The benefits of anabolic steroids have always impressed one and all but a paper presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA has suggested that athletes using steroids can suffer from kidney damage.

This complication was previously unrecognized and can happen when steroids are used on a habitual basis.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Reports of professional athletes who abuse anabolic steroids are increasingly common. Most people know that using steroids is not good for your health, but until now, their effects on the kidneys have not been known. Leal Herlitz, MD (Columbia University Medical Center) and her colleagues recently conducted the first study describing injury to the kidneys following long-term abuse of anabolic steroids. The investigators studied a group of 10 bodybuilders who used steroids for many years and developed protein leakage into the urine and severe reductions in kidney function. Kidney tests revealed that nine of the ten bodybuilders developed a condition called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a type of scarring within the kidneys. This disease typically occurs when the kidneys are overworked. The kidney damage in the bodybuilders has similarities to that seen in morbidly obese patients, but appears to be even more severe.

The study was conducted in the lab of Dr. Vivette D’Agati, MD at Columbia Univeristy Medical Center. Study co-authors included Glen Markowitz, MD, Joshua Schwimmer, MD, Michael Stokes, MD, Cheryl Kunis, MD, Vivette D’Agati, MD, (Columbia University Medical Center); Alton Farris, MD, and Robert Colvin, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital).

Rituximab, an effective treatment option for autoimmune diseases, has been found to be effective for Graves’ eye disease after steroids have failed to deliver expected results.

This finding was revealed in a recent study.

Raymond S. Douglas, M.D., Ph.D., an oculoplastics specialist who recently joined the faculty of the U-M Kellogg Eye Center, noted on the drug potential in the online October issue of Ophthalmology.

From News-Medical.Net:

In the current study, Douglas observed improvement among the patients, four of whom were women, as early as four weeks following the first infusion of rituximab. Researchers also observed that the positive results were sustained 4 to 6 months after treatment.

“Treatment of the inflammatory component of Graves’ eye disease has not advanced appreciably over several decades,” says Douglas. High-dose steroids, sometimes in combination with orbital radiation, are still the first line treatment. But, says Douglas, “These are imperfect options because inflammation often recurs when the treatment ends.” He is hopeful that rituximab can offer sustained improvement. Douglas observes that the results from a small case series must be viewed with some caution. But given the substantial benefits for patients treated with rituximab, he sees good reason to proceed with a large-scale clinical trial to test this promising new drug.

The study suggested that rituximab can easily be termed as an effective treatment option for treating patients suffering from the most severe forms of Graves’ eye disease.

Mark McGwire admitted during the last week that he did used steroids during his career that was highlighted by 583 home runs but now wants every one to forget the tales of steroids to move ahead.

This admission has once again reaffirmed the fact that there is a relationship between steroids and sports. It is believed that baseball fans would find it difficult to forget the steroid tales that were once related to their favorite stars.

From Freep.com:

“I hope you all can accept this,” McGwire said. “Let’s all move on from this. Baseball is great right now, baseball is better.”

McGwire, the new Cardinals hitting coach, is getting support from his boss, manager Tony La Russa, and St. Louis‘ best player, Albert Pujols.

“Go talk to Mark, I think he cleared up everything, he closed the doors,” Pujols told reporters at the team’s Winter Warm-Up. “If you want to reopen those doors I know the right guy. Go talk to Mark about it. … There’s 300,000 people that just died in Haiti and you guys just want to concentrate on Mark McGwire. Come on, give me a break.”

The admission by McGwire has also blasted the claims of anti-doping and government officials that have been long in place for curbing the use of anabolic steroids in sports.

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.

Steroid hormones‘ intermittent signaling can affect gene expression in rodents according to a research by scientists at the University of Bristol and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), USA.

The finding is believed to provide invaluable insight to understand as to why steroids work along with creating novel avenues for new therapies.

The findings of this study are published online and expected to appear in the September 2009 issue of Nature Cell Biology.

From News-Medical.Net:

Glucocorticoid hormones, which were investigated in this study, are steroid hormones secreted by the adrenal glands that are involved in a large variety of animal and human physiological responses.

Glucocorticoids act through the glucocorticoid receptor, which is expressed in almost every cell in the body and regulates genes controlling development, metabolism, and immune response.

Studies of the glucocorticoid receptor typically assess gene responses after long-term stimulation with synthetic hormones. However, such treatments may not fully replicate the actual situation in living animals because, in addition to being released from the adrenal glands in a 24-hour circadian pattern, these hormones are also released in a pulsing mode, cycling approximately every hour, in what is referred to as ultradian cycling.

In this new study, the researchers demonstrate that ultradian hormone stimulation induces the pulsed expression of genes (known as gene pulsing) over the same period, both in cultured cells and in animal models. Initially, the researchers administered corticosterone, a naturally occurring glucocorticoid hormone in rodents, in a pulsed manner to cultured mouse cells and then observed that the levels of newly synthesized RNA from glucocorticoid receptor-regulated genes tracked precisely with the hormone pulses.

Professor Stafford Lightman, head of the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology, at the University of Bristol, remarked that cortisol gets gradually released in pulses in rodents and humans. It was also remarked that the study suggests this hormonal pattern release is important for sound health and providing a novel concept for new drug design.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an approval for use of Temodar (temozolomide) capsules in combination with radiotherapy to treat adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a form of malignant brain cancer. This announcement was made by Schering-Plough Corporation to whom the approval was granted.

Dr. Henry Friedman, co-director, Clinical Neuro-Oncology Program, The Brain Tumor Center at Duke, said that Temodar is a significant advancement in battling GBM.

From News-Medical.Net:

The approval of Temodar for newly diagnosed GBM was based on efficacy and safety data from a landmark Phase III study conducted by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)(1) in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. These data were published in the March 10, 2005 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.(2) In this multicenter trial of 573 patients, significant improvements in overall survival were observed in patients who were treated with Temodar in combination with radiotherapy. Myelosuppression was the dose-limiting adverse event. The most common adverse events across the cumulative Temodar experience were alopecia, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, headache, and constipation. Forty-nine percent of patients treated with Temodar reported one or more severe or life-threatening events, most commonly fatigue (13%), convulsions (6%), headache (5%) and thrombocytopenia (5%). There may be a higher occurrence of opportunistic infections such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) when Temodar is administered during a longer dosing regimen. However, all patients receiving Temodar, particularly patients receiving steroids, should be observed closely for the development of PCP regardless of the regimen.

It was remarked that Temodar has the unique potential of representing an important physicians and patients for fighting against GBM along with the ability to promote the true benefits of chemotherapy in treating this complication.

A spent syringe that had an undetectable anabolic steroid and was provided to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and the contents delivered to the research team in Los Angeles has been identified as tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

The details of this research were published in an issue of Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.

From News-Medical.Net:

Urine samples were purposely spiked with the newly identified THG and various analyses carried out to determine how the substance could be detected. Although it is not detectable by standard doping control screening, THG was found to be easily detectable by alternate methods. Once detection methods were established, the substance was administered to a baboon both intravenously and intramuscularly, and its excreted urine collected for analysis. It was determined that THG is detectable in urine after both IV and IM administration.

The designer drug identified in this study is different from anabolic steroids previously found in athletes’ urine samples. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that its use could pose health risks, and it cannot be legally marketed without approval.

It was remarked by Catlin that no one will be using this drug from now on as tests to identify have will feature in doping tests. It is worth noting here that THG is detectable in urine after both IV and IM administration.

Pharmacists can considerably reduce worries of patients in relation to the use of steroids by as much as 50 percent through intervening to address patients’ concerns, as per a new research launched at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester.

The study, which was undertaken by Pharmacy Alliance, the Medicines Management Division of UniChem, investigated the inputs of community pharmacists in collaboration with general physicians for meeting the needs of patients with atomic eczema.

From News-Medical.Net:

The results showed that, following help and advice from a pharmacist, or pharmacy staff:

* Steroid concerns reduced from 68% to 30%

* Poor understanding of atopic eczema fell from 43% to 6%

* The need for lifestyle advice dropped from 51% to 20%

The research also found that:

Community pharmacists identified a total of 1,597 problems. Of these:

* 20% involved steroid concerns

* 15% required lifestyle advice

* 12% of patients had unmet treatment goals

* 11% of patients had poor understanding of atopic eczema

Pharmacist Caroline Tinkler who led the study remarked that it is important for the patients to be appropriately educated about eczema and treatment to derive optimum benefits and relief.

It was suggested that a pharmacist advice can relieve worries of patients who are about to use topical corticosteroids, to a great extent.

A new discovery by scientists at the University of Edinburgh as part of a study that was published in Nature Medicine journal, patients struggling with inflammatory conditions such as chronic diseases of the lung, joints and other organs can now expect great relief.

This study suggested how certain drugs, already tested as cancer treatment options may reduce the level of tissue inflammation.

From News-Medical.Net:

Professor Chris Haslett, Head of the Queen’s Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, expects the study to lead to trials of these drugs in human inflammatory diseases. Professors Adriano Rossi and Haslett, who have led this new study with other colleagues from the QMRI, said: “This study offers new hope for patients with severe inflammatory diseases. Specific treatment for such conditions is poor, and the use of steroids is fraught with potential difficulties. We have adopted a different strategy by using non-biological treatments, but this study needs urgently to be translated into trials and we are now seeking major funding to research further how these drugs work.”

It is worthwhile to note here that lab tests have highlighted the fact that CDK inhibitors, like Roscovitine, can significantly minimize the inflammation level in models of rheumatoid arthritis and the fatal ailment called fibrosing alveolitis.

Estrogen can stop the damage caused by stroke by inactivating P53, a tumor-suppressing protein, which is known for preventing many cancer forms, according to Medical College of Georgia researchers.

Limor Raz, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the MCG School of Graduate Studies, said that this research clearly suggests that estrogen surpasses P53 after a stroke for curbing the damage.

From News-Medical.Net:

P53, the protein in the mitochondria, or powerhouse, of the cell, is known as “the guardian of the genome” because it regulates the cell cycle and prevents genome mutation. It also can prevent cancer by suppressing tumor growth.

It is known that stressful conditions such as a stroke activate p53, triggering unfavorable changes in the cell. One change is the activation of another protein called PUMA, which signals a cascading effect that destroys the mitochondria and causes cell death, or apoptosis.

Ms. Raz further said that estrogen has the potential to alter p53 chemically besides attenuating the cascade to result in minimized stroke damage.

Raz has been working with Dr. Darrell Brann, chief of developmental neurobiology and associate director of the MCG Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and presented her findings at the American Physiological Society conference aimed at the cardiovascular effects of sex steroids and gender.

A peer-led and sport team-centered program can help in reducing eating disordered behavior and body-shaping drug use in female high school athletes, according to an article in issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The article revealed that about half of high school students (male and female) participate in school sports and the pressure to win often influence young women to come in close proximity to disordered eating behaviors, drug use (tobacco, diet pills, diuretics, laxatives, amphetamines, and anabolic steroids).

From News-Medical.Net:

The researchers found that athletes participating in the ATHENA program reported significantly less ongoing and new use of diet pills, and less use of amphetamines, anabolic steroids, and sport supplements. These athletes also reported more seatbelt use and less new sexual activity. The ATHENA athletes also had positive changes in healthy eating behaviors, and reductions in intent to use diet pills in the future, vomiting to lose weight and tobacco use.

“The ATHENA curriculum succeeded in most of its prevention and health promotion goals,” the authors write. “Following their sport season, intervention students reported less ongoing and new diet pill use and less new use of athletic-enhancing, body-shaping substances (amphetamines, anabolic steroids, and muscle-building supplements). Experimental participants understood more about the presented topics, had improved self-reported dietary habits, and indicated greater self-efficacy for exercise training,” write the researchers.

The topics in the ATHENA program were gender specific and consisted of information on effective exercise training, drug use, depression prevention, media images of women, and healthy sport nutrition.

According to a new study, nitric oxide level in an asthmatic patient’s exhaled breath can portend worsening of asthma symptoms to some extent along with signifying an imminent attack linked to underlying airway inflammation.

These facts have raised the interest of clinicians apart from providing a potential breakthrough for formulating medications and enhance the results of treatment methodologies when it comes to monitoring nitric oxide levels.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Still, in light of these findings, it is clear that FENO monitoring should only be applied to those who stand to gain the most. “There can be no doubt that adding frequent assessments of FENO to management plans of most children and adults with asthma will add unjustifiable costs without providing clinical benefit. Whether there is a role for monitoring FENO to aid management of severe asthma is untested,” wrote Stephen Stick, Ph.D., of the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth, Australia and Peter Franklin, Ph.D., of the Centre for Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Research at the University of Western Australia in Perth in an editorial that accompanied the article.

“We did not address other possible applications of frequent FENO monitoring, such as prediction of steroid effect. Loss of control, prediction and prevention of exacerbations, and tapering of steroids in symptom-free children who wheezed in the past,” noted Dr. de Jongste. “We think there is good reason to study these potential applications.”

It was remarked by Johan C. de Jongste, M.D., Ph.D., at the Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands, and colleagues, that there is more than just a reason to go further to study about these potential applications in the near future.

According to a new review of recently concluded studies comparing inhaled corticosteroids and the medicine cromolyn, asthmatic patients, including children and adults, can exercise a better control over their asthma and breathe deeper with inhaled corticosteroids.

James Guevara, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues said that asthmatic patients treated with steroids have an advantage of scoring higher in lung function tests. It was also remarked by them that the usage of corticosteroids allow patients to make lesser use of inhalers than patients who makes use of cromolyn.

From News-Medical.Net:

“To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review comparing the effects of cromolyn to the gold standard, inhaled steroids,” Guevara said.

The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

The consensus still leaves room for cromolyn treatment, according to William Storms, M.D., an allergist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and director of the William Storms Allergy Clinic in Colorado Springs.

“Any expert would agree that inhaled corticosteroids are preferred first-line therapy for treatment of persistent asthma, which requires daily therapy. But we also will agree with the NIH [National Institutes of Health] asthma guidelines, which state that cromolyn and other drugs are alternative therapies,” Storms said.

Cromolyn, or sodium cromoglycate, and inhaled corticosteroids both block the action of certain inflammatory cells in the lungs. Physicians recommend both types of medication for persistent asthma, but individual studies disagree about which type of medication works best, the reviewers found.

Guevara and colleagues said that inhaled corticosteroids are superior to cromolyn irrespective of asthma severity level and also said that the attained results are so decisive that there is no need for any future study on this matter.

Steroids are found to cause health risks especially if taken for prolonged periods of time. It can cause acute liver injuries, kidney problems, heart diseases and stroke.

It comes in liquid form, which is administered through injection or in pill form. However, the pill form is said to cause the greatest injury to the kidneys due to its amount of absorption when ingested.

Injectable steroids are said to be the most dangerous because many people do not know how to properly administer the drug through this method.

Jason E. Buttimer, 26, a resident of 106 East St. in Foxboro was arraigned last November 19 due to drug possession charges. Last month, Buttimer’s home was raided and several containers of steroids were found in Mansfield home.

Buttimer appeared in Attleboro District Court on summon. He pleaded not guilty to counts of steroid possession, according to court records.

Sergeants Sam Thompson and Frank Archer, two Mansfield detectives handling the case, filed the charges. The two assisted an agent from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to police records, authorities executed a search warrant in the Fairfield Park home of Buttimer. They were able to confiscate steroids in liquid and pill form in September.

Buttimer is currently free without any bail. He is set to return to court on January 12, 2010.

From The Sun Chronicle:

ATTLEBORO – A Foxboro man was arraigned Thursday on drug possession charges related to the seizure of steroids from his former home in Mansfield last month.

Steroids are not effective when it comes to treating infants with bronchiolitis, a common and potentially fatal viral lower respiratory infection, as per a new study co-authored by Dr. Joan Bregstein of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center.

The multicenter study that was conducted by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) was able to found out that steroid treatment is unable to prevent hospitalization or improve respiratory symptoms for bronchiolitis.

Some of the possible symptoms of bronchiolitis are coughing, runny nose, wheezing, and fever.

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 study on bronchiolitis was led for PECARN by the University of Utah’s Department of Pediatrics and Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

According to authorities, hundreds of dollars worth of anabolic steroids were found in Richard Thomas’ home in Stoney Creek Drive. Last May, deputies and federal agents set up an entrapment delivery of a package with contraband sent from overseas.

He confessed to selling anabolic steroids to professional athletes. He pleaded guilty to federal charges last Tuesday.

Records show that the packages came from various countries such as China, Russia, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.

Federal agents initially intercepted a suspicious package in May 21. The package came from Slovakia. It was addressed to a certain “Mahlon” Thomas in Lakeland.

Polk County Sheriffs wired the package with an electronic beacon so they would know if the package was opened.

Thomas admitted to being the biggest steroids provider in Central Florida. He even claimed to have supplied players from Washington Capitals Hockey team and Washington Capitals baseball team.

Books about steroids, blister packs of Valium, packaging labels, firearms, a digital scale, and bodybuilding photos and trophies were also found in Thomas’ home during the search.

According to NY Daily News, MLB is also conducting their own investigation regarding Thomas’ claims.

From TBO:

TAMPA – A Lakeland man who told authorities he sold steroids to professional athletes pleaded guilty today to a federal steroids charge.

Richard Thomas, 36, faces up to five years in prison on a charge of possession of steroids with intent to distribute.

After federal officials raided the company’s headquarters and their warehouse in Boise, Idaho, chief executive officer of Meridian, Ryan de Luca, said they decided to recall 65 of their products that matched the list in the FDA’s search warrant.

There was no bargain or agreement between the company and the US Food and Drug Administration. De Luca made it clear that the recall has nothing to do with any agreement or with FDA’s suspicions that Bodybuilding.com sells and distributes steroids.

According to de Luca, the company was not aware of the products containing prohibited ingredients. Manufacturers assured them that the products were properly classified as dietary supplements in compliance with federal law.

The company’s main objective was to distribute and sell safe and effective products.

Steroids can cause a list of long-term side effects such as liver damage, kidney abnormalities, cardiovascular problems and even death.

De Luca is proud to say that the company did not suffer much from the recall since Bodybuilding.com sells more than 12,000 products online aside from those recalled products. They also sell protein powder and multivitamins.

According to the company, instructions on how to return products can be seen on their website, Bodybuilding.com. Customers can also contact the company through email at service@bodybuilding.com or through phone by calling 1-866-236-8417.

From Idaho Statesman:

The Meridian online retailer decided to recall 65 products listed in federal search warrants a few days after federal officials raided the company’s headquarters and Boise warehouse, the chief executive officer said Tuesday.

The larger body size of professional soccer players does not mean that the risk of catching atherosclerosis or cardiovascular disease is enhanced after they retire, as per a research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008.

It was remarked by Benjamin D. Levine, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, that active players tend to easily prevent the progression of pre-diabetes from becoming real diabetes by following an active lifestyle.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Perhaps by remaining fit, the players were able to prevent the progression of pre-diabetes from becoming real diabetes,” said Benjamin D. Levine, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. “The prevalence of obesity, using normal criteria, is really high when you look at NFL players.

“But the BMI is only a crude measure of fatness. For the athletic community it may be biased against very dense, muscular people who may have a high BMI but not as much fat. The BMI might not tell the whole story.”

This study was based on retired players from another era. The football players today are about 50 percent larger than they were a quarter of a century ago, said Levine, who is also professor of internal medicine in the Division of Cardiology at UT Southwestern. “Today, there is a lot of incentive for football players to get as big as possible through eating, extensive training or by using anabolic steroids and growth hormones. The criterion for success is that bigger is better.”

Whether current or recently retired players are at greater risk for cardiovascular events or death merits further study, given the larger body sizes of today’s NFL player, he said.

It was also found during the study that the retired National Football League (NFL) players had a significantly lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, and sedentary lifestyle when compared to other men.

A clinical study of cardiac patients revealed that allergic symptoms after the use of Plavix can be alleviated with a combination of steroids and antihistamines. These patients experienced allergic reactions after using the widely-prescribed drug clopidogrel, also known by the pharmaceutical name Plavix.

It was suggested by doctors from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital that this kind of a combination treatment can prove to be an effective option for allowing the patients to remain on the drug.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Eighty-eight percent (21 of 24) were able to stay on Plavix uninterrupted after being treated with the antihistamines and a short course of steroids. Primary Investigator Michael P. Savage, M.D., director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Kimberly L. Campbell, M.D., cardiology fellow and lead author, presented their findings at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session on March 30 2009.

“This is a very important study for many cardiac patients but especially those with stents,” said Savage. “Every patient who receives a stent must take Plavix to help prevent stent thrombosis which is clotting of the stent. This obviously poses major problems if the patient suffers an allergic reaction to the medication. To discontinue taking the drug can lead to a heart attack which may be fatal. Those with a drug eluting stent are required to be on the drug for at least one year. Our patients with drug eluting stents actually averaged 17 months on Plavix versus the minimum of one year. That’s a very long time to not be on a medication that may save your life.”

It is noteworthy to remember here that Plavix is considered to be one of the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide. It is estimated that around 6 percent of its users tend to experience allergic reaction(s).

This first-of-its-kind systematic study demonstrated that drug allergy is treatable without discontinuing the usage after experiencing the allergic symptoms.

The first-ever international guidelines for treating psoriatic arthritis have been presented by the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

These guidelines were presented after some of the most eminent names in the worlds of rheumatologists, dermatologists, and patient advocates came together for publishing guidelines on curing psoriatic arthritis, a disease that primarily affects individuals with psoriasis as well as those untouched by it.

The involved group was headed by Christopher Ritchlin, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

From News-Medical.Net:

“In the past few years, new medications have become available that are incredibly effective for the various manifestations of psoriatic arthritis,” said Ritchlin, who treats about 250 patients with the disease. “Many patients’ find their lives changed for the better within just a couple of weeks. These guidelines are designed as a platform to make sure physicians around the world are aware of what’s available for their patients and to help them make sound treatment decisions.”

Psoriatic arthritis is an oft-forgotten cousin to its better known counterparts, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Doctors estimate that somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people in the United States have psoriatic arthritis. Doctors say that about one out of four patients with psoriasis also gets psoriatic arthritis, and that conversely, about 15 percent of people who get the disease don’t have psoriasis.

Presently, treatment options for psoriatic arthritis include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and steroids injected into joints or tendons.

According to officials, a new rule has been proposed by the New Jersey Racing Commission to establish a new testing program and strict penalties to restrict the use of androgenic-anabolic steroids in thoroughbred race horses. The proposed rule would be very much in accordance with what is presently being followed by more than 20 other states.

From App.com:

Androgenic-anabolic steroids are substances that increase muscle size and strength, but they also induce behavior in horses such as biting, kicking and aggressiveness toward other horses and humans, officials said.

The proposed rule bans the administration of anabolic steroids to thoroughbred race horses except for specified levels of four permitted steroids. The concentration of a permitted steroid would have to be so low that it cannot affect a horse’s performance in a race. Trainers who violate the rule would face license suspensions and fines.

Public comment on the proposed rule will be accepted until Nov. 20, officials said.

It is believed that the proposed rule would be introducing and recommending strict penalties for curbing the use of anabolic steroids so that the spirit of horse racing stays in best condition. Some horse racing lovers have expressed their pleasure up on hearing this news, which is expected to clear all “black clouds” after recent reports of steroid usage in the game.

Preemies between 28-32 weeks of age are not harmed by a treatment option, which is no longer used for helping in maturing lungs, according to findings of a study in an issue of Pediatrics.

The study suggested that brains of babies remain virtually unaffected. This fact clearly overrules the previously believed fact that repeated courses of steroids in the womb can cause damage to the brain.

From News-Medical.Net:

“The consensus in recent years has been to no longer give women in preterm labor more than one course of steroids because of possible adverse effects, but it means more babies are born needing ventilation,” said Sanjiv Amin, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center and author of the study. “These findings may give us back a tool to help give these fragile babies a better chance of survival.”

Before concerns arose in 2000 about safety of multiple courses of steroids, many mothers in on-and-off preterm labor received several rounds before delivering. Now, when mothers go into preterm labor, obstetricians will often administer only a single course of steroids to help strengthen the baby’s lungs upon birth. But if the birth is successfully held off for more than seven days, the mother does not receive another course of medication and the baby’s lungs may not be protected.

It is important to note that many studies in the past have suggested that there are complications from multiple courses of dexamethasone, a steroid prepared with sulfur. This was the reason why doctors do not use dexamethasone anymore and have switched to sulfur-free steroids such as betamethasone.

It is believed by some members of the medical fraternity that this study would provide a new dimensional approach when it comes to treating preemies to increase survival rate.

Recent investigations conducted by the Tulsa Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration led to the arrest of seven men from different counties and cities all over Oklahoma.

According to Mark Woodward, spokesperson of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, investigations were prompted by several tips about steroids use, manufacture and distribution, which began in January 2007.

The seven men arrested faces possible charges for steroid importation, production and drug prescription.

Of the seven, two were practicing doctors. One practices family and sports medicine at the Gilrease Medical Center. According to reports, Dr. Gary Lee, 48, prescribed “off label” order of steroids for bodybuilding use. However, Dr. Lee claimed that the prescription was for treatment of sports-related injuries.

Dr. Brad Stahlheber, 34, was a former resident at Oklahoma State University Medical Center. His temporary credentials as an anesthesiologist at Muskogee Community Hospital were revoked following his arrest. Stahlheber previously worked at St. Francis Hospital from June 2008 to February 2009.

Woodward said that more arrest would follow as their investigations further progress.

Others who were arrested include Tome Burke, Derek Davis and Christopher Jackson, all from Tulsa, Sherry Smith who was from Oklahoma City and Chris Waid from Bixby.

From Tulsa World:

After a long-term investigation of an illegal steroid ring, authorities arrested at least seven people, including two Tulsa doctors, officials announced Friday.

Researchers have claimed that they have been able to find out the reason behind relationship between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its effect on bones, according to published study in an edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The findings of this study have already guided attempts to design new drugs to reverse RA-related bone loss and provide a new ability to address more common forms of osteoporosis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is believed to affect more than two million Americans and can cause severe health risks such as pain and deformity in joints, swelling, and thinning of bone.

From News-Medical.Net:

While the new drugs are effective for many patients, others experience infections and even lymphoma in a few cases. The new drugs are based on bioengineered versions of proteins made by human immune cells called antibodies, and are very expensive to make. Thus, the field has been searching for smaller, simpler chemicals that would be effective, but with lower costs and fewer side effects.

“The significance of our study is that it identifies SMURF1 as the signaling partner through which TNF does damage in RA-related bone loss,” said Lianping Xing, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “That has enabled researchers to begin designing small molecule drugs to shut down the action of Smurf 1 and its relatives. Furthermore, since mice engineered to have less Smurf1 expression develop thicker bones, future drugs that shut down Smurf1 may be also useful against more common forms of osteoporosis simply by changing the dose. Of course, this is early-stage work with many obstacles ahead, but it is exciting nonetheless.”

It was brought forward during the study that while traditional RA drugs like NSAIDs and steroids can be termed as effective for controlling symptoms, a newer class of drugs (e.g. Humira, Remicade and Enbrel) is efficacious for reversing the RA process by inhibiting TNF alpha activity.

Along with Xing, the study was led by Ruolin Guo, Motozo Yamashita, Laura Yanoso, Lan Zhao, Qian Zhang, Quan Zhou, Di Chen, David G. Reynolds, Hani Awad, Edward Schwarz, Ying Zhang and Brendan Boyce within the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicineat University of Rochester.

Members of the general public and doping officials are raising their deep concerns over the growing demand and popularity of steroids. The concerns are more since the government has already said that it has tried its level best to enforce tight control on the manufacture and distribution of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. However, the truth is that steroid usage has increased and not decreased in the last few years.

The biggest reason for increasing demand of steroids is celebrity driven image culture.

The fact that news about sportsmen and other celebrities using anabolic steroids to maintain their “invincible edge” is influencing their followers to follow the same short route to success is a matter of great concern. With big names such as Sylvester Stallone remarking that he is an old man jumping around trying to look young and getting busted with 48 vials of human growth hormone Jintropin at the Sydney Airport, things cannot be expected to slow down for the better.

From Timesunion.com:

The names of R&B music star Mary J. Blige, along with rap artists 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry, have emerged in an Albany-based investigation of steroids trafficking that has already rocked the professional sports world, according to confidential sources.

Information has surfaced recently showing those stars are among tens of thousands of people who may have used or received prescribed shipments of steroids and injectable human growth hormone in recent years. Law enforcement officials have said they have no evidence in their sprawling multistate probe that customers, including Blige or other entertainers, violated any laws. Instead, they are targeting anti-aging clinics, doctors and pharmacists who prescribed the drugs.

Still, medical experts say that use of steroids and human growth hormone — an estimated $10 billion-a-year operation worldwide — reaching into the entertainment industry illustrates how pervasive steroids use in the United States has become. It is not unique to athletics, where performance-enhancing drug use has marred many sports. For many celebrities, the lure of hormonal drugs is their supposed, unproven anti-aging effects.

It is widely regarded now that the dirt created from use of steroids will not be cleared unless and until stringent measures to inhibit use of steroids are formulated and deployed. Till that happens, things such as distribution of anabolic steroids will continue despite all odds.

According to a recently concluded medical review, the long belief that humid air can alleviate croup patients from noisy croup breathing and barking cough is nothing but a complete myth.

Lead reviewer Michael Moore, a family doctor at Three Swans Surgery in Salisbury, England, remarked that it is usually very common for patients’ families and doctors to get them have hot water in the corner of room or near a hot bath.

It was observed by Moore that studies do not suggest any benefits accruing from humid air or use of moisturized air in the emergency department. However, there might be some chances that some benefits may not have been picked up during these studies and researchers need to spend more time in continuing research in community settings.

From News-Medical.Net:

Croup is a set of symptoms that causes swelling in the upper part of the airway and affects the voice box. The condition usually is caused by a viral infection. Young children are especially susceptible to croup because the infants and toddlers have narrower airways than older children and adults.

Physicians rate the severity of croup by noting signs of labored breathing and poor oxygen intake. The croup score and health outcomes for the children treated with moist air were not significantly different than the scores for the patients who received no treatment, the review found.

“I think that probably the successes that were attributed to humidity in the past were due to the calming effect of the parent believing that they were doing something, the child taking deeper breaths, the child getting over the spasmodic element of the croup, and then just getting better,” said Dennis Scolnik, an emergency room pediatrician at The Hospital for Sick Children/Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

“I think humidity probably wouldn’t harm. But I think it’s a false sense of security,” Scolnik said.

The finding that moist air does not help croup should be no surprise to physicians who’ve been trained or kept up-to-date in the last five to eight years, Scolnik said. But he added that popular beliefs are hard to root out of medical practice and common use.

“It’s probably going to take as much as a generation of doctors – and through that parents – 10, 15, 25 years to work its way out of the system. Most of our parents are going to come in and say ‘Oh, you’re not giving humidity, why not?’” Scolnik said.

Scolnik also suggested that some calming techniques can be used at home to recover from mild coup. It is noteworthy to note here that steroids are often prescribed to reduce inflammation of the vocal chords over a time of many hours; physicians use nebulized (given by mist) adrenaline for moderately severe croup for relieving a patient from symptoms.

The addition to corticosteroids to the traditional antimicrobial therapy can prove to be very effective in treating patients suffering from pneumonia than treating them with antibiotics alone, as per scientists from the UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lung, which is primarily characterized by breathing disorders and is spread by coughing and sneezing.

Dr. Robert Hardy, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and the study’s Senior Author remarked that steroids can prove their real worth when it comes to restoration of health after an individual catches pneumonia.

From News-Medical.Net:

In the current study, mice infected with the M pneumoniae bacterium were treated daily with a placebo, an antibiotic, a steroid, or a combination of the antibiotic and steroid in order to investigate the effect on M pneumoniae-induced airway inflammation. The animals were then evaluated after one, three and six days of therapy.

“It turns out that the group that got both the antibiotic and the steroids did the best,” Dr. Hardy said. “The inflammation in their lungs got significantly better.”

Although antimicrobials remain the primary therapy for M pneumoniae infection, there have been several reports in recent years about physicians adding steroids to the treatment regimen of patients with severe cases, Dr. Hardy said. The problem, he said, is that those were individual case reports.

“They never had a control group, so it was impossible to tell what impact the addition of steroids had on recovery,” he said.

It was also remarked by Dr. Hardy that though it is too early for him or others to recommend steroids as a form of standard treatment to patients with bacterial pneumonia but the findings do support the need for a clinical trial in the near future.

Scientists in the United States have claimed to find two amazing drugs, AICAR and GW1516, which can prove beneficial for people especially sportsmen for exercising for longer durations. The discovery of these drugs has, however, came for criticism from some quarters of sporting fraternity as the drugs may give an ‘unfair’ advantage to sportsmen very much like steroids that have been condemned by sporting confederations and appreciated by sportsmen.

The two drugs have been believed to offer great advantages to users such as building of muscle mass and size, burning of fat, and increase in the level of stamina.

From News-Medical.Net:

Lead researcher Professor Ronald Evans, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Salk Institute in California, has produced a test which will allow the drugs to be detected in the urine and blood of competitors.

Professor Evans says the drugs could eventually help tackle muscle wasting diseases, or help improve the health benefits of exercise in people at risk of conditions such as diabetes.

The two drugs AICAR and GW1516, appear to have an effect on the master gene PPAR-delta which is involved in the building and regulation of muscle and also has the ability to control the activity of many other genes.

This ability in theory could have a wider effect on the way the body works.

By genetically altering mice to enhance the activity of the gene, led to the development of muscle which was much more likely to burn fat than burn sugar and it also made “marathon mice” who were able to run much further on a treadmill.

The researchers say a drug now needs to be produced which will create similar effects rather than conducting a genetic alteration.

The involved scientists are of the view that both these drugs are capable enough to help sportsmen expecting to deliver dramatic performance on an ongoing basis. However, it would be worthwhile to see the reaction of doping and sporting bodies on discovery of these drugs as they have been already expressing their concerns use of steroids in sports till now.

With the world getting divided between proposed legality of steroids in sports, it is high time that people start getting aware about steroids. Even today, many people feel that steroids are harmful for health but the truth is that steroids are not dangerous for health. It is only the user who makes them advantageous or dangerous. While a qualified medical advice guided usage can prove to be beneficial, an uninformed usage of steroids can lead to health ailments. This is the reason why there needs to a conscience effort to spread information about steroids so that potential users can understand the pros and cons of steroids and how to reap optimum benefits from them.

From Npr.org:

Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, says: “I ask you in the audience to quickly name, in your own minds, a single elite athlete who’s had a stroke or a heart attack while playing sports. It’s hard to come up with one. Anabolic steroids do have undesirable side effects: acne, baldness, voice changes … infertility. But sport itself is far more dangerous, and we don’t prohibit it. The number of deaths from playing professional football and college football are 50 to 100 times higher than even the wild exaggerations about steroids. More people have died playing baseball than have died of steroid use.”

If we have a close look at modern day sporting environments, one can easily conclude that steroids have helped and helping professional sportsmen to think beyond previously self-created mind hurdles. This is the reason why steroids have been able to gain and maintain popularity like never-before in the last few years. And, believe it or not, steroids are here to stay and separating steroids and sports is just not unthinkable.

According to a national survey published in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the use of steroids in girls is not merely restricted to competitive athletics but also extends to smoking and diet pills.

According to assessments made on anabolic steroids by Diane L. Elliot, M.D., of the Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, and colleagues, the trends of steroid use in girls is on a rampant high as found by a study that involved 7,544 female students in grades nine through 12 completing the survey.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Adolescent girls reporting anabolic steroid use had significantly more other health-harming behaviors,” they continue. “They were much more likely to use other unhealthy substances, including past 30-day use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.” Young female steroid users were also more likely to:

* have had sexual intercourse before age 13
* have been pregnant
* drink and drive or have ridden with a drinking driver
* carry a weapon
* have been in a fight on school property in the past year
* have feelings of sadness or hopelessness almost every day for at least two weeks
* have attempted suicide

More than two-thirds of the teen girls surveyed reported trying to change their weight. However, those who used steroids were more likely to turn to extreme weight-loss techniques, including vomiting and laxative use. “Anabolic steroids are body-shaping agents and cause a loss in body fat and an increase in lean tissue; therefore, their association with unhealthy weight loss practices was not surprising,” the authors write.

This study found that high-risk adolescent girls using anabolic steroids received less attention than adolescent boys suggesting that their actions may have been seen as more destructive on a personal front.

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