WARNING: Long Boring Post
Doggygirl said:
RGirl, as always I appreciate your posts. I too wondered during the COC coverage about Irina's steroids. I just assumed since it was being openly discussed that the ISU has approved whatever she's on. The term "steroids" is a very broad term.
Everything about steroids is very broad, not to mention confusing and controversial, even to physicians who specialize in them, endocrinologists, i.e., the endocrine system = the glandular system = the hormonal system. I even failed to mention that steroids are hormones. And the whole thing is a further big boogar because each gland that releases hormones responds to and depends on what every other gland is doing. You can get details about the endocrine system
HERE but just to get an idea of the complexity involved, imagine that each of these glands or hormone producing cell clusters releases anywhere from a couple to a couple of dozen hormones and they all have to work in concert with each other to keep the body healthy.
The endocrine system consists of: The adrenal glands; the pituitary and the hypothalamus; the thyroid and parathyroid glands; the endocrine cells of the pancreas (those releasing insulin and glucagon); the gastrointestinal hormones; the ovaries in women the testes in men; the placental and gonadal hormones; and the
diffuse hormones throughout the body.
Just to give one example of how complicated all this is, if someone has Addison's Disease, which is a chronic weakness of the
adrenal glands (John F. Kennedy, Sr. had it and was one of the early patients treated with cortisone for it) the thyroid automatically responds to the hypoadrenalism (underworking adrenals) with hypothyroidism (underworking thyroid).
If a physician does a TSH test (thyroid stimulating hormone) of the thyroid and the results show the thyroid to be weak (hypothyroid), the physician might logically assume the patient's symptoms -- such as fatigue, muscle weakness, low blood pressure, a nodule on the thyroid or goiter -- were due to the hypothyroidism and treat the patient solely with
synthetic replacement thyroid hormone such as Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid (all T4) or natural Armour thyroid (pork desiccated; combination T3 & T4). (Some physicians have pharmacists put together a special T3 only compound, but that's a whole other issue.)
However, if the physician doesn't bear in mind that the thyroid deficiency may have started with an adrenal disorder such as Addison's disease and doesn't test for it, the physician could actually make the patient worse by prescribing thyroid replacement hormone. When a patient has a disorder that weakens the adrenal glands, the thyroid gland automatically slows down in a natural response to keep the endocrine
system in balance. Having the patient take thyroid replacement hormone (TRH), is like expecting your car to run well on plenty of oil but no gas. Depending on how weak the adrenals are and how much TRH the patient is taking, can cause acute adrenal insufficiency, which, if severe and not treated, can be fatal.
Anyway, that's just one example of how the endocrine system is interdependent in multidimensional ways. It's also why endocrine diseases can be so difficult to treat, why performance enhancing drugs involving the hormones such as anabolic steroids can be sometimes be difficult to detect, and why taking anabolic steroids can do such severe and permanent damage to essential organs, sometimes eventually leading to death.
Doggygirl said:
You mention cortisone shots. I had back surgery a couple years ago. Prior to the surgical decision, I tried a cortisone shot. OH MY GOD!!! No short term euphoria here. The only reason I'm not in prison for murder has to do with some high doses of mood altering, pain killing drugs LOL! The doc recommended a series of 3 C-shots, and I said no thank you very much. NO WAY could surgery be as painful as that!! (and it wasn't). I mean this in the most humorous way....I know that C-shots can solve lots of problems. Just reporting my own murderous experience.
Oh, man! I feel for ya, Doggygirl. OuchEEEE!!! Glad things worked out for you with the surgery. Of course, being the "on the other hand" annoying person that I am, on the other hand, some people do find great relief from cortisone shots, which you did point out
and are able to avoid surgery because of them. A lot depends on what structure is causing the pain and how good the doctor is at giving the shots.
I also wanted to add that the temporary euphoria I described virtually never happens when an injection of cortisone is given to a "trigger point" area of pain, usually either soft tissue or an inflamed joint. The "I CAN CONQUER WORLD!" feeling only comes when a large dose of cortisone is taken by mouth or injected into the bloodstream. Even then, if the person has been suffering from acute adrenal insufficiency and got both a venous injection and an IV drip of cortisone, the only "euphoria" s/he might feel would be, after several hours, "Hey, I don't feel like I'm going to die anymore."
For any masochists who want more detail on the basic anatomy and physiology of the endocrine system and specifically the adrenal glands, you can torture yourselves at the following links:
World book Encyclopedia: Endocrine System
Colorado State University Hypertext: Endocrine System
World Book Encyclopedia: Adrenal
Colorado State University Hypertext: Adrenal
For those who want a search page for "anabolic steroids sports" go
HERE. I'd especially recommend
THIS SITE because it reports the increasing number of teen girls using anabolic steroids. However, when I did a Google search for
"anabolic steroids figure skating" almost every site on the first page reported that figure skating was the one sport in which the use of anabolic steroids had NOT been found.
IMO, building a lot of muscle mass, which anabolic steriods do, would be counterproductive for figure skaters, both men and women. They need muscle strength, but what they especially need is power. If there were a performance enhancing drug (PED) that built fast-twitch muscle fibers without bulk, made the body grow into the right type for fast axial rotation, improved balance for landing jumps, and artistry for interpreting the music and presenting the choreography, then there would be cause for concern. In a way, the nature of figure skating makes it too complex for cheating with PEDs. The only thing I can think of that might help a figure skater is something that increases anaerobic (lactic acid) endurance.
In the future, they may try to genetically engineer a baby with the characteristics that should make for a great figure skater, but I still think you can have all the right physical qualities and still not have the
X factor that makes it all work. I bet we can all think of at least one skater who fits that description. For anybody whose read this far
Rgirl
. But true, she's got to work on the spins, spirals, and more complex choreography, but let's hope she's over the consistency hump so she now will have the time to work on those other elements.
