Many “insecure” young athletes and sports enthusiasts are taking a lot of risk with the use of pills and supplements that have been put together in a “cement mixer” from a developing country. Because of this, drug experts have issued a warning about “magic potions” being sold in health shops and some gyms that contain banned substances. According to them, these supplements are not regulated and about 20 percent have banned substances which can cause sports enthusiasts and athletes to be convicted of doping.

Clinical professor of medicine and pharmacology in UCC, Professor Brendan Buckley said that the garda drug squads believe that about €30,000 per month worth of illegal anabolic steroids are being imported into Cork each month. It is advisable to know that Serious health risks can develop by long term use and excessive doses of anabolic steroids. Some of these are harmful changes in the user’s cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, liver damage, acne and dangerous changes in the structure of the heart’s left ventricle.

Improper use of the anabolic steroids in bodybuilding and steroids is very much controversial and because of its adverse effect and potential to gain advantage conventionally, the use of these drugs are considered “cheating.” Use of anabolic steroids is considered as doping and is banned by all major sporting bodies. For many years now, the most detected doping substance in IOC accredited laboratories are the AAS. Countries banning AAS usually have a black market where smuggled or counterfeit drugs are being sold to users.

Professor Buckley who speaks on the role of medicine sports at the Irish Medical Organizations said that some legal sports supplements are dangerous for adolescents because it will make them grow muscles but their frames are not yet mature. Usually, sports supplements make false claims and their composition is not really declared on the labels so the chemical compositions may not be known.

Doping agents being used to boost performance are being trafficked in the same illegal supply chain of narcotics. These drugs are easily available on the internet and widely available in the locality especially in gyms. About 100 percent of bodybuilders are on anabolic steroids and this makes sports people and adolescent males insecure. According to Buckley, gyms in educational institutions are a good place to get these agents and cheating can actually be taking a combination of drugs.

Currently, there are sports bodies alerted for competitors showing a great improvement in performance or returning after an absence and looking very different physically.
He also added that the rules for athletes are now becoming intrusive, the top 30 rugby players are required to inform the Sports Council of their location all the time and give a guaranteed hour where they can be tested. Athletes have also bought into this and want to show the council that they are clean.

A myth in Ireland says that doping is only appropriate for professional athletes and “amateurs” should not be subjected to it. But Professor Buckley said that the athletes who are earning their living from sports in Ireland are in the minority of those being tested. There are just about 10 percent who are fully professional, 75 percent have some kind of sponsorship through state funding and about 25 percent have no funding.

Football players should be exempt from doping controls during summer vacations, a leading anti-doping expert said last Monday.

FIFA, football’s governing body, contested parts of the new testing code which mandated elite athletes in ALL sports to be available for testing every day. This caused a rift between the World Anti-Doping Agency and FIFA. Martial Saugy, adviser to both groups and director of the WADA-accredited Swiss doping laboratory in Lausanne, said that players could go untested offseason for two weeks. Four weeks is too long, two would be more acceptable. He said that fighting doping should not treat athletes like prisoners. Anyway, the laboratory that Saugy heads can still detect any trace of usage after a two week period without any tracing.

Saugy said one size fits all is not precisely the right thing in anti-doping. They must have a system that is fitting for purpose at an anti-doping agency meeting in Switzerland. The tremendous answer is harmful to the goal they have.

Surprise out-of-competition tests are essential for a credible anti-doping program

After lengthy discussions with sports confederations, it published its new code. This code became effective on January 1, which required athletes to give drug-testers a three-months’ notice of their location for one hour each day for the entire year, whether they are in training or in competition. However, FIFA, along with other team sports like basketball, ice hockey and volleyball, called for an exemption because the teams train and play at certain locations that can be easily found by testers.

Sepp Blatter, FIFA president and a member of WADA’s governing board also believed that players had the right to privacy during their holiday vacations. Athletes will also need time to rest and to relax and not be treated like captives on the loose. Martial Saugy, cycling’s biological passport scheme pioneer, pushed for WADA and FIFA to find a compromise on the issue. Saugy works with both FIFA and WADA on medical projects.

Two weeks ago in Zurich, football’s headquarters, negotiations between WADA director general David Howman and FIFA medical advisers has started. They have agreed to FIFA’s proposal to do a pilot project this summer and target “at risk” athletes for testing. The players to be tested are those who are injured and could be tempted to dope or those that have failed controls in previous testing. Issues regarding this will be discussed when WADA’s executive committee and its governing board meets on May 9 and 10 in Montreal.

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), Fédération Internationale de Football Association in French is the international body for football associations. Its office is found in Zürich, Switzerland. FIFA’s role is to organize and govern all major international tournaments especially the FIFA World Cup. The world cup has been held since 1930. Sepp Blatter is its current president. Today, FIFA has 208 members. The United Nations has 192, the International Olympic Committee 205 and the International Association of Athletics Federations 213.

Kansas City’s two major league prospects will be taking a break from the games because of steroid infractions. Minor Leaguers Joseph Billick and Juan Rivera of the Kansas City Royals had been suspended for 50 games last Friday after testing positive for performance enhancing substances under the baseball’s minor league drug program. Rivera is a shortstop with Class A Burlington who tested positive for metabolites of Nandrolone according to the commissioner’s office. On the other hand, Billick, the catcher with a Class A Wilmington, had tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. The suspensions given to the two players where effective immediately.

A 19th round pick in the 2007 draft, Billick was on the Class A Wilmington roster but had not yet played this season. In his 54 pro-games in the last two seasons, Billick batted .194, then he tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. Rivera was obtained from the Dodgers in a trade for Angel Berroa last June 6 and was playing for Class Burlington for 2-for-9 in three games. Juan Rivera was able to hit .248 in his previous five seasons but he had tested positive for metabolites of Nandrolone.

This year alone, four of the 10 players suspended for violation of the baseball’s minor league drug programs were prospects of the Kansas City Royals. The Royals were a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The team is a member of he Central Division of Major League Baseball’s American league. Since 1973 until the present, the Royals had played in Kauffman Stadium and participated in two World Series and won in 1985. The 22 year old Rivera had a shortstop at Burlington hitting .222 this year. Now nandrolone user won’t help with his hitting.

It is really interesting that there are about 40% of the pro baseball players who had played with the Royals system. This seems to show that its either that the Royals prospects wanted to bulk up, or that they aren’t smart, or simply that the Royals are diligent with testing. The penalties were immediately announced by the Commissioner’s office. Nandrolone which is a 19-nortestosterone is an anabolic steroid that may be present in the human despite the minute quantities of less than 0.4 ng/ml. This is most commonly sold commercially as decanoate ester (Deca-Durabolin) and less commonly as phenylpropionate ester (Durabolin). Nandrolone decanoate was used in the treatment of osteoporosis by women post menopause at a dose of 50 mg every three weeks, but is no longer being used now.

The use of Nandrolone is indirectly detectable in urine test by testing for the presence of 19-narondrosterone which is a metabolite of this molecule. The International Olympic Committee had limited a 2.0 ng per ml of urine as the upper limit and beyond that, an athlete will be suspected of doping. In the largest nandrolone study made on 621 athletes at the Nagano Olympics games in 1998, there were no athletes who have tested over 0.4 ng per ml.

The NHL or the National Hockey League has never known any steroids or doping issues but will be laying off steroids testing now for the on-going play-offs. Fact is, the NHL will lay off doping test for more than five months. Experts think that this is a ridiculous policy in 2009. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the NHL doesn’t test for performance enhancing drugs during playoffs. And for the prices paid to raise the Stanley Cup, the fear of being caught doping is not among them. This NHL’s policy was enacted three years ago by the league and the player’s union; it does not permit testing for performance enhancing drugs during the playoffs and off season. This is actually a five-month window when the only enforcement against doping is the honor system.

According to doping experts, they do not endorse this kind of approach. Professor Charles Yesalis of the Penn State University, said any player would be an idiot to get caught with this system, an absolute moron, he strongly says. The professor specializes in the use and impact of performance-enhancing substances and for him, you have to go far beyond that testing system to have a true sense of whether players are not doping. The NHL policy is described by National doping experts as “woefully inadequate” and is too flawed to allow judgement on a percentage of players who might be using steroids, stimulants or any other banned substances.

New York official with the World Anti-Doping Agency and expert on drug use in sport Dr. Gary Wadler thinks that most people in professional sports wish the problem away. Some tweak their programs to take the heat off but there has never been any heat on hockey. With the current NHL policy, a team can get up to three no notice tests per season. Blue Jackets had the leagues’ maximum last season but was only given on test this season.

Does NHL have any doping problems? Ever since the drug policy came into effect, only the former NHL defenseman Sean Hill had tested positive for a banned substance in 2007. Compared to the National Football League, Olympics, Major League Baseball and other international sports event where cheaters are usually caught, Hockey’s doping records stands in contrast. Is the policy ineffective or is it that hockey players are really honest? Nash claimed that they are indeed clean, and that he himself has never thought of using banned substances and would support a year round testing program. He also said that he had been there for the last five or six years and he had never seen anything once.

An anonymous survey conducted by the Dispatch among the Jackets reveals that not a single player thought that the league has any doping problem. It was obvious that NHL players can use steroids to bulk up during the long off season then slip by during the less monitored playing season. Ken Hitchcock, Blue Jackets coach had noticed a change in the players’ body types in the mid-1990’s and it was not a subtle change. The coach had been with a minor league hockey then and remembered wondering at the physical transformations on ice. According to him, guys changed over the summer in a huge way – small guys becomes big guys.

Bo Bowling, the senior wide receiver of the Oklahoma State is currently looking at a nasty 7-10 split if convicted on three felony counts for drug possession. One of the transferred drugs that the OSU possessed was an anabolic steroid, and apparently he was a “possession” wide receiver. According to the Stillwater News-Press, a judge have already ordered a suspended Oklahoma State football player to stand trial on three felony drug counts that now include possession of anabolic steroids.

Twenty-one year old Bo Bowling who is a Tonkawa state native appeared in Payne Country District Court last Friday afternoon for a preliminary hearing. Special Judge Philip Corley ruled that there was sufficient evidence for Bowling to stand trial after the two and a half hour session. Bowling was charged with one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one count of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and one count of possession of controlled dangerous substances including Alprazolam which is an anti-depressant commonly known as Xanax and the anabolic steroid Stanozolol.

Many are wondering if the OSU coach Mike Gundy will reiterate during trial that he is indeed a man, with a wide receiver having some Winny on hand. A senior wide receiver, Bo Bowling played in 13 games last season and was able to make 10 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns. He also made two kick returns and one punt return. He came to Oklahoma State from the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.

Bowling came to the OSU in the January and become an early contributor to the Cowboy receiving corps. He made the transition from junior college quarterback to an effective Big 12 receiver. In his junior college, Bowling was the offensive MVP of the Southwest Junior College Conference and he also ran for 1,200 yards and had 700 receiving yards as a sophomore. Bowling was an all-district and all-state selection during his High School in Tonkawa. He ran for 1,100 yards and had 500 receiving yards as a senior. He also returned six kickoffs and three punts for touchdowns. Bowling was also an all-state tract selection and a member of the National Honor Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Student Council.

Anabolic Steriod is a kind of steroid hormones related to the hormone testosterone. These drug increases the protein synthesis within cells and results to the build up of cellular tissue or anabolism which usually happens in muscles. Anabolic steroids have androgenic and virilizing properties such as the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics such as the growth of the vocal chords and body hair. There are many serious health risks that can be produced by excessive and long term use of steroids. These includes the harmful changes in the levels of cholesterol as well as acne, high blood pressure, liver damage as well as the dangerous changes in the structure of the heart’s left ventricle.

Steroids really seem to have become a staple in the world of sports. Even with the younger generation and start-ups are prone to the use of drugs and doping.

Another asterisk, another success goes to Gary Sheffield as he launched his #500th home run in Citi Field for the New York Mets. According to the New York Daily News, Sheffield said that everything happens for a reason and that there was a reason why he hit 19 homers instead of 20 last year; and now doing it in the biggest stage made it more special for him. Sheffield also talked piously about having a “higher purpose” as well as “a bigger reason.”

Gary Sheffield is the sole 25th player to have entered the 500 club. He is the fourth oldest but his accomplishments deserves one of the bigger asterisks given out in the steroid area. Sheffield was elected to the Hall of Fame but this is still far from assurance despite his newest statistical feat. Sheffield admitted using a performance enhancing cream in 2001 though claiming that he had no idea during that time about the chemical make up or potency of the cream. Sheffield had been named in the Mitchell Report. If Sheffield’s feat sells more caps, jerseys and tickets then it’s all OK. It’s like one big MLB Ponzi scheme and if Sheffield gets one penny for each home run, he will be able to buy one share of Citibank Stock.

On his narrative on the subject, it was believable as that the tales we’ve heard from Marion Jones and Barry Bonds on all these years. No reporter was going to bother Sheffield about those things on a Friday night, but a slugger showed up at the post-games press conference with two children on his knees and his wife beside him. And if you think that the crowd at the Citi Field cared in the least about any of his seventh inning, down run, and then maybe you don’t know much about baseball fans. The fans would definitely cheer the cream itself and right on to the container if they thought it can win then a pennant. Jerry Manuel said that they needed it in a big way when as asked about the homer.

Gary Antonian Sheffield was born on 18th of November in Tampa, Florida. He is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the New York Mets. And he has played for eight major league ball clubs as an outfielder and a designated hitter. Most of Sheffield’s career was played right field, though he also played left field, shortstop, third base and a couple of games at first base.

He used to play with the Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. He was with the Detroit Tigers but was released even if he was still under contract. He is currently playing for the New York Mets. Sheffield had been a first round pick for the Brewers who also selected him sixth in the overall in the 1986 amateur draft after a standout prep career at Hillsborough High School in Tampa. Starting the 2009 season, Sheffield has ranked 3rd among all the active players in runs (1,592), 3rd in walks (1,435), 4th in RBIs (1,633) and hits (2,615) and 6th in home runs with (500) and hits by pitches (133). On April 17, 2009, Sheffield hit his 500th home run mark.