The face of performance enhancing drug and appearance enhancing drug use among teenagers is not necessarily who you think, as per a recent guest speaker at Logan-Rogersville High School.

“The fastest growing group of high school steroid users are freshman girls,” said Don Hooton Jr., director of business development for the Taylor Hooton Foundation.

From Southcountymail.com:

The Taylor Hooton Foundation was founded in 2004 following the death of Hooton’s brother, who had been using two kinds of steroids to increase his chances of being his baseball team’s top pitcher.

Hooton addressed a student assembly Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 31; a second presentation was held that night for parents.

“If we’d educated ourselves, we would’ve known what was going on,” Don Hooton Sr. said in a video included in the presentation. “We never knew to equate this abnormal behavior as something other than ‘normal’ teenage behavior.”

“Not the kind of kid you think of doing something like this,” he told the students. Overachievers, though, are at high risk of being susceptible to performance- and appearance-enhancing drugs. “They think they are doing something healthy, getting their body in better shape.”

Tags:  performance enhancing drug, steroid, Steroids

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

Baseball pitching star Roger Clemens, winner of a record seven Cy Young Awards, sat silently in federal court as his trial opened on charges of perjury and obstruction of Congress.

The baseball star is facing charges that carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

From NPR.org:

Clemens remained expressionless as the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Durham, told the jury that the government had physical proof that the 48-year-old onetime pitching ace had been repeatedly injected with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

Clemens, whose fastball was so powerful he earned the nickname “Rocket,” is not charged with using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Rather, it is his denial of steroid and HGH use in testimony before a House committee in 2008 that could cost him his freedom. He is charged with six different counts of perjury, making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation into the use of banned substances in baseball.

Clemens said during his congressional testimony, “I’ve been accused of something I’m not guilty of. … I’ve never taken steroids or HGH.”

Tags:  Anabolic steroids, baseball, HGH, human growth hormone, Roger Clemens, steroid, Steroids

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

Federal prosecutors landed two guilty pleas recently in what was featured in court as a multi-agency effort for taking down “a large international conspiracy” to peddle anabolic steroids and other illegal muscle building drugs.

Paul G. Matthews, 51, of the Pittsburgh area, and Ronald J. Sales, 46, of the St. Louis area, pleaded guilty and now face sentencing in September.

From Post-gazette.com:

Mr. Matthews ran Matthews Training Concepts and was caught running a steroid manufacturing facility in his home.

Although there was no testimony at hearings Tuesday to any direct business links between Mr. Matthews and Mr. Sales, both were accused of conspiracy to distribute 40,000 units of steroids in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and of paying for them by sending money to Ukraine and China.

At Mr. Matthews’ guilty plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McKeen Houghton said that he was doing business with two Ukrainian men, later identified as Oleksandr “Musclebear” Skochyk and Yeveniy Suray.

The two Ukrainians were indicted by a Pittsburgh-based federal grand jury a year ago for distributing illegal, Chinese-made steroids and synthetic testosterone. Arrest warrants were issued, and Ms. Houghton said the men are being extradited.

Steroids can cause aggression, mood swings, liver damage, infertility in men, and other health problems according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Tags:  Anabolic steroids, muscle building drugs, steroid, synthetic testosterone

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

According to a study, some children may not experience the same benefits of inhaled corticosteroids for keeping their asthma under control.

“There may be several reasons for our findings; It is possible that some children are genetically less responsive to steroids,” says researcher Gregory Sawicki, M.D. of Children’s Hospital in Boston.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Several studies of adults with asthma have suggested that even rigorous use of inhaled steroids doesn’t lead to well controlled asthma in all adults, Dr. Sawicki noted. “But this issue hasn’t been looked at closely in children,” he said. “Further studies are needed to see what is different about children who don’t respond to steroids, to see if there is a way to predict whether a child will respond to inhaled steroids.”

Of the 914 children in the study, inhaled steroids were recommended for 435 who had persistent asthma, meaning they had symptoms on a regular basis. Among children who weren’t recommended for inhaled steroid treatment, most reported well-controlled asthma. Among those recommended for inhaled steroid treatment, 44% reported consistently using the medicine; 35% said they intermittently used the medicine and 21% said they didn’t use it at all.

“The majority of children with mild asthma are less likely to have symptoms as they get older and may not need to be on daily steroids,” Dr. Sawicki said. “The flip side is that if a child has poor asthma control, the parents and doctor need to make sure the child is adhering to their inhaled steroid treatment. But variation in response to inhaled steroids, as other medications, is well described.”

“In addition to issues of medication adherence and inability to completely control for differences in underlying asthma, severity can never be completely ruled out,” Sawicki said.

Tags:  corticosteroids, inhaled steroids, steroid, Steroids

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

In what was demonstrated in court as a multi-agency effort to take down”, a large international conspiracy” to peddle anabolic steroids and other illegal muscle building drugs, the Federal prosecutors landed two guilty pleas.

Ronald J. Sales, 46, of the St. Louis area and Paul G. Matthews, 51, of the Pittsburgh area pleaded guilty and the duo now face September sentencing.

From Post-gazette.com:

Mr. Matthews ran Matthews Training Concepts and was caught running a steroid manufacturing facility in his home.

Although there was no testimony at hearings Tuesday to any direct business links between Mr. Matthews and Mr. Sales, both were accused of conspiracy to distribute 40,000 units of steroids in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and of paying for them by sending money to Ukraine and China.

At Mr. Matthews’ guilty plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McKeen Houghton said that he was doing business with two Ukrainian men, later identified as Oleksandr “Musclebear” Skochyk and Yeveniy Suray.

The two Ukrainians were indicted by a Pittsburgh-based federal grand jury a year ago for distributing illegal, Chinese-made steroids and synthetic testosterone. Arrest warrants were issued, and Ms. Houghton said the men are being extradited.

She said that if Mr. Matthews had not pleaded guilty, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Postal Service, among others, would have testified at his trial.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, use of steroids could cause aggression, mood swings, liver damage, infertility in men, and other health problems.

Tags:  Anabolic steroids, muscle building drugs, steroid, Steroids, testosterone

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

English textbooks and new science labs for students in Texas would be on the block, according to the plan of the Texas Education Agency budget reduction requested by Governor Rick Perry and other leaders.

The plan will also mean reducing funding for a steroid testing program for high school athletes.

From Dallasnews.com:

By far, the biggest reduction - $48 million - would be for textbooks that were supposed to be purchased beginning with the 2011-12 school year. Those are primarily English books for grades 2 through 12 and books for limited-English students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Other books are for spelling, handwriting and supplemental materials for middle school and high school science classes, including biology. Students in the science classes were supposed to get the supplemental materials to reflect new curriculum standards even as they continue to use their older textbooks.

“Anytime we have to cut the state budget, textbooks are a target,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA, who pointed out that without the materials, students will not have direct access to new curriculum standards in several subjects.

Several proposed textbook purchases have been delayed in recent years to cope with drops in state revenue. That means students have to continue using old and often outdated textbooks for longer than intended.

The proposed cutbacks total approximately $262 million for the 2012-13 budget.

Tags:  high school athletes, steroid, steroid testing program

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

The case of Melchor Ferris, 30, of Chenery Street, who was charged with five offences following a police raid at an Albury fitness centre on January 20, has been deferred.

The case has been adjourned until May. Ferris was charged over the possession of steroids and the deemed supply of a prohibited drug.

From Bordermail.com.au:

A Director of Public Prosecutions representative sought an adjournment until May 2 with further material to be provided by police.

Magistrate Gordon Lerve previously ordered a police brief of evidence by yesterday.

Ferris has been charged with possessing a gram of amphetamine, possessing an anabolic or androgenic steroid with 52 tablets of a prescribed substance and deemed supply of 56 grams of a prohibited drug.

Ferris was also charged with possessing or attempting to possess an anabolic or androgenic steroid, 1000 tablets of a prescribed restricted substance, and another 58 tablets of a prescribed restricted substance.

Tags:  amphetamine, androgenic steroid, steroid

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

Candi Cazau, the manager of Comic Jerry Lewis, recently said the comic star has spent many weeks in hospital weaning himself off a steroid that made him gain 60 pounds.

Lewis, a star of films since the 1950s, had been prescribed the steroid to deal with a chronic lung ailment.

From News.bbc.co.uk:

Lewis was “feeling and looking terrific”, she said, and planned to remain in rehab for four more months.

Ms Cazau said the comedian had cut down his prescription of the steroid prednisone “by half” and had embarked on “very rigorous exercise routine and a carefully planned diet” to take his weight down from 242 pounds (110kg).

The comic wanted to be entirely free of the drug - which he had used to treat pulmonary fibrosis, an inflammatory lung disease - and be back to his normal weight by March.

Lewis began taking the steroid in 2001 but decided to cut back on it after his lung condition improved.

The comic star, who formed a popular double act with comedian and singer Dean martin, is best-known for films such as The Bellboy, The Errand Boy and The Nutty Professor.

Cazau remarked Lewis had already lost 27 pounds since booking into a Las Vegas hospital in October.

Tags:  Jerry Lewis, prednisone, steroid

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

Individuals afflicted with conduct disorder, body image disorder, or both are at more risk of becoming dependent on anabolic steroids. This finding was revealed by Harrison G. Pope ’69, a Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study.

It was suggested by Pope that future studies are required in an attempt to uncover the consequences of steroids.

From Thecrimson.com:

Conduct disorder is the juvenile version of antisocial disorder, and body image disorder is an unhealthy obsession with the size and appearance of one’s body.

These two factors were found by interviewing and examining the medical histories of 134 weight lifters, who were categorized into three groups—non-steroid users, steroid users with no dependence, and steroid users that had developed dependence.

Pope said more studies are needed to fully uncover the consequences of steroids.

“Steroids are a fairly new phenomenon in the drug abuse scene,” he said. “Science is only now beginning to answer many questions about the effects, especially the long-term effects.”

But contrary to previous beliefs, the study suggested that steroid users do not have an increased risk of prostrate cancer, but are more likely to suffer from cardiac disease and mood disorders.

Some of the effects may be reversible once steroid intake is stopped, but things like cardiac effects may not, since there is the possibility that steroid use hardens arteries and damages the muscle layer surrounding the heart.

The study was published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal.

Tags:  Anabolic steroids, body image disorder, conduct disorder, steroid, Steroids

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions

According to a statement issued by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), Indian race walker, Rani Yadav, has tested positive for a banned steroid.

Yadav was suspended provisionally from the Delhi Commonwealth games 2010 after she became the third athlete to fail a doping test at the Oct. 3-14 Games after Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola and 110m hurdler Samuel Okon.

From in.reuters.com:

Norandrosterone is a metabolite of the banned muscle-building steroid nandrolone.

Yadav is the third athlete to fail a dope test at the Oct. 3-14 Games after Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola, who was stripped of the 100m gold medal, and 110m hurdler Samuel Okon.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the local organising committee, told a news conference.

“We tried our level best. Not only the federations but also the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) tried with our out-of-competition tests.

“The government is very serious about these things. One can’t be controlled if the person is trying to take some forbidden substance to enhance their performance.”

A sample of the Indian athlete was found to contain 19-Norandrosterone, a prohibited Anabolic Agent under category S1 of the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) list of prohibited substances and methods.

Tags:  Delhi Commonwealth games 2010, Nandrolone, Norandrosterone, Rani Yadav, steroid

Posted in  Steroids | No Comments/Questions