Saturday 29 January 2011

The former Great Britain hooker, Terry Newton, had traces of anabolic steroids, cocaine, and amphetamines in his system when he killed himself in September.
Newton became the first professional sportsman to test positive for human growth hormone in February and was serving a suspension of two years when he took his life at the age of 31.
"We have a picture where steroid abuse may well have led on to behavioural changes. We can say that is virtually certain. Subsequently they have rendered Mr Newton, on the balance of probabilities, unable to form an appropriate judgment as to the nature and quality of his actions."
Newton's wife Stacey attended the hearing at Bolton coroner's court with other close family members. She was too upset to give evidence. Newton was discovered by police in the loft of his home in Orrell, Wigan, on 26 September, after Stacey had told a friend she was concerned for his safety. He had left notes around the house expressing a desire to end his life.
Toxicology reports showed he had taken the steroid nandrolone within the week of his death and traces of cocaine and amphetamine were in his urine, along with alcohol and anti-depressants. Human growth hormone cannot be tested for in post-mortem samples. None of the banned drugs were a direct factor in the cause of death but all could have lowered a person's mood, the inquest was told.
Some experts are of the view that Newton's death could have delivered a macabre warning to others about the dangers of taking performance enhancing drugs.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

McGwire's name added to cheat list of MLB

Mark McGwire, the former St Louis Cardinals slugger, has now decided to come clean after years of rumor that he used steroids.
The one-time "home-run king" recently became the latest confessed steroid users of baseball and remarked, "It was absolutely the most ridiculously stupid thing I've ever done in my life. I regret it totally”.
McGwire's confession was carefully filtered out through a press release and a series of brief interviews, but the centrepiece was an one-hour live, sit-down with Bob Costas of the Major League Baseball network, which was intended to address every conceivable question raised by the revelation that the man who broke the home-run record in 1998, and who in doing so was credited with reviving baseball's image after a damaging players' strike earlier in the decade, was in fact a cheat.
Costas is many things but he is certainly no mug and he did a brilliant job in getting McGwire to tell his (obviously rehearsed) story, as well as exposing the contradictions therein.
The reviews have landed and they can be best described as mixed. Those inclined to feel sympathetic towards the slugger credit him with offering a more "complete" and "believable" confession than the likes of Rodriguez, who tried to pass off his drug use as actions of a stupid youth, or Giambi, who apologised but declined to say what he was apologising for.
It appears that baseball players who had became drug cheats to gain recognition are now making attempts to rewrite a history that they had already rewritten before with mendacious intent by their use of performance enhancing drugs.

Friday 21 January 2011

Australian surf lifesaving athlete banned

A surf lifesaving athlete from Australia, Peter Atkins, has been handed over a ban from sport for a period of two years after making using a banned substance.
Atkins was banned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after he tested positive for the steroid stanozolol in an in-competition test in March.
AUSTRALIAN surf lifesaving athlete Peter Atkins has been banned from the sport for two years for using a banned substance.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) imposed the sanction on the Currumbin Barbarians surf boat crew member after he tested positive for the steroid stanozolol in an in-competition test in March.
Currumbin won the men's open boat event at the 2009 Australian Surf Life Saving championships but Atkins will forfeit any medals, points and prizes awarded to him.
Stanozolol is a synthetic anabolic steroid derived from testosterone and a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Code. Atkins will be ineligible to compete until May 4, 2011. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has welcomed the decision.
The Currumbin Barbarians surf boat crew member will be ineligible to compete until May 4, 2011.

Monday 17 January 2011

Miami Heat forward feels the heat of NBA

Don MacLean, the Miami Heat forward, has become the first NBA player to be suspended for steroid use.
MacLean was suspended for a period of five games without pay after violating the policy on using steroids of the NBA and Players' Association.
Neither the Heat, the NBA nor the Players Association is permitted to disclose information regarding the testing or treatment of a player.
MacLean was signed by the Heat as a free agent after stints with Washington (1992-95), Denver (1995-96), Philadelphia (1996-97), New Jersey (1997-98), Seattle (1998-99) and Phoenix (1999-2000).
He has played just 42 games over the past three seasons due to injuries, and is averaging 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds this season.
The NBA's Most Improved Player for the 1993-94 season, he has a career average of 11.1 points and 3.8 rebounds.
The NBA player was scheduled to miss at least a month after undergoing surgery on his right foot on 15 November.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Prostate carcinoma patients can get relief with combo

A combination of docetaxel and estramustine, the cancer drugs, can prove to be an effective option for offering relief to patients afflicted with prostate carcinoma (cancer) and not making expected responds to hormone therapy and whose cancer has spread to other body parts.
Derek Raghavan, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, and co-author of the study, said that patients administered with docetaxel and prednisone had a better outcome throughout the survival curve.
The study found that patients who received a combination of docetaxel and estramustine experienced an improvement in their survival rate vs. those treated with mitoxantrone, another cancer drug, and prednisone, a type of steroid.
“This work will be important in shaping future drug strategies in treating patients with advanced, hormone-resistant prostate cancer, as no prior study has shown an improvement in their median or overall survival,” said Derek Raghavan, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, and co-author of the study. Dr. Raghavan is one of the leaders of the Genitourinary Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, the team that conducted the study. The physicians at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center are members of this cooperative cancer research group.
This finding was disclosed by a study published in an issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Sunday 9 January 2011

Surge in use of Class A drugs among youth

The Home Office has revealed that more and more young men and women are indulging into illicit use of class A drugs.
According to the latest findings from the British Crime Survey, more than half a million young people make use of ecstasy and cocaine.
Home Office minister Alan Campbell said it was encouraging that overall drug use remained historically low and that use of the most harmful drugs was stable. "However, we are not complacent," he said. "We are taking comprehensive action to tackle cocaine use, from increased enforcement to reduce the supply, along with effective treatment, education and early intervention for those most at risk."
The minister said that cocaine purity had been recorded at an all time low in police seizures.
"When people think they are taking cocaine, in some instances the actual purity is as low as 4%.
"Police are increasingly seeing drugs cut with a hazardous cocktail of chemicals which include phenacetin, a known carcinogen. Cocaine can cause serious damage to health and these chemicals can, in themselves, cause significant harm to the user."
It was disclosed by the survey that there was a surge in the use of class A drugs and cocaine powder, ecstasy, tranquillizers, anabolic steroids, and ketamine.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Use of steroids by athletes advocated

An ally in Dr. Norman Fost, director of the bioethics program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison was found by sportsmen on steroids who have seen their image getting tarnished by media.
It was remarked by Dr. Fost that athletes should be allowed to use performance enhancing drug as per their preferences, hinting that all previous talks about steroid use in sports were of no substance.
“Drug-testing policies in professional sports are completely illogical, and the placement of drugs on the banned substance list is quite arbitrary,” says Fost. He readily acknowledges that many of these illegal substances do boost performance, but “so does everything else that athletes do to give themselves a competitive edge.” He also emphasizes that steroids do not create athletes, but rather help them to train harder; “Believe me, I could juice all day and all night, and I’d never be able to hit a major league pitch.”
In response to those who believe steroids should remain banned because of their health risks, Fost points to the MLB’s tolerance of chewing tobacco during games, and to the NFL’s glorification of bone-crunching tackles. Regardless, Fost insists that the health risks of steroids have been wildly exaggerated. Fost also thinks it's hypocritical that Lance Armstrong has been crucified in the media for his alleged blood doping, while NFL newcomer (and predestined superstar) Tim Tebow was recently seen on television boasting about his use of a hyperbaric chamber; “Hyperbaric chambers and drugs such as EPO are essentially two means to the same end.”
This support for use of steroids also suggested that proclaimed health risks of steroids have been widely exaggerated in the past and steroid use can only help athletes train hard.