At the Growth Hormone Summit held November 10 at the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, anti-doping experts discussed two of the most contentious issues concerning exogenous human growth hormone.

First, its efficacy. Second, the accuracy of its testing. And since after the daylong conference no consensus was reached by the attendees on both issues, Major League Baseball decided to forego its testing for this controversial compound.

“Growth hormone is widely abused by athletes,” Richard Holt, a professor at University of Southampton in Great Britain said. “There is little scientific evidence that growth hormone is performance-enhancing. I think the scientists are wrong and the athletes are right.”

The professor said that by itself hGH does not do much – athletes have to take other performance-enhancing drugs along with hGH to improve their abilities.

“In order to get the full benefit of growth hormone, you need to take it with other agents as well,” he said.

Even anti-doping czar Don Catlin is in the dark regarding hGH’s affect on the performance.
“There is no answer and I don’t think there will be unless somebody gets approval to do the study. It’s the same thing with anabolic steroids 25 or 30 years ago. We need the same study with HGH,” Catlin said.

Catlin, who is the director of Anti-Doping Research at the UCLA, acknowledged the need to come up with an effective testing method, even if it means soliciting government support.

“The government needs to come in. I don’t like it, but I don’t like X-ray machines at the airport, either. There really isn’t much choice. We’re trying to find a needle in a haystack. There’s good hope.”

As far as the period to accurately test for hGH the timeline is quite narrow.

“Thirty hours, I’d say,” said Douglas Rollins, executive director of the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City.

Other resource persons were of the opinion the timeline can still be narrower.

Bob DuPuy, MLB’s president and chief operating officer, was well aware of the challenge hGH presents, and overcoming that challenge by coming up with such conference is a positive indication that his organization is willing to clean up the sport.

“The commissioner (Bud Selig) is committed to eradicating all performance-enhancing drugs, including HGH,” DuPuy said. “One of the things we’ve recognized from the start of this is HGH presents challenges. One of the purposes for this conference is to get everybody on the same page. All we can do is continue to fund things like this.

“I think we’re doing the best we can do. You’ve got most of the leading experts in the field here today, and that’s a good start.”

Gene Orza, the No. 2 official of the players’ union, said if there’s a scientifically valid test for HGH, the association could go for it. However, for the meantime, they’re not giving the green light.

“My suspicion is they would adopt it, but they wouldn’t be railroaded into doing so,” he said. “Today’s conference suggests a lot of hard work is being done by a lot of qualified people, but there’s a long way to go. No one should have complete faith in a test that has never tested anyone positive.

“We don’t oppose blood testing. We say we’ll consider blood testing, which is different from urine testing. We’re saying we’ll consider blood testing when the time is right. Now is not that time. The players’ association is contributing now to the development and analysis of HGH testing. That’s part of this conference.”

The conference, titled “Growth Hormone: Barriers to Implementation of hGH Testing in Sports”, was co-funded by the MLB with David Geffen School of Medicine of UCLA and Foley and Lardner LLP. Among the summit’s aims was to “identify the scientific, medical, legal, and ethical issues that must be addressed before hGH testing is considered a routine part of sports drug testing.”

Tags: “Growth Hormone: Barriers to Implementation of hGH Testing in Sports”, Bob Dupuy, Dan Catlin, Foley and Lardner LLP, Gene Orza, HGH, human growth hormone, Major League Baseball, steroids, summit on growth hormone, UCLA

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The hGH market reportedly amasses $2 billion annually, and majority of this staggering amount is not earned through hGH therapeutic applications but for its anti-aging and athletic-enhancing properties. And this is causing jitters from both the medical community and the federal government.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center and the University of Illinois published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) with regards to this growing concern. The article revealed many concerns about nonmedical use and distribution of hGH and principal of these concerns are the so-called anti-aging and age-management clinics, which aggressively market hGH (Human Growth Hormone) and use deceptive marketing tactics to lure customers. By deceptive, the group says, these clinics intentionally cross out the potential risks of hGH use. Since the article’s publication in 2005, the research group says the problem is getting worse, and the public should be warned against this.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence that the risks and dangers of growth hormone far outweigh the clinically demonstrated insignificant benefit in normally aging individuals, the prescribing, distribution and sale of hGH for alleged anti-aging aesthetic and athletic enhancement has dramatically grown over the past few years. Clearly, the coordinated and aggressive marketing campaigns of the anti-aging and age-management industries are highly and most unfortunately effective,” says Dr. Thomas Perls, Director of the New England Centenarian and medical professor at the Boston University School of Medicine.

“In my capacity as a reviewer of medical records seized from anti-aging clinics by the DEA, I almost never see hGH provided in isolation. It is usually a part of a complex cocktail of one or more anabolic steroids, human chorionic gonadotropin (specifically for men to decrease the obvious signs of steroid abuse such as small testicles and enlarged breasts), thyroid hormone, DHEA and other drugs. Additional drugs such as blood pressure medicines, diuretics and insulin may be given to treat the side effects of the basic cocktail,” Perls adds.

The authors of the study propose that several measures need to be taken to address the inappropriate distribution and use of hGH.

Among their recommendations are (as published at Science Daily):

•    The public must be accurately informed by physicians and scientists who do not have a vested interest in hGH, about health risks, fraudulent marketing and illegal distribution of this drug.
•    Organizations that promote or indirectly profit from the medically inappropriate and illegal distribution of hGH that have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to offer American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award (PRA) category 1 CME credits or other categories of CME credit should, at a minimum, have their accreditation revoked.
•    U.S. manufacturers of hGH must be more effective in, and held accountable for, controlling the distribution of the drug to companies providing the drug for illegal uses.
•    Congressional hearings and media attention surrounding hGH should focus less on athletes and prominent entertainers who are also victims of deceptive marketing and pushing of hGH, and much more on the distributors who are violating federal and state laws by making the drug available for non-approved uses.

Tags: age-management clinics, anabolic steroids, anti-aging clinics, HCG, HGH, human growth hormone, nonmedical use of hGH, steroids

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Jose Canseco is just non stop.  Jose Canseco gave up anabolic steroids, so he’s using HCG, but then again does he have a brain.  Why would he bring HCG over the border from Mexico when you’re on of the most recognize steroid users in the USA?  After Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco is probably the most notable figure in steroids and baseball.   So why is he brining PCT (post cycle therapy) drugs over the border? is he still using anabolic steroids? obviously he is.  Has he not heard of the internet? obviously NOT! he could have easily gotten HCG over the internet from a pharmacy delivered to his home.

What we cannot understand is why does Jose Canseco need to use anabolic steroids? does he not understant the mounting political and media pressure on him to be in the public light?  It’s obvious he doesn’t understand the consequences of steroid use in the public eye.  He would rather buy steroids over the border in mexico and bring them back, then use his brain and order anabolic steroids online.  It was very obvious that Jose Canseco was/is also using human growth hormone (HGH) and probably some IGF-1 or MGF.  It depends on how much he can smuggle over the border.

The realistic situation about Jose Canseco is not going to change, as he is arrogant.  Jose Canseco doesn’t think he can be touched after his book exposing so called steroid users in baseball and sports.  Jose Canseco forgets the criminal penalties in USA for steroid use, especially since he’s a big media figure - they will make an example of him.

From San Diego News:

Former baseball star Jose Canseco was detained by immigration officials at a San Diego border crossing as he tried to bring a fertility drug from Mexico, authorities and his lawyer said yesterday.

Canseco was issued a notice to appear in federal court “relative to a smuggling violation,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.

“It’s a discretion we have, to issue a notice to appear rather than make an arrest when a smaller volume of items are being smuggled,” Mack said.

Mack said no charges have been filed against Canseco, who was given the notice to appear and released Thursday night. She declined to elaborate on the allegation.

Canseco, a former major league All-Star slugger, was held for nearly 10 hours at the San Ysidro border crossing, said his Los Angeles attorney, Gregory S. Emerson, according to The Associated Press.

The AP reported that immigration agents said they searched Canseco’s car and found human chorionic gonadotropin, which is illegal without a prescription.

Emerson declined to say if Canseco was carrying the drug, which is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for use in men. The drug helps restore production of testosterone lost in steroid users.

Officials released Canseco after he agreed to allow ICE agents to search his Los Angeles-area home, the AP reported Emerson as saying. About 10 ICE agents searched the home in the attorney’s presence yesterday as Canseco was returning from San Diego.

“They found nothing. They took nothing,” Emerson said.

Mack said Canseco is to appear in San Diego’s federal court Tuesday. Canseco has admitted using steroids during his baseball career. In his 2005 best-selling book, “Juiced,” he not only told of his own use of performance-enhancing drugs, but also claimed up to 85 percent of major leaguers used steroids. Also in 2005, Canseco testified at a congressional hearing about drugs in baseball, and said “steroids (in the game) were as prevalent in the late 1980s and 1990s as a cup of coffee.”

In 1986, Padres pitcher LaMarr Hoyt was cited for drug violations after he was detained at the San Ysidro border pedestrian crossing from Mexico. He was alleged to be carrying three grams of marijuana, 79 Valium tablets and 46 Quaaludes, U.S. Customs officials said.

Canseco played 17 seasons for seven teams in the major leagues, hitting 462 home runs. He was the 1988 American League MVP and 1986 American League Rookie of the Year while playing for the Oakland Athletics.

In June of 2006, after his major league career was over, Canseco was signed by the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the independent Golden Baseball League. But he never played a game in San Diego, being traded to the Long Beach Armada after playing just one game for the Surf Dawgs, on the road

Tags: anabolic steroids, arrested, Barry Bonds, buy steroids, detained at border, HCG, HGH, Jose Canseco, MLB, steroid use in baseball, steroids

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The question on everyone’s mind is: Does LL Cool J use anabolic steroids or HGH? did he ever used steroids? or does he look so awesome via magic - maybe Harry Potter used “Magicum Steroidal” spell on him? I guess not.  Reality says that LL Cool J obviously used anabolic steroids, he’s clearly on steroids and/or HGH.  The is probably using Winstrol, Anavar and some Primoblan.  He might be also using some human growth hormone (HGH).

From AOL Sports:

Although Congress and the media have chosen to focus almost exclusively on the use of performance-enhancing drugs among athletes, there’s also a great deal of PED use among Hollywood celebrities, from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone on down.

But one of the celebrities who certainly has the body of a steroid user — and who played a muscular football player in Any Given Sunday — says he has never used them. LL Cool J was on Late Night With Conan O’Brien last night, and when Conan brought up steroids, LL made clear that he doesn’t want to risk the testicular atrophy that is a side effect of steroid use.

“We don’t want the prunes to turn into raisins,” LL said. “I still want to matter at home, not just at the beach.”

I’m not sure that comparing his own testicles to prunes is really where LL wants to go, but point taken: Count LL as one muscular man who says no to steroids.