoted, and he apologized.  He genuinely feels sorry for those he cheated.  Refreshing.  Story in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Naulty made the Minnesota Twins back in 1996.  He made the team by juicing.  How did he feel?

...he looked across the clubhouse that day and spotted the pitcher he beat out. He saw another reliever, named Mike Trombley, a guy who, unlike Naulty, was not filling his veins with steroids. Trombley was headed to the minors, and as he packed up his locker, tears rolled down his face. 

Naulty had stolen a job from an honest man. Trombley would go to Triple A and take a job from someone else, who would take a spot in Double A. The dominoes would keep falling, more clean players pushed away from their dreams as Naulty achieved his unfairly. This was the thought that haunted Dan Naulty at the moment he was supposed to celebrate.

A player with a conscious?  Not a narcissistic guy who wanted to grab attention as a great pitcher or the best home run hitter in history.

"My actions impacted a lot more than just my ability to play Major League Baseball," Naulty said last week in a phone interview. "They affected my emotional health, my physical health, my memory -- but they also involved a lot of people I completely ran over like a freight train, and it was unfair and hurtful. 

"What a travesty I caused with my decision-making."

Naulty described how he gained over 40 pounds of muscle.  How this caused tendon injuries.  How the speed and the booze almost destroyed him.  And he reflects on the juice:

"I'm the perfect example of stupidity because I couldn't think for myself," he said. "The union has to protect people like me from myself. People say baseball is healthy, but what is health? If health is going to be determined by dollar signs, that's a big problem, because that's not health."

The 'Roid Report debuts on Epic Carnival

The huge news today included a devastating day on the college football gridiron as #1 Mizzou and #2 West Virginia lose, a nasty ice storm pounds the Midwest, and our weekly report on PEDs debut at Epic Carnival -- The 'Roid Report.

As we noted in a post last week, sports stories consist of 4 items now:

• Action on the field
• Contracts, free agents, and trades
• Legal troubles
• Steroids and PEDs

We should add these issues:

• Injuries
• and the BCS

The 'Roid Report will document the week in PEDs.  Performance Enhancing Drugs appear here to stay, and here to cause scandal after scandal.  We feel that the failure of society and leadership to come to grips with the ethics of scientific advances, and the limits of medical technology has led to the problems with PED use.

Rather than discuss how the managers in the front office of the teams, the athletes who play the games, the fans who watch the games, and the medical professionals who treat the athletes all think about performance enhancement, 'we' treat the issue like an exercise in forensics: bad boys and bad girls cheat.

There is an element of cheating in current PED use as the code of ethics is currently constructed.  However, the use of PEDs should be discussed in terms of results, side effects, long term consequences, ethics, and economic feasibility.   We hope we can advance this discussion.

German pole vaulter Buschbaum admits to testosterone use: for sex change procedure

German pole vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum, a medalist at the Sydney Olympics, announced yesterday she will forgo her life as female, and vault over to the other side of the aisle.  Bloomburg with the story:

German pole-vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum, the ninth-best jumper on the all-time list, is quitting the sport to become a man, Saarbruecker Zeitung reported.

Buschbaum, who was sixth at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, will undergo a gender-change operation involving hormone treatment, she told the western German newspaper.

"For the most part my decision is the result of my psychological imbalance,'' Buschbaum told the newspaper. "For many years I've felt a sense of being in the wrong body.''

'Hormone treatment' means testosterone injections for Ms. Buschbaum. Those would be legal testosterone injections, not the kind Greg Anderson ascertained from AIDS patients in the streets of San Francisco.

Ex-MLB player David Segui details his steroid / PED use

In an incongruous interview with ESPN's Mike Fish, former MLB player (the Orioles and other teams) David Segui details his PED use. Segui meanders around with logical fallacies falling like split fingered fastballs.

Segui says that HGH and PEDs should only be taken under a doctor's supervision, yet he admittedly took these drugs covertly.  Furthermore, an ethical sports medicine specialist, orthopedic surgeon, or team doctor is not going to risk a federal offense by dispensing HGH, a controlled drug, for a suspect off-label use.

David Segui, taking a break on a recent morning from a cardio workout in the large gym and fitness center situated on his country estate, isn't mincing words.

Yes, he used performance-enhancing drugs late in his 15-year career in Major League Baseball. And he doesn't feel guilty about it.

"Obviously, I've done 'growth,'" says Segui. "I'm not going to tell you I never took a 'greenie' [amphetamine]. I'm not going to tell you I never tried steroids before.

Segui admits to illegal use of HGH.  [Using HGH for performance enhancement is clearly illegal.  Ask Dr. James Shortt, physician to the Carolina Panthers, who went to jail for illegal PED prescriptions including HGH. (Mark Zeigler's fine review here)]

Segui first disclosed his use of human growth hormone to ESPN last year. He acknowledges that he has had a doctor's prescription for HGH One of sport's most controversial and undetectable substances -- since 2001, when he was diagnosed with low levels of the hormone. But he also admits now that he used it before then to speed up his recovery from a hand injury.

Thus, Segui admits he violated federal controlled substances acts, on multiple occasions by illegally using HGH and anabolic steroids. How do these guys get away with blatant flaunting of narcotics and controlled substances laws?  Imagine David Letterman announcing he uses meth to get motivated for his show.  Or Rudy Guillini saying he buys Adderall on the street to control his weight.

Segiu continues to use HGH.  He claims HGH deficiency. Maybe those years of steroid and HGH abuse caused his 'HGH deficiency. Or maybe he frequents 'anti-aging clinics'.

Segui, now 41 and in his third year of retirement from the game, no longer worries about his next contract or how to stay on the field. But he says he continues to follow a doctor's orders in dealing with a hormone deficiency. He keeps the prescribed synthetic growth hormone in his refrigerator. First thing in the morning or last thing at night, he grabs some loose flesh around his stomach and injects himself.

Years more of HGH use might mean cardiac problems, diabetes, carpel tunnel syndrome, myopathy, and even may increase the rate of a malignancy growth (cancer).  Just saying...

The article does contains this canard:

Major League Baseball didn't ban human growth hormone until early in 2005, though the drug had been around the game for at least a decade prior to that. Segui told ESPN.com he first used it during the 1998 season when he was with the Mariners, without the knowledge of Seattle's training and medical staff.

Look, it is irrelevant if 'baseball banned' HGH in 2003.  The substance is a controlled drug which is illegal without an ethical physician's prescription for treating a real disease.

 

Pro wrestling spin update

1.  A current pro wrestler Harry Smith, the son of British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith (enough with the stage names)  will serve a 30 suspension for a positive steroid test.  Steroid use in pro wrestling is not news.  That Smith's father's early death was attributed in part to anabolic steroid use news.  Bad news.

Story here at Ninemsn

Harry Smith — son of 80s and 90s superstar "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith — has received a 30-day ban from competition for what is believed to be steroid or painkiller abuse.

His father died at just 39 years of age in 2002 from a heart attack — widely believed to have been brought on by years of steroid and growth hormone abuse.

The kid should consider that a genetic trait contributed to his father's death...like a cardiac vulnerability.  Use of anabolics might unveil that trait.

2. Vince McMahon, who's behavior often appears like 'roid rage, was interviewed by CNN.  Proactive PR, as a documentary on the WWE will be revealed soon.

"Well, let me just say to think that the WWE owes any responsibility for someone who was a mild-mannered man, and someone who had complete control of his faculties as far as we knew, to put the WWE on the hot seat for someone who is a murderer is unfair...

I think that from a responsibility standpoint that we all as individuals are responsible for our own actions. If someone passes through our organization, certainly our organization is not responsible for someone's own personal activities."

Obviously McMahon wants to distance himself from corporate responsibility for maintaining a safe workplace.  The WWE Wellness Policy is taken from OSHA standards.  Thus, it is surprising no one has connected the dots between a corporation that promotes the use of steroids and PEDs, and the consequences of that corporation's actions when events go haywire.

How about 12 peers listening to evidence on the promotion of steroids for bulk, and narcotics for pain, in a liability trial setting?  Interesting to put on the  stand a CEO who uses (d) anabolic steroids himself.