According to ex-enforcer Georges Laraque, steroid and illegal drug use was a problem in the NHL not too long ago.

Laraque talks about steroid use in the NHL in his new book, “The Story of the NHL’s Unluckiest Tough Guy.”

From Larrybrownsports.com:

“I have to say here that tough guys weren’t the only players using steroids in the NHL,” the former Canadien wrote. “It was true that quite a lot of them did use this drug, but other, more talented players did too. Most of us knew who they were, but not a single player, not even me, would ever think of raising his hand to break the silence and accuse a fellow player.”

Laraque explained that if you look at a player’s decrease in efficiency and weight loss, you’ll notice there is a significant drop every four years when the Winter Olympics are held.  Obviously, the Olympics have a strict drug testing policy which would result in players being declared ineligible if they were caught.

“Before a game, as I would warm up on the ice, I would always look at the tough guy on the other side,” he said. “If his arms were trembling, if his eyes were bulging, I knew for sure he wasn’t going to feel any of the punches I would give him.”

Tags:  Georges Laraque, NHL, steroid, Steroid use, Steroids

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A batboy and equipment manager with the New York Mets from 1985 to 1995, Kirk Radomski, has pleaded guilty to distributing steroids and money laundering.

The 38-year-old former Major League Baseball clubhouse attendant sold steroids to dozens of players and received a sentence of five years probation but no jail time from a federal judge.

From Reuters.com:

“He is probably the most significant cooperator in the area of sports athletic doping,” prosecutor Matthew Parrella told the judge, explaining that the federal government was not seeking any jail time. “His extensive and immediate cooperation deserve recognition.”

Radomski has testified before former Sen. George Mitchell’s commission, which alleged widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball, and will appear before a congressional committee in Washington next week.

His lawyer said Radomski received anonymous threats by telephone after the Mitchell Report was released in December.

“I would like to apologize to the court, to my family, my friends for everything I have done,” said Radomski. “It hasn’t been easy on me or my family.”

Tags:  athletic doping, Kirk Radomski, Major League Baseball, New York Mets, Steroid use, Steroids

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Patients suffering from an inflammatory condition known as Eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) can expect relief coming their way with oral, swallowed, or sprayed steroids.

This finding was disclosed by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children and suggested that steroid use could be beneficial for facilitating patient improvements.

From Sciencedaily.com:

EE can be a serious condition and cause children to refuse to eat, to vomit, or to get food stuck as the esophagus narrows from inflammation. EE, which does not improve without treatment, is twice as likely to occur in boys as in girls.

“We are seeing increasing numbers of children with EE who can benefit from effective therapy. Our study found that while systemic corticosteroids provided better initial patient improvement compared to swallowed steroids, long term results were similar between the groups,” said Sandeep K. Gupta, M.D., IU School of Medicine associate professor of clinical pediatrics and a Riley Hospital pediatric gastroenterologist.

“A child will often continue to suffer in silence if this disease is left untreated. We are not sure why the number of cases is increasing, but we are seeing an average of two new cases every week at Riley Hospital. As we study treatment options, we are also investigating how and why food allergies and environmental factors appear to play a role in this disease,” said Dr. Gupta.

The research results appeared in an issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Tags:  Eosinophilic esophagitis, Steroid use, Steroids

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According to a finding disclosed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, involvement in sporting events with real or real or perceived weight specifications is commonly associated with steroid use among teens.

Marla Eisenberg, Sc.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the University Of Minnesota Medical School, Department Of Pediatrics, said the association between unhealthy weight control approaches and weight-centered sporting events is alarming.

From Sciencedaily.com:

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

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

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

More and more teenagers are switching to use of anabolic androgenic steroids that are termed as synthetic derivatives of the male hormone, testosterone, to enhance body strength, performance, and stamina.

Tags:  anabolic-androgenic steroids, Steroid use, steroid use among teens, Steroids, testosterone

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The Hall of Fame linebacker, Dick Butkus, who was renowned for playing with a menacing fury, is now expression and passion into the fight against steroids.

Butkus says the link between steroids and sports disgusts me. The former Chicago Bear is handling the problem by delivering a message aimed at high school students on the dangers of doping with his “I Play Clean” campaign.

From in.reuters.com:

Last month’s admission by baseball’s highest-paid player Alex Rodriguez that he had taken steroids from 2001-2003 while with the Texas Rangers, shone the light again on performance-enhancing drugs in sports, something Butkus abhors.

“As an ex-football guy, I still enjoy watching it,” the gruff Butkus told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“It just disgusts me and I hope it doesn’t come to a point where I’m sitting there watching a Senate hearing and have them drilling some ex-football players on their steroids habit,” he said, referring to baseball’s appearance before Congress. “I want to lick this before that happens.”

The NFL has had its share of steroids cheats, notably San Diego Chargers Pro-Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, suspended for four games in 2006, and now-retired 1997 Defensive Player of the Year Dana Stubblefield, sentenced last month to two years’ probation for lying to investigators about his steroid use.

I have learned over time that use of steroids could result in heart damage among its other dangers, Butkus said.

Tags:  Alex Rodriguez, Dana Stubblefield, Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame, Shawne Merriman, Steroid use, Steroids, steroids and sports, use of steroids

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The first drug scandal of the Paralympics rocked the Beijing Olympics but things soon start going the right way as “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius created headlines with a thrilling 100m track win.

Pistorius crossed the line in 11.17sec at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium on a wet night, an event that was also highlighted by Marlon Shirley failing to materialize by collapsing two-thirds into the race.

From Foxsports.com.au:

Earlier a shadow was cast over the Games when it was revealed that Pakistani power lifter Naveed Ahmed Butt, 37, had been given a two-year ban for steroid use.

In the first drugs scandal of the Paralympics, he tested positive for the steroid methandienone metabolites on September 4, two days before the opening ceremony, the International Paralympic Committee said.

“In accordance with the IPC anti-doping code, and after a hearing of the IPC anti-doping committee, the IPC ratified the decision to disqualify Butt,” the committee said in a statement.

A total of 356 tests have been carried out at the Games, both in and out of competition, according to IPC figures until the end of Monday.

At the Athens Games in 2004, 680 doping tests were conducted, resulting in 10 anti-doping rule violations, according to the IPC.

In other news Heath Francis pulled off Australia’s first gold medal in the 200m sprint, winning in world record time in his T46 class.

The one-armed runner finished well clear of the field in a time of 21.74sec over Cyprus silver medallist Antonis Aresti and Cuba’s Ettiam Calderon in third.

Naveed Ahmed Butt, power lifter from Pakistan, was rendered disqualified by the International Paralympic Committee in accordance with the IPC anti-doping code and a hearing of the IPC anti-doping committee.

Tags:  Beijing Olympics, doping, drug scandal, methandienone, Oscar Pistorius, steroid, Steroid use

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Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, has urged a joint hearing of two Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committees for approving the over-the-counter (OTC) sale of specific topical steroids that presently require a prescription.

Topical corticosteroids play a big role for treating psoriasis patients all over the world and approximately 6.5 million people in the United States alone. The advocacy group remarked that OTC status of these steroids can help in reducing medical costs and provide improved comfort.

From Medicalnewstoday.com:

Topical steroids come in dozens of variations in drug type and strength. One common classification system lists seven steroid potencies from mild to ultra high, with each of the seven classes offering numerous choices. For about 15 years, the strongest steroid available without a prescription has been hydrocortisone 1%, a very mild formulation.

In its statement to the FDA, the group called for better labeling and other education efforts both for patients and physicians about topical steroids and their potential side effects, and recommended particularly close attention to topical steroid use by pediatric psoriasis patients.

“While we believe additional steroids should be available OTC, we urge the FDA to weight carefully how best to educate parents who face difficult choices about how, and how aggressively, to treat psoriasis in their children,” Paranzino added. “Topical steroids play a role in treating many children with psoriasis, but there are non-steroid alternatives that should also be considered.”

Michael Paranzino, President of Psoriasis Cure Now, said that certain topical steroids require a prescription and can be safely used by psoriasis patients in an OTC setting.

Tags:  corticosteroids, OTC, psoriasis, Steroid use, Steroids, topical steroids

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Anabolic steroids are used by sportsmen, especially bodybuilders and strength athletes, to build solid muscles in short time. They are synthetic hormones capable of promoting the processes of protein retention and tissue growth.

But use of steroids can result in side effects when they are abused or of a low quality and these side effects may vary from depression to psychological changes and from increased aggression to infertility.

From Topics.nytimes.com:

Steroids came to weight lifting in Russia during the 1950s, and to America by 1960. By the end of the decade, other elite athletes had discovered the drugs. For nearly two decades, starting in the late 1960s, East German women dominated the international sports stage, aided by an organized system of anabolic steroid use. Despite strong testing procedures, steroid-related scandal has continued to follow the Olympic Games, the Tour de France and major professional sports.

Not all revelations of steroid use are accompanied by outrage. An admitted former user of steroids, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is governor of California. Professional wrestling, where steroid use has been widely documented, has been a ratings leader on cable television for years.

Like every other thing in this world, steroids can have bad effects but only when abused and the best way out is using them under medical guidance and for legal purposes.

Tags:  anabolic steroid, anabolic steroid use, Anabolic steroids, steroid, Steroid use, Steroids

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The game of baseball has been kept under dark clouds after Mark McGwire made a belated confession of steroid use amidst crocodile tears and disclaimers. But Bud Selig thinks that the baseball steroid era is now over, a fact suggested by test results.

Though McGwire’s confession was not able to impress the die-hard baseball fans, it saved officials and team members by putting an end to the baseball’s era of performance-enhancing drugs to offer a new start for the game.

From Bostonherald.com:

That’s pretty much what Bud Selig said after the man who wouldn’t talk about the past to Congress finally spoke about it to Bob Costas. On the day of McGwire’s mea culpa, Selig said in a statement that in 2010, the use of steroids and amphetamines in baseball is “virtually nonexistent, as our testing results have shown.”

Two things: Either the commissioner of Major League Baseball pays no attention to the nonstop cat-and-mouse game still taking place between the International Olympic Committee and its world-class athletes, or he’s back to his old car-selling ways again.

If he ever really left them.

Otherwise, he would not have followed with this: “The so-called steroid era — a reference that is resented by the many players who played in that era and never touched the substances — is clearly a thing of the past, and Mark’s admission today is another step in the right direction.”

The steroid era might be a thing of the past in baseball. But performance-enhancing drugs are an ever-evolving industry, as the IOC and its testing agents long ago discovered. Simply stated, the cycle goes as follows: You design a testing program to detect all known performance-enhancing drugs. They design a new drug that escapes that detection. After a while, you get wise, develop even more encompassing detection. They take your test, and build a new PED that avoids that detection.

Selig remarked that the use of steroids and amphetamines is no more prevalent in the world of baseball.

Tags:  amphetamines, baseball, Mark McGwire, performance-enhancing drugs, steroid era, Steroid use, Steroids

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Steroid treatment is not an effective option for providing relief to infants with a common and potentially serious viral lower respiratory infection called bronchiolitis, as per a new study co-authored by Dr. Joan Bregstein of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center.

The study suggested that steroids do not help in preventing hospitalization or improve respiratory symptoms for bronchiolitis that is believed to be the common cause of hospitalization among infants.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Our study shows that treating bronchiolitis with steroids doesn’t work. We hope this study will resolve some of the uncertainty for physicians and families, as we move forward in developing better means of preventing and treating the infection,” says Dr. Bregstein, site principal investigator and emergency medicine pediatrician at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Current recommendations suggest that simple supportive care is the best available treatment for bronchiolitis. Researchers note that steroid-based medications still play an important role in other respiratory illnesses of childhood such as asthma and croup. They point out these medications are not the androgenic steroids sometimes abused by athletes, and that the side effects seen with long-term steroid use are not a risk in the short-course treatments used for croup and asthma attacks.

The multicenter study was published in the July 26 New England Journal of Medicine and conducted by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN).

It was highlighted that simply supportive care is the most effective option for bronchiolitis though steroid-based medications still play an important role in respiratory illnesses of childhood such as asthma and croup.

Tags:  bronchiolitis, steroid treatment, Steroid use, Steroids

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