The use of growth hormone (GH) in an injectable form for the purpose of building solid muscle mass is irrelevant, according to a dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden.

Growth hormone does not offer benefits on the same lines as anabolic steroids, which are used by sportsmen for enhancing performance and building muscle mass. It was noted that the use of growth hormone may even lead to health complications such as damage to the heart and blood vessels.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Many of those who abuse anabolic steroids regard growth hormone as the Rolls Royce of doping agents: it is significantly more expensive to use than anabolic steroids. There is, however, no scientific evidence that it increases performance when used alone as a doping agent”, says Dr. Christer Ehrnborg.

Christer Ehrnborg has studied 30 well-trained people living in Göteborg. Twenty of these injected large doses of growth hormone each day for a month, while the other 10 believed that they also were receiving growth hormone but received injections of harmless saline solution instead. Tests of the participants’ physical performance on an exercise cycle showed that the participants receiving growth hormone did not perform better than those receiving saline solution.

“It has been a matter of controversy whether growth hormone actually causes an effect or whether it is a matter involving mass psychology. Both our study and studies carried out by others suggest that taking growth hormone will not make you a better athlete”, says Christer Ehrnborg.

Christer Ehrnborg, who was involved in this dissertation, said that some sportsmen may sense a sudden change in the body (perceived as benefit) after using GH but there is no benefit such as increased muscle mass of GH.

Patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and administered with inhaled corticosteroids are at a lesser risk of mortality than COPD patients untreated with steroids.

This finding was noted in a new study that was published in an issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

The involved researchers noted that COPD patients on corticosteroids within 30 days from hospital discharge displayed a 25 percent reduced all-cause mortality rate and those using steroids paired with beta-agonists displayed a fall in cardiovascular-related deaths by 38 percent.

From News-Medical.Net:

Researchers also found a 23 percent reduced risk of death when comparing the effects of inhaled steroids with bronchodilators in patients in the 65+ group. In all cases, the most significant results were found when inhaled corticosteroids were administered within the first 30 days following hospital discharge.

“Our results indicate that the effect of inhaled corticosteroids is relatively short-term and that those currently using it are relatively better protected, ” said Dr. Macie. “Inhaled corticosteroids should be prescribed as soon as clinically indicated. By treating COPD with inhaled corticosteroids, we have the potential to reduce the effect and prolong life.”

“The findings from this study are intriguing for clinicians and point to the need for further research to define the role and mechanisms of the effect of inhaled corticosteroids on both cardiovascular and respiratory mortality,” said W. Michael Alberts, MD, FCCP, President of the ACCP.

Author Christine Macie, MD, FCCP, Cambridge Hospital, Ontario, Canada, remarked that COPD often remains an underrated lung ailment that has associated lung disease.

Steroids can prove to be an effective option with antibiotics when it comes to reducing recovery time associated with pneumonia, according to a study by researchers from the UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The study suggested that health of a patient suffering from pneumonia can be restored easily if steroids are administered in a combination with antibiotics as compared to the use of antibiotics alone.

From News-medical.net:

Adding corticosteroids to traditional antimicrobial therapy might help people with pneumonia recover more quickly than with antibiotics alone, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have found.

Unlike the anabolic steroids used to bulk up muscle, corticosteroids are often used to treat inflammation related to infectious diseases, such as bacterial meningitis. Used against other infectious diseases, however, steroid therapy has been shown to be ineffective or even harmful.

In a study available online and in a future issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers at UT Southwestern show that mice infected with a type of severe bacterial pneumonia and subsequently treated with steroids and antibiotics recovered faster and had far less inflammation in their lungs than mice treated with antibiotics alone.

The study led by Dr. Robert Hardy, Study’s Senior Author & Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, also suggested that steroids are good for treating inflammation of the lungs while antibiotics prove effective for killing the bug.

Steroids work in a very complicated way in plants. Plant biologists realized that these steroids target the genes to enhance growth and development in plant cells via molecular signals. These signals were studied by proteomics which is an emerging field and proteins are mapped. The steroids in plants are known as brassinosteroids and its deficiency causes stunted growth and infertility. These steroids functions at cellular level i.e. targets to the cell membrane and the cell receptor to its action in the nucleus, where genes are the targets of regulation. This was used, since cell membrane is basically made up of proteins and thus could be easily studied by separating it from the cell.

From Eureka Science:

Plant steroids, called brassinosteroids, are key hormones throughout the plant kingdom. They regulate many aspects of growth and development, and mutants deficient in brassinosteroids are often extremely stunted and infertile.

Wang’s findings have not only helped establish the connections of the steroid signaling pathway, but possibly offers a paradigm for both kinase signaling in plants and for steroid signaling by cell-surface receptors in general.

More importantly, the success of the proteomic methods demonstrated by Wang’s study will have a major impact on studies of other signal transduction pathways.

The studies showed the link of hormones with the class of proteins called kinases, which are linked to the phosphate ions, to brassinosteroids. Such signal transduction pathways were established to show the connection between the proteins and steroids. such were known to be brassinosteroids signaling kinases and were first such study by the researchers.

Wang’s major studies showed the linkage between the hormones in the plants and its function which was further enhanced by steroids called brassinosteroids.

While the world was watching the steroid abuse and steroid use crisis unfolding for Major League baseball (MLB), they forgot about the organization with the highest rate of steroid users: WWE.  World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly WWF, has potentially the most anabolic steroids users of any professional company, besides NFL of course.

BUT…is this a new phenomenon or this something that’s been going on since the days of Hulk Kogan and the Ultimate warrior?  The truth is that anabolic steroids have been in the WWE since the beginning and they are there to stay. It was well documented that Vince McMahon suggested steroid use to his wrestlers, and later it was found he provided anabolic steroids to them on multiple occasions.   It seems they would buy steroids from Vince, while he would buy steroids from Mexico and bring them over the border.   Creating a non-stop chain of steroid abuse among his wrestlers.

However, to be fair, isn’t WWE a circus type company, not a sport.  WWE always says the matches are rigged and the sport is fake, it’s all done for show.  This is in comparison to a sport like american football,NFL, where probably 99% of the NFL team players are using either anabolic steroid or human growth hormone (HGH) or a variety of the 2 with IGF-1.  The true targets of todays’ media wrath should be the NFL players who are so juiced up, it’s not funny – most are like walking chemical powerplants.  The average NFL player uses more anabolic steroids, HGH, IGF-1 and countless other drugs, then about 10,000 steroid users put together.  It’s amazing how anabolic steroids can bypass the media attention in a MULTI-BILLION dollar game like american football (NFL), but they will target the circus act that is the WWE!  It seems this is more about the overall attention and ratings these steroid investigations can bring then about actually doing something about steroid abuse.

Bleachers Report – Steroids Are Killing Wrestling:

It’s true, history repeats itself. And once again we are reliving the abuse of steroids and other drugs that are running wild in wrestling. While most wrestlers would say that there isn’t as much of the Ric Flair-like lifestyle today as there once was, there are still huge signs of problems to come.

The WWE is trying to do everything it possibly can to show that it’s making an effort to eliminate steroids and other drugs from its company. They implemented a wellness policy, which has suspended a dozen at the minimum, they’ve opened up rehab for any current or past Superstar, and they even currently promoting Bigger, Stronger, Faster (a DVD that looks into the whole steroid problem).

But how come I don’t take comfort that the problem is being taken care of? Why am I not assured that people like Chris Benoit (not saying that steroids had anything to do with his actions, but more about his mental health) aren’t slowly deteriorating? Here are the signs that things aren’t getting better.

The WWE claims that it is thoroughly checking its Superstars for steroids and other drugs. But how come the people who are suspended are always mid-carders or lower on the totem pole? Are you seriously saying that only a few of these larger-than-life stars are on steroids and the ones who are the ones at the bottom?

What about the big name stars? Batista, Triple H, John Cena? Scott Steiner told the story when he was asked by the WWE office whether he’d be able to pass the wellness test. He responded sure, just pick up Triple H and me and we’ll go take the test together. He went on to say they never bothered him about it again.

And why is it that it takes a report by Sports Illustrated to call out the big time stars, for WWE to take action. It took a massive media mogul to out the WWE for stars like of Edge, Randy Orton, and Rey Mysterio to be suspended. Has anyone seen Rey Mysterio’s transformation from his WCW days to his WWE days? He puts Barry Bonds to shame.

Look at the people outside of wrestling who’ve been busted for steroids, like Ivan Basso, a Tour de France cyclist. He’s 150 pounds soaking wet and he was busted for steroids. Now I’m not saying that everyone who’s got muscle is on the stuff. Everyone’s body is built differently. I’m just saying let’s be a little more realistic here.

But a majority of fans know the probability that a large majority of wrestlers are using, but show up to the shows and buy the merchandise anyways. But does that make it okay?

And I know it’s not the WWE alone, as TNA is rumored to be implementing its own wellness policy. I’m just saying it shouldn’t take an act of congress to see things truly change in wrestling.

Will it be cool to see wrestlers going at it who are the same size as me and you? No, probably not. But wrestling managed to survive after the steroid scare in the early ’90s due to smaller guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. And I’m not saying that these guys weren’t on anything, but I am saying it can prosper without everyone being larger than life.

It’s not just those on the big stage; there’s a trickledown effect. Smaller guys on the independents who think the only way they’ll be noticed is if they’re arms are the size of cannons. Teens looking to impress. The list goes on. And how many guys will be suffering from their years of abuse when they hang up the boots?

Only time will tell, but should we risk to wait and see?

Australian customs, some of the harshest in the world, have again prosecuted someone for buying steroids on the internet.  Please note, Australian customs don’t have a lot to do, so they bother with every little thing to make themselves look good; just to keep up funding.  Last it was known, they have seized multi-vitamins and tried to arrest people for it.  Thus, anabolic steroids would be a far great news show for them.  How pathetic.

The story goes like this, Summers ordered anabolic steroids via the internet, and steroids were detected by the Sydney International Mail Centre, then they issued an arrest warrant with no proof.

Shane David Summers was charged with 2 counts of importing anabolic steroids, aka “prohibited goods” into Australia, and he was fined $1,500!  What a waste of government dollars!?!? Spend $100,000 on investigation to catch a white collar guy with a $1,500 fine!  Australian customs need to go after the real drugs like methamphetamine/ice that goes thru their system, and cocaine, NOT waste resources on anabolic steroids and HGH.