This study was led by Mahyar Etminan, PharmD, of Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Canada and examined data for nearly 19,000 people age 65 or older, all of whom also had cardiovascular disease.

From Sciencedaily.com:

The effect was strongest for three SSRIs: Luvox (fluvoxamine) increased risk by 39 percent, Effexor (venlafaxine) by 33 percent and Paxil (paroxetine) by 23 percent. The apparent increased risk was associated only with current, not past, drug use. Some antidepressants did not appear to be associated with cataract risk, but this could have been because the numbers of study participants using these drug types were too small to show effects, or because only specific agents in certain medications are related to cataract formation. These questions need further study.

“The eye’s lens has serotonin receptors, and animal studies have shown that excess serotonin can make the lens opaque and lead to cataract formation,” Dr. Etminan said. “If our findings are confirmed in future studies, doctors and patients should consider cataract risk when prescribing some SSRIs for seniors,” he added.

A research in the past demonstrated that there is an association between beta blocker medications and oral and inhaled steroids in terms of increased cataract risk.

Dr. Thomas T. Perls, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine appreciated the example demonstrated by the council in its recent assessment of advantages and disadvantages of growth hormone, testosterone, estrogen, and DHEA for anti-aging.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“The AMA’s review of the risks and benefits of these hormones in the setting of anti-aging and athletic enhancement is very important given its inclusion of the consensus and position statements of the key professional medical societies as well as the federal agencies that guard public health.” states Dr. Perls in the editorial.

The editorial summarizes the AMA’s assessment for each of the purported anti-aging hormones and essentially the bottom line of his argument is that in terms of anti-aging, the risks of these hormones out-weigh the little or no benefit. Dr. Perls denounces the marketing of these hormones, particularly growth hormone and anabolic steroids (anabolic steroids are variations of testosterone), for anti-aging. He also provides guidelines for spotting “red flags of quackery” and basic advice that physicians can lend to their patients in their pursuit of healthy aging.

Dr. Perls applauded the efforts of AMA in an editorial appearing in the Future Medicine journal Aging Health.

Editorial author Dr. Ray Baker remarked that the study results are principally impressive while taking into consideration the stringent study design.

From Esciencenews.com:

Transforaminal injection—the injection of steroids directly and accurately onto the affected spinal nerve under radiologic guidance—has proved more effective than interlaminar injection of steroids with respect to pain relief and improvement of disability. However, controlled studies of this method of administration produce conflicting results.

The present study examined whether the transforaminal route of injection or the agent injected is the critical element in determining successful pain relief. Study participants were randomized into one of five groups: Transforaminal injection of steroids (TFST) to test its effectiveness; transforaminal injection of normal saline (TFNS) to test for an irrigation effect; transforaminal injection of local anesthetic (TFLA) to test the effect of a local anesthetic; intramuscular injection of steroids (IMST) to test for a systemic effect; or intramuscular injection of normal saline (IMNS) to test for non-specific (placebo) effects.

The complete study details appeared in the August issue of Pain Medicine, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, and the International Spine Intervention Society.

After a meeting with Glaus in Phoenix, Mozeliak said that he believes that Glaus will not be duplicating the mistake again.

From Mlb.mlb.com:

Glaus, who hit 27 homers and had 99 RBIs last season, his first with the Cardinals, injured the shoulder again and underwent arthroscopic debridement in January. He is rehabbing with a private trainer in Phoenix, where the Cardinals opened a three-game series against the Diamondbacks on Monday.

Glaus declined to comment on specifics of the Times’ report, according to the Post-Dispatch.

“At this point, there is no reason [to go over the past]. I’m not going to comment,” Glaus said. “I’m in there [the gym]. I’m doing my exercises, and I’m going to do everything I can to get back as soon as I possibly can. From the exercises I’m doing now or working out — whatever it is I have to do so that when I come back, I’m ready to play.”

Mozeliak said he was satisfied that there would be no parallels between Glaus’ 2003 rehab and his current one.

Mozeliak further said that he expected the third baseman to stay committed to this program and return back to St. Louis as quickly as possible.

The results of this study were published in an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

From News.bio-medicine.org:

In a randomized, double blind trial, 29 patients were given either the anabolic steroid nandrolone decanote or a placebo (dummy medication) for a six-month period. All of the patients were receiving dialysis treatments at San Francisco General Hospital. At the end of the trial, patients receiving the anabolic steroid gained an average of 5.7 pounds more lean body mass than the patients who got the placebo. Also, the patients who received the steroid reported less fatigue and scored better on physical performance tests. The researchers’ results are published in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Hemodialysis, the most common form of dialysis in the United States, is a medical procedure employed when a patient’s kidneys cannot properly clean the blood of toxins and waste products. A patient’s blood is removed from the body via a tube inserted in a vein, filtered by a dialysis machine, and then replaced. Typically, this process must be repeated three times a week and takes three to four hours. In some cases, dialysis is considered a “bridge” while the patient is awaiting a kidney transplant - which can be up to a three year wait in the US.

The study team of University of California San Francisco researchers was led by Kirsten L. Johansen, M.D., UCSF assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology & biostatistics.

In a study that involved 118 patients, it was reported that patients administered with dexamethasone in a shot or a pill form experienced pain relief four hours sooner than patients administered with placebo in pill or injection form.

From Sciencedaily.com:

A team of researchers led by Julie Wei, M.D., a former Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat physician resident; Andrew Boggust, M.D., a Mayo Clinic emergency medicine specialist; Jan Kasperbauer, M.D., a Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat specialist and Amy Weaver, M.S., a Mayo Clinic biostatistician, initially observed how effectively steroids decrease nausea, vomiting and throat pain in children the day after they have their tonsils removed. Dr. Wei noted the children also were able to swallow food sooner after taking steroids.

“Studies have shown that steroids take away pain in children who have just had tonsillectomies,” says Dr. Wei. We thought we could apply the same principle to sore throat. The team reasoned that steroids also might help reduce sore throat. Patients with pharyngitis may experience difficulty with breathing and swallowing, resulting in dehydration and increasing the number of hospital visits. The team of researchers noted that steroids have been effectively used in emergency room settings for treatment of asthma, bacterial meningitis, cerebral edema, acute spinal cord injury and acute allergic reactions.

Eighty four patients on steroids returned to normal activity in 24 hours while sixty seven of patients returned to normal activity in 12 hours.

It was also reported by the scientists that steroids dexamethasone and progesterone could actually make a signal for initiating and dramatically getting increased in context of the rate of myelin synthesis.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Steroids seem to be very important in regulating the initiation and synthesis,” said Michael Glaser, professor of biochemistry and lead investigator of the project. “They had been implicated as having a role in the overall process, but not for enhancing the actual synthesis. It is our hope that this line of work will lead to a line of treatment for nerve injuries and demyelinating diseases.”

Last year in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, Glaser’s team reported the first technique for observing the continual synthesis of myelin by Schwann cells around axons of neurons. In their new work, researchers added various forms of steroids and antagonists, observing their effects on the cells under a fluorescence digital-imaging microscope. When dexamethasone and progesterone were added, individually, to the tissue culture cells, the initiation of myelin production began 24 hours earlier than it did under control conditions, and the peak rate of myelin formation increased by more than 2-fold.

Their findings provided the first live look at the signals initiating myelin formation in live cells, Glaser said. Before his new assay was developed, researchers were restricted to simply observing myelin at a single stage of production.

The new findings were published in a biochemistry section of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

LeMond has been asked to offer documents pertaining to Lance Armstrong and his last four teams: United States Postal Service, Discovery Channel, Astana, and RadioShack.

From NYTimes.com:

Federal authorities are also asking LeMond for other documents, including ones regarding riders, managers, directors and personnel on Armstrong’s four teams, and any communication with any of the people affiliated with those teams. Also requested were documents relating to Tailwind Sports, the company that owned two of Armstrong’s teams, and Capital Sports & Entertainment, the Austin, Tex.-based company that manages Armstrong and is run by Armstrong’s agent, Bill Stapleton, and Bart Knaggs, a former executive at Tailwind Sports.

LeMond was also asked for all documents relating to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, including testosterone, anabolic steroids, the blood-booster EPO and human growth hormone, as well as any documentation regarding the paraphernalia used in doping, including syringes, syringe wrappers and blood-testing machines.

Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigator for the Food and Drug Administration, is in charge of the inquiry into Armstrong and his associates. He was the lead investigator of the Bay Area-Laboratory Co-operative steroids case. Officials involved in the current case say the investigators are especially interested in the people who helped finance Armstrong’s teams.

It is important to note here that Armstrong has always maintained that he has never indulged into any wrongdoings and reaffirmed that he never doped.

It was remarked by lead student researcher, Elizabeth A. Townsend, of the Mayo Clinic Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering that it will be of great interest to determine if sex steroids play a role in modulating airway tone.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Townsend and colleagues then asked whether estrogens could produce bronchodilation, and might the combination of commonly used bronchodilators (beta-2 agonists) and estrogens be used to produce even greater bronchodilation? In laboratory studies using human airway smooth muscle cells, they found that combined treatment with estradiol and the beta-agonist, isoproterenol (which non-selectively activates both beta-1 and beta-2 adrenergic receptors), had a synergistic effect on decreasing intracellular calcium and force more than either estradiol or isoproterenol alone. They also found that these effects may involve a common signaling pathway.

“These novel data suggest that estradiol has bronchodilatory properties, and may potentiate beta-2-agonist effects,” said Ms. Townsend. “The finding that estrogens interact synergistically with beta-adrenoceptor signaling (perhaps using common pathways) to facilitate bronchodilation was exciting, and lends itself to further studies on interactions between sex steroids and beta-2-agonists.” But she and her team also cautioned that there is still considerable research necessary to fully understand the association between sex steroids and factors that contribute to asthma, before the information can be used clinically in patients to relieve asthma symptoms.

The findings are being presented at the ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans.

A-Rod is keen to prove his detractors wrong who just cannot think beyond his association with anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

From NYtimes.com:

Rodriguez is part of a quartet of sluggers who carry the scarlet letter S on their broad backs. The retired stars Barry Bonds (the career leader with 762 homers), Sammy Sosa (609) and Mark McGwire (583) are all linked, to one degree or another, to performance-enhancing drugs.

They are stacked up in the stratosphere, waiting to see if the writers who vote for membership in the Hall will ultimately accept them. At the moment, there are no guarantees. McGwire, who has been eligible for four years, eked his way up to 24 percent in January, far short of the 75 percent needed for admission.

This overt withholding of honor is the legacy of a steroid era that began in the last decade, when McGwire, Sosa and Bonds all had surprisingly high home run totals at ages when most great sluggers are tailing off. Steroids were illegal by federal law and by edict of Major League Baseball, although no testing was in place during their peak years.

On his own, Rodriguez brought up his link with steroids Wednesday after the Yankees defeated Toronto, 5-1, at Yankee Stadium.

Rodriguez told Suzyn Waldman of WCBS Radio that some people still doubt him due to what happened in the past. A-Rod may not be an easy entrant to the Baseball Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible five years after retirement because of his association with steroids in the past.