Barry Bonds tested positive for anabolic steroids three times in 2000 and 2001, as per hundreds of documents filed by the government.

The prosecutors said that Bonds also tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, which was confirmed by a urine test supplied by Bonds.

From Espnstar.com:

Bonds is scheduled to be tried on 10 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice related to his BALCO grand jury testimony.

Bonds testified to a federal grand jury in 2003 that he used the “cream” and the “clear” but did not know that they were performance-enhancing drugs. The urine samples could prove the existence of other steroids in his body.

During testimony, Bonds said he never took steroids. The government alleges that Bonds lied under oath and that at least two of his positive tests stemmed from injections of steroids.

Bonds steadfastly denied during his testimony that he has been injected by his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson.

Bonds will be arraigned Thursday, after which his lawyers will be looking to exclude much of the government’s evidence. In a motion filed last week, Bonds’ attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who is presiding over the perjury case, to suppress several pieces of evidence, including those 2003 urine samples.

According to the New York Times, Bonds provided samples that did not test positive under baseball drug testing program but those samples, when tested again by federal authorities after they seized them in a 2004 raid, revealed positive drug results.

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Musli Power X-tra, a flagship product of Kunnath Pharmaceuticals in Mumbai, India, was recently declared as steroid-free after tests were conducted on the said supplement.

Sargam Laboratory located in Chennai; the lab that performed the test declared that it is approved under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and by the Export Inspection Council of India.

Tests conducted on the product include meta content analysis, toxicity study and clinical trials. The product was tested for anabolic steroids, metal content, and toxicity. Based on the results, the product is 100% steroids-free and herbal in content.

Musli Power X-tra is an effective natural sex enhancer. It consists of the highest quality extracts from exotic herbs. It is claimed to increase libido and sexual desire. Aside from these effects, Kunnath Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Musli Power, also claims that certain sexual dysfunctions can be remedied by the supplement.

In men, Musli Power X-tra can help correct erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and inhibited sexual desire. It also improves stamina.

The supplement is also good for women with sexual aversion disorder, female sexual arousal disorder, vaginal dryness, decrease libido, dyspareunia and vaginismus.

The supplement comes in biodegradable containers. Each bottle is sold at a discounted price of $230. It can also be bought online.

From DNA India:

Mumbai: Musli Power X-tra, the flagship product of Kunnath Pharmaceuticals, has been declared steroid-free after laboratory tests. The test was conducted at Chennai-based Sargam Laboratory, which is approved under Drugs and Cosmetics Act and by Export Inspection Council of India.

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According to Don Hooton, chairperson of the foundation and father of the late Taylor Hooton, Mark McGwire is the best man to talk about and spread the word against steroids, its abuse and negative effects.

McGwire’s popularity among kids as well as his persona is an advantage for him as speaker about performance-enhancing drugs. Being back in the spotlight is a great way for him to start getting his message across especially to teens and young students.

Ever since retreating to a more private life after his retirement from Major League baseball, McGwire has been busy with his own foundation. He promised that his foundation would spread the message against steroids and its ill effects to its users.

Several months after the controversial congressional hearings on steroids, Don Hooton received an envelope containing a check from Mark McGwire’s foundation.

The Taylor Hooton Foundation was named after Don Hooton’s son, a high school baseball player who died after committing suicide. It was believed that the reason for his suicide was due to depression, a side effect brought about by his use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

For the past three years, the Taylor Hooton Foundation has been receiving “substantial” amount of donations from Mark McGwire’s foundation, which his representatives, requested that the amounts be kept private.

From St. Louis Today:

Within a few months of the congressional hearings that have come to define baseball’s steroid era, Don Hooton, who testified at the hearings and is the father of a steroid-user who had committed suicide, received a nondescript envelope in the mail.

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Administration of progesterone for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients after the injury on an immediate basis can minimize the degree of disability and risk of death besides being a safe option, as per a new study.

Researchers from the Emory University were of the view that progesterone treatment for traumatic brain injury has been extensively studied with laboratory animals for as much as 15 years. It was also suggested that progesterone treatment is capable of minimizing brain swelling besides preventing nerve death, and enhancing functional outcomes.

From News-Medical.Net:

In a phase II three-year pilot study, called ProTECT (”Progesterone for Traumatic brain injury–Experimental Clinical Treatment”), the Emory researchers enrolled 100 participants who reached the emergency department within 11 hours of injury, in order to evaluate whether progesterone can be administered intravenously in a reliable way, and whether the treatment is safe to use in humans with TBI.

People enrolled in the study had a “blunt” traumatic brain injury, which typically occurs from a car accident, motorcycle crash or a fall, and lead researcher Dr. David W. Wright and colleagues randomly assigned the patients to receive an intravenous dose of progesterone or an inactive “placebo.”

The death rate in the 30 days after injury was 13 percent in the progesterone group compared with 30 percent in the comparison group indicating that progesterone cut the risk of death by 57 percent.

No serious side effects were seen with the hormone or with the placebo.

Progesterone is a promising treatment because it is inexpensive, widely available and has a long track record of safe use in humans in treating other diseases.

Wright’s team was able to contact 92 percent of patients who survived 30 days and saw evidence that progesterone improved the recovery of patients with moderate brain injury, however those patients with severe injury seemed to glean no benefit from the hormone.

The study also brought the fact that progesterone is found to be critical for development of neurons in the brain in a normal manner along with exerting protective effects on the damaged brain tissue.

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The reason why lungs of smokers are resistant to steroid treatment and its solution has been found by scientists from the Imperial College of London.

It is believed that almost 6 percent of population of the United Kingdom is presently suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - ‘smoker’s lung’, or chronic bronchitis and emphysema. This is considered to be the fourth most cause of mortality in the land of the Queen.

Doctors generally consider steroid treatment as an effective treatment technique for curing inflammatory ailments such as COPD but somehow some of the COPD patients do not respond to steroid therapy as per expectations.

From News-Medical.Net:

Professor Peter Barnes and his colleagues discovered that steroids act as a ‘molecular bridge’ to recruit HDAC2 to the appropriate genes where it can act to switch them off.

The London researchers found that in COPD, levels of HDAC2 are very low compared to normal cells, so that the steroids have no effect in switching off the activated inflammatory genes.

They then found that in lung cells in vitro, and in rats, low doses of a cheap and widely available drug raised the levels of HDAC2 and broke the steroid resistance.

The first stages of clinical trials to test low doses of this drug, theophylline, in COPD patients are now underway. If successful, this may lead to a change in the treatment of COPD and other severe inflammatory diseases that do not respond well to steroid therapy.

Professor Peter Barnes commented, ‘COPD kills tens of thousands of people in the UK every year and currently we can only treat the symptoms, not the underlying problem of inflammation of the lungs. Our work has finally provided an explanation for steroid resistance in COPD, and has allowed us to identify ways to combat this.

Professor Peter Barnes and his colleagues remarked that steroids are highly effective in playing an important role while acting as molecular bridge in the recruitment of HDAC2 (Histone Deacetylase 2), an enzyme, to the concerned genes where it can switch them off.

They also remarked that the levels of HDAC2 are seen to be low when compared to normal cells in the COPD patients. This clearly suggested that the steroids are no longer good enough to bring any positive effect in switching off the activated inflammatory genes. In this direction, a new steroid has been discovered that will have the ability to raise the HDAC2 level to break steroid resistance in COPD patients.

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