Stay Away from Non-medical Steroid Usage
Hormones: Peptides and Steroids
“Hormones carry messages from glands to cells to maintain chemical levels in the bloodstream that achieve homeostasis. ‘Hormone’ comes from a word that means, ‘to spur on.’ This reflects how the presence of hormones acts as a catalyst for other chemical changes at the cellular level necessary for growth, development, and energy.”
The above quote did not come out of my head. It came from wiseGeek at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-hormones.htm?referrer=adwords_campaign=hormones_ad=023611&_search_kw=hormones&428219903.
Before you go on, did you read the article at the above URL? That will save us a lot of time and will make you very wise like the wiseGeek.
Okay! I’ll wait for you to come back.
Peptides or protein hormones control sleep and sugar concentrations. Insulin is one you know because it is a treatment for diabetes. This report is not about peptides.
Steroids are sex hormones. The control human growth and allow athletes to knock a baseball three city blocks or run the mile in 3 minutes.
Youngsters in the teenage years are full of these precious hormones. Old people are bone dry. Old people seldom sit in the back of a car to make out.
Most athletes would like to get into the Hall of Fame for their sport. Steroids can either help them jump right into their properHall of Fame or to be banned for life from such glory. If athletes can’t be good enough to get into a Hall of Fame unless they take steroids, I guess some take their chances.
Some of the current athletes who have busted records for years may have taken steroids before their particular athletic organization banned them. Some of these may have stopped taking the steroids when they were banned; others, perhaps not.
Here is my take on steroid usage. It is a drug to be taken under a doctor’s supervision. Steroids are used in medicine for different reasons daily and legally. I say that if a professional athlete needs steroids for his health, then have a doctor prescribe them and monitor their use. Making them completely illegal for athletes only endangers the athletes who need them.
I think that steroids should be banned at the college or Olympic level. I think the professional organizations are right in banning them to other than for their use described above. An athlete who takes steroids without medical surveillance is risking his health and his life. Even with medical supervision, negative results health wise may occur.
The Dangers of Steroids
So are steroids dangerous? Some athletes say they are not. I copied the following from http://www.trulyhuge.com/steroid_dangers.htm who copied it from the Physicians’s Desk Reference:
WARNINGS: Peliosis hepatis, a condition in which liver and sometimes splenic tissue is replaced with blood-filled cysts, has been reported in patients receiving androgenic anabolic steroid therapy.
These cysts are sometimes present with minimal hepatic dysfunction, but at other times they have been associated with liver failure. They are often not recognized until life-threatening liver failure or intra-abdominal hemorrhage develops.
Withdrawal of drug usually results in complete disappearance of lesions.
Liver cell tumors are also reported. Most often these are benign and androgen-dependent, but fatal malignant tumors have been reported. Withdrawal of drug often results in regression or cessation of progression of the tumor. However, hepatic tumors associated with androgens or anabolic steroids are much more vascular than other hepatic tumors and may be silent until life-threatening intra-abdominal hemorrhage develops.
Blood lipid changes that are known to be associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis are seen in patients treated with androgens and anabolic steroids. These changes include decreased high-density lipoprotein and sometimes increased low-density lipoprotein. The changes may be very marked and could have a serious impact on the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.
It’s good I never took steroids. I got plenty of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease without them.
Doctors who specialize in hormone therapy know the proper range of levels for hormones in the human body. Leave hormone therapy to them. Don’t go out on your own and endanger your health.
The End
John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”
More info: http://www.tjbooks.com
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Tags: Athlete, baseball, Hall of Fame, hormone, medical, medicine, peptide, sports, steroid, Steroids boyberm on June 29th, 2008 Filed under Medicine | Comment now »Lipitor Side Effects
Lipitor is a drug intended to help lower cholesterol. The generic name for this brand-name medication is atorvastatin.
What are the side effects of Lipitor (atorvastatin) cholesterol medication?
Lipitor has been an effective treatment for many people across the country who suffer from high cholesterol. It lowers your cholesterol and, therefore, lowers your risk of heart attack, heart disease, hardening of the arteries and stroke.
Like all prescription medications, Lipitor may cause some side effects during your treatment.There have been rare cases of muscle and liver problems developing with the treatment of Lipitor and other medicines which are similar. While you’re taking Lipitor, you must get in touch with your doctor immediately if you notice any unusual and unexplainable muscle pain, weakness, or tenderness. This is especially critical if you experience the above symptoms along with a fever, symptoms of the flu, gastrointestinal pains (stomach/abdominal pains), unexplained fatigue, pale stools (feces) or dark urine. These might be early signs of liver or muscle difficulties.
If you are experiencing any serious side effects, you must discontinue treatment with Lipitor and arrange a visit to the emergency room. If this emergency trip is not an option, then call your doctor immediately.
What are the most serious side effects of Lipitor?
Serious side effects of Lipitor include; allergic reactions (closing of the throat, swollen lips, trouble breathing, swelling of the face or tongue; and hives breakouts), decreased or rust-colored urine, or unusually blurry vision.
What are the most common side effects I could experience?
Other Lipitor side effects which are less serious are not such a pain, but there is a better chance you will have to deal with them. These side effects include headache, excess gas (flatulence), nausea or upset stomach, or a rash. If you notice any of these symptoms, you don’t have to stop taking Lipitor, but you should get in touch with your doctor as soon as possible.
Because science is not perfect, there may be other side effects besides those listed here. If you experience any other side effect that is unusual, unexplainable or especially annoying, make sure to arrange talk with your doctor.
Copyright (C) Shoppe.MD and Ian Mason, 2004-2005
Ian Mason, owner of Shoppe.MD, your source for Lipitor side effects info, prescription drug best buys and support forums.
Ian is a fat-to-fit student of health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.
Tags: atorvastatin, cholesterol, fat, ldl, lipitor, lipitor recall, lipitor side effects, medication, medicine boyberm on June 26th, 2008 Filed under Medicine | Comment now »The Healing Arts 18 Things Healers Learn, #16; Even God Doesn’t Mess With Choice
Moments are composed of intricate patchworks of choices. To a certain extent, everything we do is a choice even though most are made unconsciously.
Each of us has a vast array of filters. They are extremely fluid. They are filters of our physiology and experience as mitigated through the filters imposed on us by others. Our genetic makeup is a major filter through which we respond that differentiates us from the rest.
A person who has grown up in the bayou, for example, is far more likely to have a filter operating that allows him to embrace the wonder of a snake whereas a city-dweller automatically recoils at the sight, or even thought, of one. Perhaps the bayou resident has a filter that places the snake within the larger context of being a natural expression of nature, where the city person sees it as a dangerous aberration to be feared.
Interpretation of an event as either something welcoming or threatening is based on filters that also can come through choice. Since the city-dweller can take the time to read and learn more about snakes, he is just as capable, a week from now, to embrace the wonder of a snake. The only thing that changes is that new filters are added, some of which negate old ones, thereby shifting the interpretation. Our choices are based on our interpretation of events through the filters that are in place at the time. In a circular relationship, our interpretations are based on our choices as well.
As a healer, when faced with someone making a critical choice in her life, it’s helpful to tune in to some of the filters that are in operation for her at the time. Although basic history and physical evaluation has its place in regards to getting a broad overview of the person, to a large extent, all of these indicators take a back seat to the filters that are operative in that very moment.
A healer can act like the Optometrist who sits his charge down in front of a machine with rotating filters called lenses. She works with the person, using different dimensions of lenses until the right combination comes into place and clarity of vision occurs. The trick is not so much interposing your own filter on the individual, but finding the filters that work within the context of the person’s own history.
Ultimately, though, we cannot account for, nor understand, every filter through which an individual experiences her life; responding honestly to the filters that are present, she will make a choice that appears to us as self-destructive.
Each of us makes choices like this all the time. In fact, if you look at it with a smile, we are a people who spend a significant part of our lives saying under our breath, “Wow, that Gal is killing herself.”
The bottom line is each of us makes innumerable choices that can and often do contribute to our deaths. Death is a part of the structure of what we know as life. This could be the most common filter of all. It makes you wonder; for all filters can be modified!
Another filter, for most of us, is that there is a Higher Power in some way involved with every moment. This ever-shifting form of intelligence, interpreted by the individual (and institutions for the individual) is called, for want of a better word (and out of my own laziness!) God. Because death happens, at a certain point we must accept that God is cool with any choice we make, even unto death.
When a bunch of a person’s individual filters complement and support each other — no matter how seemingly twisted to the observer — there’s comes a point at which a choice may evolve that becomes fixed. Even the God of any of our choices simply allows that to be. This is where the only approach left is to identify that choice, honor it as real and valid for that person, and, perhaps most important of all, let him know and then let it go.
Healers spend a portion of their time witnessing the unbearable; responding to choices that so fly in the face of their own life interpretations that it is painful to be around. But the reality is, the more you try to impose your own filters upon the individual, the more likely you are to encounter resistance.
By working under the assumption that ultimately, the person will make choices appropriate to his history (and future!), you allow the person to direct his energy away from resistance and move it closer toward seeking balance for himself whatever that may look like and whether you understand it or not.
Russ Reina shares over 35 years of experience in the healing arts through his web site http://mauihealingartist.com. It is a potent resource for those wishing to deepen their abilities in connection and develop their powers as healers. For a powerful free tool to explore your inner world, please check out his adjunct site http://thestoryofthis.net
(Permission is granted to reprint this article, unedited, provided proper attribution is made and the signature line — the above resource paragraph — is kept intact)
Tags: alternative, art, care, connect, doctor, emergency, heal, medicine, nurse, therapy, tools, transform boyberm on June 24th, 2008 Filed under Medicine | Comment now »