Growth Hormone

Even if Ray Lewis did use deer antler spray his body would have never absorbed the banned substance its manufacturer says gives the product its potency, a Johns Hopkins professor said. Sports Illustrated ran an article online Tuesday that connected the Ravens linebacker to S.W.A.T.S. - Sports with Alternatives to Steroids - a company that has marketed alternative health supplements and products to athletes (ThePostGame, which is led by Pikesville native David Katz and currently staffed by former Sun sports intern Robbie Levin, had the story two years ago )

Even if Ray Lewis did use deer antler spray his body would have never absorbed the banned substance its manufacturer says gives the product its potency, a Johns Hopkins professor said. Sports Illustrated ran an article online Tuesday that connected the Ravens linebacker to S.W.A.T.S. - Sports with Alternatives to Steroids - a company that has marketed alternative health supplements and products to athletes (ThePostGame, which is led by Pikesville native David Katz and currently staffed by former Sun sports intern Robbie Levin, had the story two years ago )

Restore your looks, health, energy and physical abilities." "What was once the secret of celebrities is now finally within the grasp of everyone." The claims on "anti-aging" Web sites promise that human growth hormone will give aging adults everything from better memory to better skin tone, better waistlines and a better sex drive. Not surprisingly, though, the benefits of the hormone - whose U.S. sales far exceeded $700 million last year - are much more limited. And its downsides are far greater than the ads let on, including an increased risk of diabetes, especially in men. True, growth hormone can boost muscle and reduce body fat. But, while you may look more buff, you may not actually be stronger, research suggests.

Seven-time Cy Young Award-winner Roger Clemens is on trial today - again - for allegedly lying to Congress, and that means the spotlight will again find Brian McNamee, the pitcher's former personal trainer. McNamee has said he injected Clemens on numerous occasions with steroidsand human growth hormone. But the man I'll be thinking about is Andy Pettitte, Clemens' longtime friend and teammate. Here's the thing about steroid cases - they have the potential to rip up friendships and clubhouses.

Anabolic steroids are banned by the world's major sports organizations because they cause liver damage and heart attacks. As a result, many athletes looking to become stronger are taking growth hormone instead. Yet a recent study has shown that growth hormone is not altogether effective in making an athlete stronger and also has serious side effects.Kevin Yareshevsky of Washington University in St. Louis tested growth hormone against placebos in young men who also lifted weights. The growth hormone did not make them stronger.

Q. I am a 30-year-old man, and I am starting to feel old. I am in the Army and can tell that I've lost a step on the younger guys. I want to improve my overall health, and after looking here and there, I think growth hormone (GH) is probably the best way to go. I'm not trying to boost my performance so much as get some of my old recovery time back. Would my body quit producing GH if I started taking it? That is the last thing I want to happen, as it would eventually tie me to a supplement.

COLLEGE PARK -- The world may soon be able to use genetic engineering or special hormones to make fish grow to market size faster and to increase world food supplies, says a University of Maryland marine biologist who is working to make it happen.Thomas Chen, a biologist and professor in the biological sciences department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said that he already has rainbow trout and oysters growing at least 20 percent faster than normal -- and sometimes as much as 50 percent faster -- depending on the method used.

Across the country, increasing numbers of very short children are taking human growth hormone in hopes of eventually reaching normal, or near-normal, height. The treatment, which takes years and costs tens of thousands of dollars, will help a significant number of these patients grow at least a few inches taller. These children and their families say this added height can make a huge difference in quality of life. It can boost kids' self-confidence, help them avoid being teased or bullied, and later make it easier to drive a car. But some doctors and researchers say that in many cases, growth hormone therapy is unnecessary and wasteful, closer to cosmetic surgery than essential medical care.

Two years ago, Richard Casey was feeling his age. At 48, he was tired, gaining weight and suffering from a growing number of aches and pains. On top of that, his libido had decreased. "I could see the distance between my 40s and my 20s," he says. "As I looked ahead, it was all downhill. That's depressing." Looking for relief, he found a Chicago doctor named Paul Savage, who focuses on adjusting hormone levels in older patients. Savage modified Casey's diet and workout, and prescribed several hormones, including human growth hormone.

Patricia Costa's friends told her Nicole was a perfect little girl. Sure, she was tiny for a 3-year-old, but she was adorable and perfectly proportioned. She had a charming feistiness about her -- a determination that seemed to grow as Nicole confronted the childhood taunts of bigger peers and the indignities of being the smallest kid in school. Like many other children who rank at the bottom of growth charts, Nicole had no identifiable disorder depressing her growth. So what if she's tiny, Patricia's friends insisted.

Realignment in Major League Baseball, which could move the Orioles out of the American League East one day, was touched on Thursday during the players' annual spring meeting with their union chief. But because it is only conceptual, not a lot of time was dedicated to it, according to new union chief Michael Weiner , who spent nearly two hours with the Orioles. "On-field issues are very important to the players, so we mentioned a number of those issues. My understanding is that realignment is not a front-burner issue," said Weiner, the union's former general counsel who took over as executive director from Don Fehr last year.

Sports fans and commentators speak of human growth hormone as a magical substance that offers the same benefits as anabolic steroids but cannot be detected in urine tests. So when a player is linked to hGH, as Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons was by an SI.com report, many presume the player was desperate to bulk up and power baseballs into the stands. The scientific community doesn't uniformly agree, however, that hGH would help an athlete do so. Several studies of senior patients have found that hGH helps build lean muscle mass but does not increase muscle strength.

It's a story that never seems to go away. Steroids. Steroids. Steroids. If former Sen. George Mitchell, who has been conducting an investigation backed by millions of dollars from Major League Baseball, has something, he'd better get it out there pronto. Because Barry Bonds is going to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record soon, and it will be in the books. Asterisk or no asterisk. It will count. Maybe it won't be recognized by baseball purists, those who believe that anyone who has been found to use steroids or has come under suspicion should be stricken from public consciousness.

Agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. is challenging a growing trend among dairies to label their milk "hormone free," saying that claim misleads consumers into believing the cow growth hormone Monsanto makes is unsafe. St. Louis-based Monsanto's aggressive move against a group of dairies to halt use of the labels could send ripples through the food industry.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In the wake of the latest revelations in baseball's performance-enhancement scandal comes the news that Sammy Sosa already has hit two home runs in his comeback bid with the Texas Rangers. Could that possibly be the same Swingin' Sammy who looked so old during his 2005 season with the Orioles that I had run out of AARP jokes by the All-Star break? The answer is, unfortunately, yes. Sosa took a year off and dropped largely out of sight, only to re-emerge looking re-energized during another major surge of steroid-related suspicion.

Across the country, increasing numbers of very short children are taking human growth hormone in hopes of eventually reaching normal, or near-normal, height. The treatment, which takes years and costs tens of thousands of dollars, will help a significant number of these patients grow at least a few inches taller. These children and their families say this added height can make a huge difference in quality of life. It can boost kids' self-confidence, help them avoid being teased or bullied, and later make it easier to drive a car. But some doctors and researchers say that in many cases, growth hormone therapy is unnecessary and wasteful, closer to cosmetic surgery than essential medical care.

Dr. Ron Livesey was fat, tired and out of shape. At 49, he felt that his best years were behind him. So one day seven years ago, on his way to a meeting, he stopped at a doctor's office in Palm Springs, Calif., for his first hormone injections. Early the next morning, Livesey was at the medical meeting, sitting in a darkened auditorium watching slides of technical data. To his surprise, he found himself alert, taking everything in. He continued the hormone treatments. "People started commenting that I had so much more bounce and energy," he said.

Q: Based on laboratory tests and X-rays, my doctor has told me that I have a pituitary tumor that is producing too much growth hormone. It is hard for me to believe this diagnosis when I am not even 6 feet tall while newspapers and magazines describe 8- and 9-foot giants with pituitary tumors.A: Prior to puberty, when linear growth of the arms and legs is still possible, overproduction of growth hormone by one type of pituitary tumor can lead to extremely tall stature, sometimes called gigantism.

Where's Mark Henderson when you need him? I kept waiting for someone to drive a lawn tractor through the deep rough at Winged Foot yesterday at a pivotal moment in the U.S. Open, clearing a space for Phil Mickelson to seal his third straight victory in a major tournament. Wasn't to be. No relief was forthcoming for the golfers who played the final round of this year's "Rumble in the Jungle" --- and both Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie melted down at the end to open the door for Australian Geoff Ogilvy.

If you're like me, you often bemoan the fact that Baltimore doesn't have a state-of-the-art downtown arena ... until you read something like this: The Los Angeles Lakers have increased the price of a courtside seat from $2,100 to $2,200 for the 2006-07 season at Staples Center. Of course, we're talking about the infamous Jack Nicholson/Dyan Cannon seats that have helped enhance the Hollywood image of the Lakers all the way back to the "Showtime" days of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the Fabulous Forum.