Steroids

Soon after Lyle Alzado developed the brain lymphoma that would eventually cause his death, he announced that the cancer had been caused by anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.Alzado, who died yesterday at age 43, said he hoped that by making his case public, he would help others learn from his mistakes."He used steroids to get bigger and to win," said Dr. Lyle Micheli, an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. "He was involved in a sport that requires size and strength."

The episode jumps right into Vicki inviting Alexis to be her date for Tamra's party. Alexis has second thoughts about this and is surprised that Tamra even agreed to let her to attend. Alexis finally agrees to be Vicki's date and thinks it would be a splendid idea to invite her “Christian on steroids” friend Lydia to join the group at the dinner party as well. Let's see how many people we can fill the room with at Tamra's party that she either can't stand or doesn't even know.

A Northern Virginia chiropractor was arrested on drug charges after a co-defendant accused him of supplying steroids to members of the Washington Capitals and Nationals. The Capitals acknowledged that some of their players had received "routine chiropractic services" from the suspect but denied that any players received steroids. Douglas O. Nagel , 50, of Reston, was arrested Tuesday morning in Virginia and charged by Florida authorities with seven counts of soliciting to deliver a controlled substance, specifically steroids.

I was overjoyed to learn that no one was nominated for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year ("Voters shut out players," Jan. 10). A few nominees, including Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, were shunned in their first year of eligibility. I have been patiently awaiting this: We are witnessing the backlash of negativism toward former ball players who allegedly abused steroids. The really lamentable thing is that these men would have likely traipsed into the Hall without the assistance, if you will, of steroid use. Those players who used or abused steroids put themselves above the sport, and that is why I am happy to see these men suffer the consequences and futility of not gaining entry at Cooperstown.

Rafael Palmeiro strolled into the big sports memorabilia show at the Hilton Hotel in Pikesville Sunday wearing an orange sweater, jeans and a hip goatee that made him look like the bass player in a jazz band. He was nearly three hours late. His flight from Texas had been delayed. Mechanical problems, Palmeiro explained as a crowd quickly formed to have the former Orioles great sign baseballs and bats and whatever else was thrust in front of him. "First time back in Baltimore?"

Teenagers trying to enhance either their body image or their athletic prowess often turn to steroids or hormonal supplements without realizing the potentially harmful consequences. That's why a new local public awareness campaign about steroid dangers for teens is right on target. A 2003 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 1 million high school students said they had tried steroids, triple the number who confessed to using them in 1993. The most rapid increase in use was among girls, probably due to their increased participation in sports as a result of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

"Powered by Me: Playing Safe, Fair and Sober," a program for coaches, athletes and parents on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs -- as well as energy drinks and sports drinks -- will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School. The "Powered by Me" program is sponsored statewide by St. Joseph's Hospital. HC Drug Free is co-sponsoring it in Howard County with the Wilde Lake High School PTSA and boosters. The National Collegiate Athletic Association-certified substance-abuse education program will address the pressures on athletes to excel, the use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances to increase strength, power, speed and endurance, the short- and long-term physical and psychological effects of use, and how to get help.

Doctors who deal with sports medicine say there has never been a case in which steroids have caused a cancer like the brain lymphona that led to Lyle Alzado's death yesterday.Dr. Brian Hainline, director of clinical neurology service and sportsneurology at Manhattan's Hospital for Joint Diseases, said yesterday, "The bottom line is that there are no data which would support the linkage between anabolic steroids and brain cancer, specifically primary brain lymphoma."Hainline added, "We should always be open-minded that there could be a link, but there is a danger when you say that this is a cause and effect.

Following a national trend, the Maryland Racing Commission said yesterday that it is "resolved" to implement a ban on anabolic steroids beginning with the Pimlico race meet April 17. Maryland will follow the recommendations set forth in a Dec. 17 meeting by the Association of Racing Commissioners International and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. The RMTC is pushing for the regulation of four commonly used steroids - boldenone (Equipose), stanozolol (Winstrol), nandrolone (Durabolin)

Sometimes the wheels of progress turn faster than expected.Last week, scientists reported that low-dose steroids are effective for treating rheumatoid arthritis -- but other experts warned that long-term use of steroids can cause bone loss.Now, another group of researchers reports that estrogen-replacement therapy can block the bone-damaging effects of steroid treatment.British and French investigators, led by Dr. G. M. Hall of St. Thomas Hospital in London, studied 106 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis.

One of the perks of covering the Orioles is that we have easy access to Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher who, unlike some other great players, has no problem speaking his mind. I talked to Palmer on Wednesday after he deplaned in Southern California - he will be presented with the Professional Baseball Scouts' Foundation's lifetime achievement award on Saturday in Los Angeles - about the Baseball Writers' of America Association failing to induct anyone into this year's Hall of Fame class, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

A national outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to a tainted steroid killed two Marylanders. Nearly two dozen people living with the disease and hundreds of others who may have been exposed fear they may be next. Sheila Smelkinson began suffering in July from pain in her lower back and right leg that kept the Pikesville resident awake for all but a few hours each night. Cortisone shots, one in August and a second in September, relieved her discomfort - until she received a call informing her the medication was among batches contaminated with fungus in a Massachusetts pharmaceutical facility.

We live in a world of sports that is broadcast in full color and high definition. We try to view it through a prism of moral and ethical absolutes. And still, when faced with the great issues of our time, everything ends up being cast in shades of gray. If you doubt that, you might want to take a look at the ballot that will determine who will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. It is, more than any before it, a snapshot of baseball's steroid era, for the first time adding Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa to a list of candidates that already included Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and a handful of other players who fell under suspicion during one of the darkest periods in the history of the sport.

John C. "Jack" Millhausen, an 84-year-old Fallston resident, is at least the second Marylander to die of fungal meningitis in a national epidemic that experts say is slowing but about which many questions remain. Millhausen died Nov. 15 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson, his family said, not long after receiving a spinal shot of a contaminated steroid, several batches of which have caused nearly 600 cases of infections and 37 deaths across the country. Maryland health officials confirmed a second death in the state from the outbreak on Monday but would not confirm that it was Millhausen's, citing confidentiality rules.

The Baseball Writers' Association of America released its Hall of Fame ballot today, and now the next six weeks will be filled with debate on whether some of the biggest names -- and most controversial characters -- will get into Cooperstown's hallowed halls. Players on the ballot for the first time include a few stars that were embroiled in the sport's steroid controversy: namely Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and former Orioles outfielder Sammy Sosa. Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Curt Schilling also are first-timers, joining popular holdovers such as Jeff Bagwell, Jack Morris and Tim Raines on the ballot.

From Liz Atwood: For years we've heard about the teen and tween girls who have a negative body image. Trying to emulate the unnaturally thin models they see on TV or in magazines, they can starve themselves to death. But a new study shows that not only girls, but also teen and tween boys, can harm their health when they become too worried about their bodies. The journal Pediatrics recently published a study that shows a significant number of boys are using protein shakes and steroids to build their muscles.

Two Anne Arundel County police officers charged administratively with using steroids for nonmedical purposes have been suspended without pay for 25 days, police sources and officials said yesterday.Three others caught up in the same scandal have been ordered to receive counseling from their superiors, and punishments for three more have not been determined, according to Officer Terry Crowe, police spokesman.Police sources identified John Church and James Cifala as the officers who were suspended by Chief Robert P. Russell.

BASEBALL took another beating on Capitol Hill yesterday, this time in absentia. The NFL is king, even in Washington, where baseball has experienced a rebirth this spring. That much was apparent when the NFL's most powerful executives paraded before the U.S. House Government Reform Committee investigating steroids in sports and got the official good housekeeping seal of approval. Last month, the same congressional panel lambasted baseball for its failure to police steroids. Yesterday, it lauded the efforts of the NFL. "This hearing today with all of you and the early panel is light years different from [Major League Baseball]

- Pikesville resident Gerald Cohen was an active 71-year-old retiree, filling his free time with gardening, volunteering and enjoying the company of his grandchildren despite persistent back pain - until he sought relief for it. Treated with steroids in the past, he received spinal injections of the medication again in August and September at a Baltimore-area clinic. But this time, side effects came quickly and severely - nausea, neck stiffness, fever and eventually a stroke. Aside from the physical ailments, he grew irritable and started seeing a psychologist over nightly worries that he wouldn't wake up the next morning.

Another fungal meningitis case has been reported in Maryland, bringing the total number of infections tied to tainted steroids in the state to 16. The tally has doubled over the past week, and it has nearly doubled nationwide as well, according to the CDC. There have been 231 cases of meningitis across the country, caused when patients received spinal injections of the steroids to treat back pain. The outbreak has caused no additional deaths in Maryland; one death was reported in the state before Oct. 6. Meningitis is an infection of the fluid surrounding the spine and brain.