Addiction to Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids ? A New Disease!

As we all know, anabolic-androgenic steroids are used to gain lean muscle mass; in the process either getting big (as in bodybuilding) or improving sporting performance (as in track and field). While casual and limited use of these AAS appears to be harmless, those who indulge in regular and chronic use tend to get addicted; they exhibit dependence on these substances with adverse functional, physiological, and psychological effects. Stoppage of administration of AAS is also associated with severe withdrawal symptoms in such individuals.

What Are Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids?

Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids (AAS) are a group of (natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic,) hormones that are similar in structure to (or derived from) the male hormone, testosterone (Pope & Brower, 2009).

In bodybuilding and athletic circles, AAS are used to enhance muscle mass. The theory is that AAS in combination with weight training and appropriate diet will make you bigger, stronger and faster than you can ever be by just being a ?natural? athlete (Kouri, Pope, Jr., Katz, & Oliva, 1995). This has lead to athletes self prescribing and overdosing on AAS and subsequently their abuse. Apparently, this has been going on for decades (Wade, 1972).

Although these substances are banned by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA), you may still argue about the ?risk-benefit? ratio for use of AAS in athletes ? there being a semblance of justification where there is much to gain from the slightest of advantage over your opponent ? especially at the highest level. However, in individuals who are not going to participate in any sporting events there is no justification whatsoever for use of AAS. Yet, in such individuals wanting to look leaner and muscular, the use of AAS has gone through the roof (Pope & Brower, 2009; Hildebrandt, Schlundt, Langenbucher, & Chung, 2006; Buckley et al., 1988; Kanayama, Pope, Jr., & Hudson, 2001; Parkinson & Evans, 2006).

Role of Muscle Dysmorphia in Use of AAS

Muscle dysmorphia is a disorder in which the individual has a distorted image of his own body. Often referred to as ?revere anorexia nervosa?, it is characterized by a fear that one is not muscular enough. This leads to an effort to do ?anything possible? to get big! Individuals with such thinking are more likely to abuse AAS over a longer period of time.

Furthermore, the misperception in the media that being bigger and more muscular is healthier or fitter may have played a big role in increasing the use of AAS, especially among the younger population.

According to a study conducted in 2009, the ?lifetime prevalence of AAS use is at least 3%? meaning tens of millions of young men have used it at some point in their lives (Kanayama, Brower, Wood, Hudson, & Pope, Jr., 2009). Women are less likely to abuse these substances since being ?more muscular? isn?t something that very many women would identify with; the severe effects ? deepening of voice, ?male pattern of distribution of hair? and others are not too appealing to women either.

AAS Dependence

There is, now, ever increasing scientific evidence that dependence to AAS is on the rise (Kanayama et al., 2009). AAS dependent individual tend to inject larger doses that those who use AAS casually (Brower, Blow, Young, & Hill, 1991). Also, they are more likely to try different AAS agents simultaneously (Gridley & Hanrahan, 1994) and for longer ?cycles? (Copeland, Peters, & Dillon, 2000).

Furthermore, AAS dependents are more likely to exhibit adverse behavioural patterns like ?roid rage? (Copeland et al., 2000).

To conclude, AAS dependence seems to be a valid medical disorder. The prevalence and incidence of regular AAS abuse and dependence has reached such alarming proportions that it warrants more research into the causes of AAS dependence (why only certain individual progress from casual use to dependence), as well as designing and implementation of methods to prevent it.

References

Brower, K. J., Blow, F. C., Young, J. P., & Hill, E. M. (1991). Symptoms and correlates of anabolic-androgenic steroid dependence. Br. J Addict., 86, 759-768.

Buckley, W. E., Yesalis, C. E., III, Friedl, K. E., Anderson, W. A., Streit, A. L., & Wright, J. E. (1988). Estimated prevalence of anabolic steroid use among male high school seniors. JAMA, 260, 3441-3445.

Copeland, J., Peters, R., & Dillon, P. (2000). Anabolic-androgenic steroid use disorders among a sample of Australian competitive and recreational users. Drug Alcohol Depend., 60, 91-96.

Gridley, D. & Hanrahan, S. (1994). Anabolic-androgenic steroid use among male gymnasium participants: knowledge and motives. Sports Health, 12, 11-14.

Hildebrandt, T., Schlundt, D., Langenbucher, J., & Chung, T. (2006). Presence of muscle dysmorphia symptomology among male weightlifters. Compr.Psychiatry, 47, 127-135.

Kanayama, G., Brower, K. J., Wood, R. I., Hudson, J. I., & Pope, H. G., Jr. (2009). Anabolic-androgenic steroid dependence: an emerging disorder. Addiction, 104, 1966-1978.

Kanayama, G., Pope, H. G., Jr., & Hudson, J. I. (2001). "Body image" drugs: a growing psychosomatic problem. Psychother.Psychosom., 70, 61-65.

Kouri, E. M., Pope, H. G., Jr., Katz, D. L., & Oliva, P. (1995). Fat-free mass index in users and nonusers of anabolic-androgenic steroids. Clin J Sport Med, 5, 223-228.

Parkinson, A. B. & Evans, N. A. (2006). Anabolic-androgenic steroids: a survey of 500 users. Med Sci.Sports Exerc., 38, 644-651.

Pope, H. & Brower, K. (2009). Androgenic-Androgenic Steroid-Related Disorders. In V.Sadock (Ed.), Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (Ninth Edition ed., pp. 1419-1431). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Wade, N. (1972). Anabolic Steroids: Doctors Denounce Them, but Athletes Aren't Listening. Science, 176, 1399-1403.

Source: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/16714/1/Addiction-to-Anabolic-Androgenic-Steroids--A-New-Disease.html

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Pudding Monsters: Cut The Rope Developer Zeptolab Announces Its Next Game

Zeptolab's Cut the Rope is, without doubt, one of the most successful casual games of the last few years. Today, after 250 million downloads of the original game, the company just announced the launch of its newest game at LeWeb in Paris. The new game, called Pudding Monsters, is scheduled to launch in about two weeks and the team remains relatively tight-lipped about the actual gameplay, but I had a chance to give it a try last night.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hbVlqssnijQ/

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The Real Housewives of Atlanta Recap - The End of an Era

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Crucial step in AIDS virus maturation simulated for first time

Public release date: 4-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Marta Calsina
mcalsina@imim.es
34-933-160-680
IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute)

Using computational techniques, researchers have shown how a protein responsible for the maturation of the virus releases itself to initiate infection

Barcelona, 04 December 2012. - Bioinformaticians at IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) and UPF (Pompeu Fabra University) have used molecular simulation techniques to explain a specific step in the maturation of the HIV virions, i.e., how newly formed inert virus particles become infectious, which is essential in understanding how the virus replicates. These results, which have been published in the latest edition of PNAS, could be crucial to the design of future antiretrovirals.

HIV virions mature and become infectious as a result of the action of a protein called HIV protease. This protein acts like a pair of scissors, cutting the long chain of connected proteins that form HIV into individual proteins that will form the infectious structure of new virions. According to the researchers of the IMIM-UPF computational biophysics group, "One of the most intriguing aspects of the whole HIV maturation process is how free HIV protease, i.e. the 'scissors protein,' appears for the first time, since it is also initially part of the long poly-protein chains that make up new HIV virions."

Using ACEMD a software for molecular simulations and a technology known as GPUGRID.net, Gianni De Fabritiis' group has demonstrated that the first "scissors proteins" can cut themselves out from within the middle of these poly-protein chains. They do this by binding one of their connected ends (the N-terminus) to their own active site and then cutting the chemical bond that connects them to the rest of the chain. This is the initial step of the whole HIV maturation process. If the HIV protease can be stopped during the maturation process, it will prevent viral particles, or virions, from reaching maturity and, therefore, from becoming infectious.

This work was performed using GPUGRID.net, a voluntary distributed computing platform that harnesses the processing power of thousands of NVIDIA GPU accelerators from household computers made available by the public for research purposes. It's akin to accessing a virtual supercomputer. One of the benefits of GPU acceleration is that it provides computing power that is around 10 times higher than that generated by computers based on CPUs alone. It reduces research costs accordingly by providing a level computational power that previously was only available on dedicated, multi-million dollar supercomputers.

Researchers use this computing power to process large numbers of data and generate highly complex molecular simulations. In this specific case, thousands of computer simulations have been carried out, each for hundreds of nanoseconds (billionths of a second) for a total of almost a millisecond.

According to researchers, this discovery in the HIV maturation process provides an alternative approach in the design of future pharmaceutical products based on the use of these new molecular mechanisms. For now, this work provides a greater understanding of a crucial step in the life cycle of HIV, a virus that directly attacks and weakens the human immune system, making it vulnerable to a wide range of infections, and which affects millions of people around the world.

###

Reference:

"Kinetic characterization of the critical step in HIV-1 protease maturation". S Kashif Sadiq, Frank Noe and Gianni De Fabritiis. PNAS. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1210983109. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/21/1210983109.abstract?sid=9e8d7340-4d4c-4fa5-85a2-c68194eff067

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 4-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Marta Calsina
mcalsina@imim.es
34-933-160-680
IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute)

Using computational techniques, researchers have shown how a protein responsible for the maturation of the virus releases itself to initiate infection

Barcelona, 04 December 2012. - Bioinformaticians at IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) and UPF (Pompeu Fabra University) have used molecular simulation techniques to explain a specific step in the maturation of the HIV virions, i.e., how newly formed inert virus particles become infectious, which is essential in understanding how the virus replicates. These results, which have been published in the latest edition of PNAS, could be crucial to the design of future antiretrovirals.

HIV virions mature and become infectious as a result of the action of a protein called HIV protease. This protein acts like a pair of scissors, cutting the long chain of connected proteins that form HIV into individual proteins that will form the infectious structure of new virions. According to the researchers of the IMIM-UPF computational biophysics group, "One of the most intriguing aspects of the whole HIV maturation process is how free HIV protease, i.e. the 'scissors protein,' appears for the first time, since it is also initially part of the long poly-protein chains that make up new HIV virions."

Using ACEMD a software for molecular simulations and a technology known as GPUGRID.net, Gianni De Fabritiis' group has demonstrated that the first "scissors proteins" can cut themselves out from within the middle of these poly-protein chains. They do this by binding one of their connected ends (the N-terminus) to their own active site and then cutting the chemical bond that connects them to the rest of the chain. This is the initial step of the whole HIV maturation process. If the HIV protease can be stopped during the maturation process, it will prevent viral particles, or virions, from reaching maturity and, therefore, from becoming infectious.

This work was performed using GPUGRID.net, a voluntary distributed computing platform that harnesses the processing power of thousands of NVIDIA GPU accelerators from household computers made available by the public for research purposes. It's akin to accessing a virtual supercomputer. One of the benefits of GPU acceleration is that it provides computing power that is around 10 times higher than that generated by computers based on CPUs alone. It reduces research costs accordingly by providing a level computational power that previously was only available on dedicated, multi-million dollar supercomputers.

Researchers use this computing power to process large numbers of data and generate highly complex molecular simulations. In this specific case, thousands of computer simulations have been carried out, each for hundreds of nanoseconds (billionths of a second) for a total of almost a millisecond.

According to researchers, this discovery in the HIV maturation process provides an alternative approach in the design of future pharmaceutical products based on the use of these new molecular mechanisms. For now, this work provides a greater understanding of a crucial step in the life cycle of HIV, a virus that directly attacks and weakens the human immune system, making it vulnerable to a wide range of infections, and which affects millions of people around the world.

###

Reference:

"Kinetic characterization of the critical step in HIV-1 protease maturation". S Kashif Sadiq, Frank Noe and Gianni De Fabritiis. PNAS. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1210983109. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/21/1210983109.abstract?sid=9e8d7340-4d4c-4fa5-85a2-c68194eff067

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/idm-csi120312.php

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10 Helpful Health And Fitness Tips | Health

Even though much of your health depends on diet and exercise, there are a lot of health and fitness tips that you can go by in order to become healthier without doing anything drastic. When you go by these tips, you can improve your health just by making little adjustments to your everyday life, as well as your perspective on diet and exercise.

Health and Fitness Tips

1.If you need to be somewhere that is not too far away, just go ahead and walk. Leave yourself enough time to do this so that you can burn up some extra calories. Choose the stairs over the elevator. Also, don?t always go for the closest parking space. Let yourself walk the extra distance.

2.Make yourself a schedule for workouts, and always stick to it. Just make exercise another set part of your schedule, and never let anything trivial get in the way. Get a routine going, and set goals and challenges for yourself.

3.Try to find some friends or family who will get involved with your exercise program. Once you have many people striving for a common goal, you all will become more accountable and interested in the whole process.

4.Keep track of your calories and make sure that you do not overeat. You can even get a food scale to measure out your items before you cook them. This helps you to get a better understanding of what you are actually eating in comparison to what you should be eating.

5.Before you exercise, be sure that you drink plenty of water in order to keep from becoming dehydrated or faint. Protect yourself from injuries or cramps by doing some stretches as well.

6.Each day when you work out, you should shoot for a certain number of repetitions or a specific amount of time. Push yourself by trying to increases these amounts on a regular basis.

7.You can get exercise by doing things that you like. Entertain yourself while working out by watching TV or listening to your favorite music. Dow whatever you can think of to make exercising an interesting and fun experience that you will enjoy taking part in.

8.You can make the process seem a little easier if you divide it up into smaller doses throughout the day. You can try different combinations and routines, like one time in the morning and one time on your lunch break. Just find out what is going to be the best thing for you.

9.Make sure that the clothes that you are wearing are comfortable to work out in. If your favorite type of exercise is running, then invest in a pair of quality running shoes in order to prevent your feet from hurting.

10.Keep up a positive attitude at all times, and avoid being too hard on yourself. You have to believe in yourself and know that no matter what your goals are, you will be able to accomplish them. This is the most important of all the health and fitness tips.

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This entry was posted in Tips

Source: http://www.glossylicious.com/tip/10-helpful-health-and-fitness-tips/

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Walmart's New Health Care Policy Shifts Burden To Medicaid, Obamacare

Walmart, the nation?s largest private employer, plans to begin denying health insurance to newly hired employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week, according to a copy of the company?s policy obtained by The Huffington Post.

Under the policy, slated to take effect in January, Walmart also reserves the right to eliminate health care coverage for certain workers if their average workweek dips below 30 hours -- something that happens with regularity and at the direction of company managers.

Walmart declined to disclose how many of its roughly 1.4 million U.S. workers are vulnerable to losing medical insurance under its new policy. In an emailed statement, company spokesman David Tovar said Walmart had ?made a business decision? not to respond to questions from The Huffington Post and accused the publication of unfair coverage.

Labor and health care experts portrayed Walmart?s decision to exclude workers from its medical plans as an attempt to limit costs while taking advantage of the national health care reform known as Obamacare. Among the key features of Obamacare is an expansion of Medicaid, the taxpayer-financed health insurance program for poor people. Many of the Walmart workers who might be dropped from the company?s health care plans earn so little that they would qualify for the expanded Medicaid program, these experts said.

?Walmart is effectively shifting the costs of paying for its employees onto the federal government with this new plan, which is one of the problems with the way the law is structured,? said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

For Walmart, this latest policy represents a step back in time. Almost seven years ago, as Walmart confronted public criticism that its employees couldn't afford its benefits, the company announced with much fanfare that it would expand health coverage for part-time workers.

But last year, the company eliminated coverage for some part-time workers -- those new hires working 24 hours a week or less. Now, Walmart is going further.

Have you worked at Walmart? The Huffington Post wants to know about your experience. Send us an email here.

?Walmart likely thought it didn?t need to offer this part-time coverage anymore with Obamacare,? said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. ?This is another example of a tremendous government subsidy to Walmart via its workers.?

In pursuing lower health care costs, Walmart is following the same course as many other large employers. But given its unrivaled scale, Walmart?s policies tend to influence American working conditions more broadly. Tom Billet, a senior consultant at Towers Watson, a professional services firm that works with large companies to develop benefit plans, said other companies are also crafting policies that will exclude some part-time workers from medical coverage.

Billet portrayed the growing corporate interest in separating out part-time workers as a reaction to another aspect of Obamacare -- the new rules that require companies with at least 50 full-time workers to offer health coverage to all employees who work 30 or more hours a week or pay penalties.

Several employers in recent months, including Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, and a New York-area Applebee?s franchise owner, said they are considering cutting employee hours to push more workers below the 30-hour threshold.

?In the past, firms were less careful about monitoring whether someone was full- or part-time,? Billet said, noting that some of his clients were planning to track workers? hours more carefully. ?I expect health plans like Walmart?s won?t be uncommon as firms adjust to this law.?

For Walmart employees, the new system raises the risk that they could lose their health coverage in large part because they have little control over their schedules. Walmart uses an advanced scheduling system to constantly alter workers? shifts according to store traffic and sales figures.

The company has said the scheduling system improves flexibility and efficiency. But in recent interviews with The Huffington Post, several workers described their oft-changing schedules as a source of fear that they might earn too little to pay their bills. Many said they have begged managers to assign them additional hours only to see their shifts cut further as new workers were hired.

The new plan detailed in the 2013 "Associate?s Benefits Book" adds another element to that fear: the risk of losing health coverage. According to the plan, part-time workers hired in or after 2011 are now subject to an ?Annual Benefits Eligibility Check? each August, during which managers will review the average number of hours per week that workers have logged over the past year.

If part-time workers hired after Feb. 1, 2012, fail to reach the 30-hour threshold, they will lose benefits the following January, according to the book. Part-time workers hired after Jan. 15, 2011, but before Feb. 1, 2012, must work at least 24 hours a week to retain coverage and will also be subject to an eligibility check each year. Those hired before 2011 aren?t subject to the minimum hours requirements or eligibility checks.

As for full-time workers under the plan, those who lose hours and slip to part-time at any point during the year will see their spouses? health coverage dropped immediately. Those workers will also lose their dental and life insurance policies in the following pay period, according to the plan.

Some Walmart workers who are excluded from the company?s health care plans are likely to become eligible for Medicaid under the Obamacare expansion, which aims to replace a patchwork of standards now set by individual states with one minimum federal threshold -- income below 133 percent of the federal poverty line, which for an individual currently comes to $14,856. However, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the decision to expand the program is voluntary for the states. At least eight states, including Texas, have said they will not expand the program, which would leave Walmart workers there with one less option.

Part-time workers who lose their Walmart insurance but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid should be able to buy insurance through the health care exchanges to be established under Obamacare -- essentially, online marketplaces offering an array of health care plans.

For workers who do qualify for health coverage under Walmart's new policy, the latest package represents an upgrade over previous plans. Walmart?s health plans began covering 100 percent of spine and heart surgeries this year at select hospitals and medical centers. They also include a smattering of preventative care services required by Obamacare.

But the company?s plans still leave many workers facing significant financial distress in the event of major illness. Under the new policy, one major offering, the so-called Health Reimbursement Account Plan, costs nonsmoking workers $34.80 a month -- a seemingly affordable sum. Yet it comes with an annual deductible of $2,750, a hefty expense given that half of Walmart?s hourly workforce earns no more than $10 an hour.

While a shifting of Walmart employees to Medicaid rolls may increase the burden on American taxpayers, it is likely to be a better deal for the workers themselves.

?The packages Walmart is providing for low-income people aren?t offering very much coverage except for catastrophes,? said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank. ?It?s likely they?ll be better off going with a government-sponsored plan.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/walmart-health-care-policy-medicaid-obamacare_n_2220152.html

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