February 4, 2012

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for growth hormone

Roger Clemens Steroid-Fueled Extramarital Affair?

April 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Country singer Mindy McCready tacitly confirmed she had an extramarital affair with Roger Clemens. Clemens, through his attorney Rusty Hardin, has acknowledged a long-term “relationship” but denies Clemens had a sexual relationship with McCready.

Does Roger Clemens’ personal and/or sexual relationships have any bearing on his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs (or vice versa)? Already, the blogosphere is suggesting that steroids may have caused Clemens’ infidelity. But as far as the legal proceedings are concerned, Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown doesn’t think his philandering has relevance to his alleged steroid use [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Law, Steroids and Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Growth Hormone Will Not Be Added to Controlled Substances List

April 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have modified a bill that would have added human growth hormone (HGH) to the Controlled Substances List. The bill was introduced as a kneejerk reaction to revelations of widespread HGH use in professional baseball. But in the end, legislators avoided making the same mistake with HGH as they did with anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) with the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. (“HGH bill altered to help children,” April 16) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Health, Steroid History, Steroid Law, Steroids and Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Anonymous Hotline to Uncover Steroid Users in Baseball

April 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Major League Baseball has acted on some of the recommendations from the Mitchell Report with the implementation of an anonymous hotline to uncover users of performance enhancing drugs in the sport (“Baseball uses anonymous hotline to nab steroid cheats,” April 10).

The hotline, recommended by Sen. George Mitchell in his report on baseball and steroids and implemented by commissioner Bud Selig in January, is one of the tools the investigative unit is using to catch drug cheats, along with information from outside investigators.

Everybody is baseball is said to have access to the anonymous hotline which hopes to break the so-called “code of silence” of steroid use in baseball. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroids and Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,

"Stupidity and Mistakes of the Anti-Doping Crusade"

April 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Velo Vortmax blasts WADA for its resistance to change in the face of additional new evidence that the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test is flawed (“Genetic variations in enzyme UGT2B17: Implications,” April 3).

WADA refuses to worry about trivial genetic factors. WADA is loath to do longitudinal tests of athletes. WADA might find a variable that might refute their laboratory findings or challenge their presumption of laboratory perfection. WADA would never invest time and money doing pedigree studies to determine if a single metabolite above threshold for exogenous testosterone is a trait common in a family, or among a group of people found in a geographical region. But idiosyncratic individual differences in medicine have been documented in many pedigree studies. For example, hematocrit levels above 50% have been found in fathers and sons of elite cyclists. These hematocirt levels are inherited tendencies, not based on EPO doping. The same is true for testosterone/epitestosterone ratio(s) and may be true for Carbon Isotope metabolite delta/delta scores.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Anti-Doping, Steroid Commentary Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

WADA Testing for Growth Hormone Within Weeks

April 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

According to  the New York Times, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has purchased thousands of doping kits that will be used to screen blood for exogenous human growth hormone (HGH). The top-secret HGH test has been available for some time but WADA only recently found a secret European-based manufacturer capable of producing significant quantities of the blood screening kits (“Agency will increase blood tests for HGH,” April 2).

WADA says the out of competition testing for HGH will begin within weeks The test will be used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Additionally, a WADA spokesperson says the the HGH screening kits will be used to analyze previously frozen blood samples from athletes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Anti-Doping Tagged With: , , , , ,

Doping for Eggheads is Good, Doping for Athletes is Bad

March 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

While the controversy and debate over the use of anabolic steroids and growth hormone in sports continues, little attention is paid to the use of Adderall and Provigil in academia. Cycling Fans Anonymous discusses an interesting article that appeared in the New York Times earlier this month.

Doping in academia is common, with Provigil and Adderall being the drugs of choice amongst professors and students at university. Apparently these drugs make it possible to concentrate without getting distracted for long periods of time, and to never get sleepy when pulling an all-nighter.

The New York Times compares doping in sports to doping in academia [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Commentary, Steroids in Society, Steroids in Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Testosterone:Epitestosterone Ratio Test – False Negatives and False Positives

March 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Source: Wikipedia

The scientific and anti-doping community continue to struggle with the development a test for exogenous growth hormone in athletes. They haven’t even been able to produce scientific evidence that growth hormone enhances athletic performance in spite of anecdotal evidence [from athletes and strength coaches] that this is the case.

But science continues to do a good job at finding weakness in the doping controls currently in place. Tip of the hat to Trust But Verify for alerting us of a new study which, among other things, tells us exactly how much exogenous testosterone some athletes can use and still pass the drug test.

The study reveals serious weaknesses in the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test used by WADA and other anti-doping organizations (“Doping Test in Sports Confounded by Common Genetic Trait,” March 21). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Anti-Doping, Steroid Commentary Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Human Growth Hormone and Athletic Performance

March 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A recent literature review of the performance enhancing effects of growth hormone has concluded that HGH does not help athletes (“Systematic Review: The Effects of Growth Hormone on Athletic Performance,” Annals of Internal Medicine).

Claims that growth hormone enhances physical performance are not supported by the scientific literature. Although the limited available evidence suggests that growth hormone increases lean body mass, it may not improve strength; in addition, it may worsen exercise capacity and increase adverse events. More research is needed to conclusively determine the effects of growth hormone on athletic performance.

This confirms what J.C. Bradbury, Ph.D. has been saying all along. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Commentary, Steroids in Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Impact of Steroid Hysteria on Medical Treatments Involving HGH and Steroids

March 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The steroid hysteria related to steroids in sports continues to have an adverse impact of the availability of anabolic-androgenic steroids and human growth hormone for legal use in legitimate medical conditions. Congressional attacks upon anabolic steroids and other anabolic drugs (solely because athletes use them) are hurting those patients who stand to benefit from these highly beneficial and effective drugs.

Nelson Vergel, HIV activist and co-author of Built to Survive, published a letter on his blog that outlines how patients with legitimate medical needs for these pharmaceuticals suffer as a result of the steroid hysteria and legislation that limits the availability of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (“Hearings on Steroids in Sports and the Impact on Treatments for HIV and other Medical Conditions,” March 12). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Commentary, Steroid Health, Steroid Law Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HGH Bill Would Increase Costs and Limited Availability of Medical Treatment for Children

March 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Filip Bondy wrote a story today about the likelihood that growth hormone would be more expensive and more difficult to obtain for parents of children with growth-related disorders as a result of a Congressional bill that would reclassify human growth hormone as a controlled substance (“Littlest victims of an HGH bill,” March 17).

Here’s the problem: The proposed legislation would re-classify HGH as a Schedule III drug, increasing penalties for its illegal use and limiting access in several ways. The penalties are fine, the parents agree. Limiting access for growth-challenged kids is the deal breaker.

The Champs, for example, would need to go to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan once every month for a new prescription, which would last 30 days. Currently with each visit, they are able to obtain a three-month supply of HGH, with two refills. They only need to go once every nine months. Meanwhile, their insurance co-pays would triple for the extra doses.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Steroid Commentary, Steroid Health, Steroid Law Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts