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By matt | Published: January 27, 2012
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By Andrew Keh
Since baseball introduced drug testing a decade ago, first in the minor leagues and then in the majors, a large majority of those who have tested positive for performance-enhancers and been suspended have not been familiar names.
Many have been obscure minor leaguers, perhaps never to be heard from again. The much smaller number of major leaguers who have been caught have tended to be of the journeymen variety. Only a couple of players would qualify as stars.
So when it was announced this week that a 26-year-old left-handed pitcher named Dustin Richardson had tested positive and been suspended for 50 games, the same pattern seemed to be in play. Yes, he had appeared in 29 games for Boston Red Sox in 2009 and 2010, before spending all of 2011 back in the minors, but not many fans knew who he was. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 26, 2012
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The Swiss athletics federation says sprinter Pascal Mancini will sue a doctor after twice testing positive for a banned steroid.
Swiss Athletics says the 22-year-old Mancini was mistakenly injected with nandrolone instead of cortisone, an anti-inflammatory painkiller, last September.
Mancini will skip the indoor season, including the world championships in Istanbul in March, while Switzerland’s anti-doping agency investigates the case.
Last year, Mancini was warned by the IAAF for using the hyperactivity drug Ritalin without permission. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 26, 2012
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By Matt Stevens
Online promoters of swift weight loss from acai berry diet pills have agreed to a multimillion dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The agency had charged that the six promoters used fake news stories to dupe customers into purchasing the pills and other weight-loss products that failed to live up to marketing claims.
The stories that appeared on their websites used provocative headlines, such as “Health Reporter Discovers the Shocking Truth,” the FTC said. The promotions included bogus claims, the agency said, and falsely stated that the effectiveness of the treatments had been discussed on major news outlets.
Also, the promotions included a fake first-hand account from a supposed reporter who claimed to have lost 25 pounds in four weeks, the agency said. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 25, 2012
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International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound says there is known and suspected use of human growth hormone in the NFL and claims union lawyers who seek more information about testing for the performance-enhancing drug “flock to the pseudo-science like ants to a picnic.”
Writing an op-ed piece for Play True magazine, the official publication of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Pound, the former WADA president, chided the NFL Players Association’s attorneys for using delay tactics to keep HGH testing from starting this season.
The labor contract that ended the NFL lockout in August included a provision for HGH testing as soon as this season — but not until the NFLPA approved the process. That hasn’t happened, in part because the NFLPA says it needs more information about the test.
Pound is widely known for his outspoken stances on a number of anti-doping issues, criticizing cyclists, golfers and hockey players, among others, for not cleaning up their act on the anti-doping front. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 25, 2012
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By Marni Jameson
Anyone who has a close relative with Alzheimer’s shares the same worry: Am I next?
However, a growing body of research indicates that our lifestyles — particularly what we eat and whether we’re obese — play a greater role than our genes in determining our brain health as we age.
“For years, scientists thought that Alzheimer’s was primarily genetic,” said Gary Wenk, professor of neuroscience at Ohio State University. “We now believe that, while there’s a genetic component, Alzheimer’s is primarily a lifestyle disease.”
People do carry genes, including APOE-4, that predispose them toward the disease, but whether they activate those genes depends heavily on their lifestyles, said Dr. Stuart Lipton, professor at Sanford-Burnham Research Institute, where he’s scientific director of neuroscience, aging and stem-cell research. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 24, 2012
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The condition is characterized by small bulging pouches forming on the inner lining of large intestine, trapping bits of stool and becoming infected.
Symptoms include abdominal cramping, constipation and diarrhea, linked with of difficulty in passing stools. More serious complications include collection of pus in the pelvis, colon obstruction and rectal bleeding.
“It looks like we may have been wrong, for decades, about why diverticula actually form,” said Anne Peery, fellow in gastroenterology and hepatology, University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who led the study. [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 23, 2012
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By Kevin Minnick
In a sports world where athletes want to get as much of an edge on the competition as possible, the use of steroids is a relatively quick fix. Despite a wide range of side effects — severe acne, liver disease, infertility and even death among the long list of dangers — many have ignored the warning signs and decided to take a walk down that path.
While professional and college athletes were usually the ones in the spotlight, steroid use has trickled down to high school student-athletes. No longer are teenagers immune to the situation, acquiring the lethal product with little difficulty.
“We would be naïve to think in this day and age that this type of activity isn’t going on more and more — the pressure on kids, parents wanting to see their kids gets scholarships, the pressures of AAU ball,” said Mike Gatley, president of the Cape-Atlantic League and athletic director at Mainland High School. “We’d be naïve to think kids aren’t potentially contemplating it or using things to get better.” [more...]
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By matt | Published: January 21, 2012
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Compression garments worn by athletes to keep muscles warm may improve performance by reducing muscle fatigue.
Dale Lovell and colleagues at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, measured lactate levels in 25 rugby players after they’d exercised wearing either spandex-like compression garments or regular shorts.
Lactate levels were significantly lower in players kitted out in the compression garments, possibly because they stimulate blood flow that clears the substance. [more...]
