According to new results from a comprehensive childhood asthma study, asthmatic children who benefited from steroid drugs are unable to experience the same results after discontinuing the usage.

The findings of this study came from the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) clinical trial in which more than 1,000 children were treated for mild-to-moderate asthma. Children were divided into three groups in which one group received twice-daily budesonide and an inhaled corticosteroid medication, the second group received a placebo and the third group received nedocromil (an inhaled non-steroid medication). All the three groups also received albuterol, a bronchodilator, and oral corticosteroids for treating asthma symptoms.

From News-Medical.Net:

Inhaled corticosteroids such as budesonide have been shown to be the most effective form of anti-inflammatory treatment for asthma by controlling symptoms and improving pulmonary function. Results from the original CAMP trial showed that using budesonide twice daily led to fewer hospitalizations and urgent care visits, fewer days in which additional asthma medications were needed and a reduced need for albuterol, a fast-acting drug for relief of acute asthma symptoms. Using nedocromil twice daily reduced urgent care visits and courses of oral steroids for severe symptoms, but did not affect the number of hospitalizations, symptoms or airway responsiveness.

Although the patients had fewer symptoms five years after stopping the daily medication, Strunk cautions that doesn’t mean that they can stop using asthma medications altogether or that their asthma is cured.

In another part of the follow-up study, the involved researchers had a close look at the long-term side effects of the steroid therapy on bone density, fracture rate, and growth.

The study is expected to provide deep insights to the medical fraternity to formulate new plans for treating asthma, which is considered to affect more than 150,000 people in the United States alone.

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According to a new research conducted at the University of Cambridge, City traders are likely to make more than average profits when they have high morning testosterone levels.

It was hypothesized by the involved scientists that this improved performance may be because of the fact that testosterone is known to increase appetite for risk and confidence - two qualities that can easily augment the performance of any trader.

Testosterone is a steroid hormone that controls competitive encounters and sexual behavior.

From News-Medical.Net:

The researchers also speculated that if testosterone continued to rise or became chronically elevated, it could begin to have the opposite effect on a trader’s profitability by increasing risk-taking to unprofitable levels. Previous studies have shown that administered testosterone can lead to irrational decision-making. They believe that this is because testosterone has also been found to lead to impulsivity and sensation seeking, to harmful risk taking, and in extreme cases (among users of anabolic steroids) to euphoria and mania.

Testosterone may therefore underlie a secondary consequence of the ‘winner effect‘ in which a previous win in the markets leads to increased, and eventually irrational, risk taking in the next round of trading.

It was concluded that the influence of naturally produced steroids in the body, especially cortisol and testosterone, can provide insights into how and why people caught in crashes often find it tedious to make a rational decision.

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According to researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, steroid pill treatment can be highly effective when it comes to improving the overall survival rate of patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow.

Multiple myeloma, which is considered to be a dreadful type of cancer, takes approximately 14,000 lives in the United States alone, each year.

James Berenson, M.D., lead author of the Southwest Oncology Group sponsored study and Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Bone Metastasis Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, remarked that the use of prednisone in response to an upfront chemotherapy is a safe option for prolonging the lives of patients suffering from Multiple Myeloma.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

Multiple myeloma occurs when the body makes an abnormally high number of cancerous plasma cells. When healthy, plasma cells help to protect the body from infection and disease by forming antibodies that attack foreign substances. But when the body makes too many plasma cells that all make the same type of antibody, this leads to multiple myeloma, causing damage to bones, severe bone pain, an overabundance of calcium in the blood, anemia, and a weakening of the immune system. Today, most patients with multiple myeloma receive initial treatment with chemotherapy or with high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant and many respond to treatment and achieve remission. However, all patients ultimately relapse with incurable disease, leading physicians to search for ways to prolong remission for as long as possible by using some type of maintenance therapy.

It was concluded by the involved researchers that patients administered with oral prednisone in the long-term after chemotherapy treatment were able to maintain their remission and lived longer.

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Boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who were previously unable to walk on their own for long can now have a sigh of relief. According to a recent study, daily steroid treatment allows them to walk on their own and minimize the risk of scoliosis to a considerable extent.

The results were part of a study that was published in the May 8, 2007, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

From News-Medical.Net:

For the study, researchers reviewed records of 143 boys seen at the Ohio State University Muscular Dystrophy Clinic in Columbus. Of the group, 75 had been treated with corticosteroids for an average of eight years and the rest of the boys had never been treated or had received a brief dose of steroids.

The study found boys who were treated with daily steroids walked by themselves 3.3 years longer than the untreated boys and had a lower rate of scoliosis, 31 percent compared to 91 percent.

“Previous studies have shown steroids improve strength and function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but this is the first study to show the long-term impact and how treated boys are able to walk longer on their own,” said study author Wendy King, PT, with the Department of Neurology at Ohio State University Medical Center, and member of the American Academy of Neurology.

It was remarked that the benefits of steroids come at a cost of side effects and it is best to weigh the benefits and risk of steroid treatments before making any decision. The study is expected to bring smiles on the faces of patients and parents of these patients who have been long expecting a cure for this disorder.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently told the Congress that it had limited capabilities when it comes to preventing dietary supplements with steroids from hitting the market shelves.

From News.Yahoo.com:

“FDA generally cannot identify violative products before they enter the marketplace,” said Michael Levy, director of the FDA’s division of new drugs and labeling compliance, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary crime and drugs subcommittee. “After products enter the market, we must undertake a painstaking investigative and analytical process” to show the products violate the law.

Levy said that dietary supplement makers need not prove a product is safe unless it contains a new ingredient not previously part of the food supply. That allows unscrupulous companies to market products that can pose health risks, he said.

“Marketing a steroid product as a ‘dietary supplement‘ conveys to the consumer a false sense of safety and legitimacy for these potentially harmful products,” Levy said.

Daniel Fabricant, interim executive director and CEO of the Natural Products Association, which represents retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of health foods and dietary supplements, said his industry is being “victimized by a guerilla-style criminal drug-peddling operation.” He said the solution is enforcement of current laws.

The subcommittee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Philadelphia Phillies fan, remarked before the hearing was initiated that his interest was piqued in some part by the case of Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero, who was handed a suspension of 50 games this season, after being tested positive for Androstendione, a substance that was also used by Mark McGwire in the 1990s.

It is worth noting here that the Major League Baseball Players Association has been pressing the Congress to formulate stringent reporting requirements for supplement manufacturers and hard penalties for repeat offenders.

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According to a team of American and French scientists, including Michael E. Baker, PhD, professor in UC San Diego’s Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology-Hypertension, enzymes that are used for steroid synthesis in snails, insects, corals, and octopuses are not related to those used in human beings.

This finding is expected to provide a new insight for studies on the effects of chemicals on response of steroids in humans.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Through an analysis of several invertebrate genomes, the scientists discovered that snails and insects utilize steroid-synthesizing enzymes that are not vertebrate–related, but instead belong in an invertebrate family. Moreover, these invertebrate steroidogenic enzymes have a strong evolutionary connection to enzymes that detoxify chemicals (called xenobiotics).

This unexpected finding led them to hypothesize that these steroid-synthesizing enzymes arose independently from specific pathways used by snails and worms for detoxifying environmental chemicals.

“This finding shows that, if we want to really understand the effects of environmental chemicals on steroid synthesis in snails, worms, octopuses and such animals, we must switch from a human-centered viewpoint to snail-centered viewpoint. This is the best way to accumulate knowledge that could be useful to human health,” said Laudet, adding that this emphasizes the need for more cross-disciplinary studies between toxicologists, endocrinologists and zoologists.

In short, the research was successful in concluding that the method through which toxic chemicals effect the steroid hormone signaling of corals, snails, insects, and other invertebrates cannot be extrapolated to human ailments.

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It has been several months since most of us heard the word “steroids” in the sporting world, a fact that has brought a big smile on the faces of sporting and doping officials. In early February this year, there were anonymous sources reporting that Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) had used performance enhancing drugs to deliver dramatic performances on the field. Then, there were claims by the lawyers involved in the BALCO investigation that David Ortiz was one of the players who had tested positive in 2003.

From News.Yahoo.com:

It is no coincidence that, for the most part, sports writers broke their steroid stories during the off-season when there is not much baseball news around. Of course, when an anonymous source dumps the Ortiz leak during the season, it must be played when it appears. Red Sox fans were worried about Big Papi’s failure to start playing the game until two months into the 2009 season. The drug testing story offered an explanation for Ortiz’s lackluster performance. It happened to all players who had to go off “the stuff.” The faithful rallied to Papi’s side. Since then he has had his usual spectacular year, although his batting average never recovered. No one has bothered to say “never mind” about the drug accusations.

The only steroid news since the shameful accusations against David Ortiz has been the court ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in August on a suit brought by the Major League Baseball Players Association. Federal authorities had seized all the 2003 drug-testing records as part of their BALCO investigation, although their subpoena only referenced information related to ten players. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, normally a staunch conservative on criminal matters, castigated the Bush henchmen: “This was an obvious case of deliberate overreaching by the government in an effort to seize data as to which it lacked probable cause.” Perhaps the government could not tell the difference between ten records and a hundred. It is refreshing to know that the Fourth Amendment is still part of the sacred covenant that is our Bill of Rights.

It appears that the news of steroids is often broken down during the off-season to keep public interest. After all, publicity, good or bad, seems to be working these days and if the publicity is centered up on a celebrity, people tend to take more interest than ever.

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According to experts from Scotland, Bell’s Palsy that is a syndrome causing muscles on one side of the face to become paralyzed, is now curable by a new kind of steroid treatment. It is worth noting here that Bell’s Palsy tends to affect the facial nerve that is used by the humans to smile and close their eyes.

It was found by researchers at the Dundee University that treating this disorder with prednisolone at an early stage can cure some people in as fast as three months besides offering a 95 percent chance of complete recovery in a matter of nine months.

From News-Medical.Net:

The new study says that the relatively cheap steroid prednisolone was the “best treatment” and offered “significantly” better recovery rates than the anti-viral agent acyclovir, which they say “has little benefit”.

Professor Frank Sullivan, the director of the Scottish School of Primary Care at the university, and his team examined about 500 sufferers and he says the new treatment offers a significant improvement in how Bell’s Palsy is dealt with and will make a real difference to patients.

Professor Sullivan says the study gives clear-cut evidence that early treatment with steroids offers by far the best results for complete recovery.

The study was led by Dundee University, with support from other Scottish universities at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and GP services around the country.

The findings have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It is believed that every one out of 60 people are affected by Bell’s Palsy at one point of their lifetime and this treatment option can open doors of new and improvised treatment option for this disorder.

It was also concluded during the study that relatively cheap steroid prednisolone was a far better option than the anti-viral agent acyclovir.

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Researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital have reported that three cases of patients facing adverse effects of steroid-enriched dietary supplements have come to their knowledge.

These cases have been discussed in the current issue of The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. These cases pertain to patients suffering from renal failure and liver injury.

It is important to note that the FDA issued a warning with concern to the over-the-counter sale of bodybuilding supplements that are found to be enriched with anabolic steroids.

From Medicalnewstoday.com:

The three cases outlined in the article now bring the total of cases reported in the last year to six.

“Anabolic steroids have long been known to cause liver damage, but what is not widely known is that over-the-counter health food supplements may actually contain these compounds,” says Dr. Gordon. “The buyer of these compounds likely has no idea that he is ingesting these agents, even after reading the small print on the label.”

According to the lead author Stuart C. Gordon, M.D., Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Henry Ford Hospital, though there are not many cases yet the published cases clearly highlight the fact that health of individuals, using such kinds of products, can take a toll.

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According to a recent study that was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), adding an ultrasound-guided technique with steroid injection is 95 percent effective when it comes to relieving plantar fasciitis, a common and painful foot problem.

The new technique was hailed as an effective and one-time outpatient procedure by the study’s lead author, Luca M. Sconfienza, M.D., from Italy’s University of Genoa.

From News-Medical.Net:

For this study, Dr. Sconfienza and colleagues used a new ultrasound-guided technique, along with steroid injection, on 44 patients with plantar fasciitis that was unresponsive to conservative treatments.

After injection of a small amount of anesthesia, the anesthetic needle is used to repeatedly puncture the site where the patient feels the pain. This technique is known as dry-needling. Dry-needling creates a small amount of local bleeding that helps to heal the fasciitis. Lastly, a steroid is injected around the fascia to eliminate the inflammation and pain. The technique is performed with ultrasound guidance to improve accuracy and to avoid injecting the steroids directly into the plantar fascia, which could result in rupture.

After the 15-minute procedure, symptoms disappeared for 42 of the study’s 44 patients (95 percent) within three weeks.

It was remarked by Dr. Sconfienza that this therapy is faster and less painful than shockwave therapy and suggested that patients should first try out noninvasive treatment options before going out for other treatments. It is only when the pain starts becoming really annoying that dry needling with steroid injection is a viable option.

This study is expected to offer a new dimensional approach for finding new and better treatment options for improving the quality standards of life for patients suffering with plantar fasciitis.

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