Dietary Supplements and Medications…
Eating less fat, High-fiber diet, Low-fat diet
Polyunsaturated fats, Fat Substitutes,
Carbohydrates, Protein and fat, Soy protein
Permanent Weight Loss, Gaining weight
Appetite-suppressing drugs, Liposuction
Fenfluramine, Phenteramine
Anti-Inflammatory, Anabolic Steroids
Cortisone Injections, Aspirin
Beta-carotene, Vitamin C, Folic acid
Zinc supplements, Calcium supplements
Fish oil pills, Flavinoid pills
Over-the counter medications
Antibiotics, Prozac

Dietary Supplement Regulations
A dietary supplement is intended to supply nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and herbal supplements that are missing or not consumed in sufficient quantity.

A dietary supplement must have one or more of the following ingredients:
- a vitamin
- a mineral
- an herb or other botanical
- an amino acid
A dietary supplement must also be:
- intended for ingestion in pill, capsule, tablet, powder or liquid
- not represented as a food, meal or diet
- labeled as a "dietary supplement"

***Anabolic Steroids Have Serious Side Effects
In high-level international competition, many athletes try to gain an advantage by taking performance boosting drugs that contain the male hormone, testosterone. When women from one country suddenly become the best in the world without their men also achieving the same degree of success, you can bet that their athletes are taking male hormones. For example, the Chinese suddenly achieved unbelievable dominance in world competition for women in swimming, long distance running and power sports such as weight lifting, but the men remained far behind the rest of the world in these events. If the success of the Chinese women was achieved through breakthroughs in training methods, their men should also have improved at the same rate. Male hormones enlarge and strengthen muscles and clear extra fat from the body. When women take large doses of male hormones, their muscles become larger and stronger and they become better athletes. If male hormones were safe, all athletes should be allowed to take them. However, the rules prohibiting the use of male hormones are designed to save athletes' lives. Excessive doses of male hormones can cause liver cancer and hepatitis, conventional heart attacks and direct damage to the heart muscle itself, and uncontrollable rage that can cause the athletes to hurt themselves and people around them. A recent report shows that the male hormones can cause the prostate to enlarge and block the flow of urine. They also make both men and women temporarily infertile.

***Cortisone Injections Can Delay Healing
A recent paper in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (November 1995) shows that the standard treatment of injecting cortisone-type medications into injured tendons and ligaments delays healing and weakens tissue. Athletes and exercisers frequently develop pain in their tendons, muscles, fascia and ligaments from injuries. Sometimes the injuries heal within a few days, but they can persist for long periods of time to cause pain, particularly in the fascia on the bottom or back of the heel, in the large tendon in the back of the lower leg, or in the tendons on the elbows or shoulders. Doctors often treat these chronic injuries by injecting them with cortisone-type drugs because they reduce swelling and lessen pain, but several recent studies show that cortisone injections weaken the tendons for more than 84 days and that exercisers can get even more serious injuries if they exercise their injured part vigorously within a couple of months after being injected with cortisone-type drugs.If you suffer chronic pain in the tendons, muscles, ligaments or fascia, check with your doctor to see if you have a chronic disease causing it, such as arthritis or hepatitis. The non-steroidals that are usually prescribed block pain but do not help tissue to heal. Your doctor may prescribe light rehabilitation exercises. If you receive a cortisone-type injection, make sure that you protect that area from hard exercise for at least two months after you receive the injection.

***Analgesic Balms Do Not Heal Injuries
There are no lotions or creams that help heal athletic injuries. Most lotions and creams that are advertised to help heal muscle injuries contain oil of wintergreen which is methyl salicylate, a type of aspirin that is absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream. Since aspirin-containing lotions make your skin burn and feel hot, many people think that they help injuries to heal, but the aspirin may actually delay healing. The pain of muscle injuries comes from the release of prostaglandins which are also part of the first stage of healing. When aspirin blocks prostaglandins it also can delay healing. It causes a warm and burning feeling by widening the blood vessels in the skin and bringing more hot blood to the skin's surface. Other creams contain menthol that has a cooling effect on the skin. When combined with oil of wintergreen, menthol can make your skin feel alternately hot and cold. DMSO is another anaesthetic added to creams that has no healing properties whatever. Aloe vera, a plant extract, is also added to some sports creams. There are no good studies to show that these extracts help muscles heal, and aloe vera is not an effective pain reliever, although there is some evidence that it can help protect against infections. If you are injured during exercise, stop exercising until your injury heals. If the pain is severe or the injured part does not heal within a few weeks, check with a physician. No creams will help you heal faster.

***Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Do Not Heal Muscle Injuries
When you go to your doctor to treat a muscle injury, the odds are overwhelming that he or she will prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofin. A recent study from South Africa shows that non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs do not help you heal faster (South African Medical Journal, June 1995.) Muscle are made up of millions of individual fibers, just like a rope is made up of many threads. When the force on a muscle is greater than its inherent strength, some of the fibers tear, blood leaks into the muscle and you feel pain. The treatment is RICE, the first letters of Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Stop exercising immediately; apply something cold such as an ice pack and wrap a loosely constricting bandage around the injured limb to close blood vessels to restrict bleeding and swelling; and elevate the arm or leg to use gravity to drain fluid from the injured part.When you injure a muscle, the injured cells release chemicals called prostaglandins that cause swelling, bleeding and pain. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofin, help to block the prostglandins that cause pain, but they also may delay healing by increasing bleeding and blocking the prostaglandins which are the first step in the healing process. After initial healing, you should rehabilitate the muscle and make it stronger so you won't injure that muscle the next time you use it. Exercise against progressive resistance, such as lifting weights or pushing on special strength-training machines.

***Aspirin and Athletic Performance
You should not exercise when your muscles feel sore because it increases your chances of injuring yourself. But what should you do if you have already scheduled a competition, such as a hard game of tennis or a 10-Kilometer race? You can take aspirin, because it will help to relieve some of the soreness during exercise, but it may delay recovery after you finish exercising. For many years, doctors have voiced theoretical concerns that taking aspirin before exercise can harm performance. The latest research show that aspirin will not affect strength, speed, endurance or coordination (International Journal of Sports Medicine, May 1994.) Aspirin lowers fever at rest by increasing sweating, so doctors thought that taking aspirin would make you sweat more, dehydrate you and tire you earlier. However, the data does not show that aspirin increases sweating during exercise. While aspirin does not affect performance, it may affect your health. There is still the concern that taking aspirin will inhibit clotting, and if you are hit during exercise, you may bleed and not be able to stop the bleeding. When you exercise vigorously, your muscle fibers are injured, causing them to feel sore 8 to 24 hours after you finish exercising. When muscle fibers are damaged, white blood cells release a protein called interleukin-2, which causes the damaged cells to release prostaglandins which cause the pain, but they also start the healing process. Aspirin and other arthritis medicines prevent the cells from releasing prostaglandins, so they help to alleviate some of the pain during exercise but they also can delay healing. The analgesic effect of aspirin may also block pain that would tell you to stop exercising. Then you will continue to exercise when you should have stopped and you can turn a minor injury into a major one. If you can't avoid a competition, aspirin may help to get you through, but you need to be extra careful to avoid injury.

To Contact MedicalTalk.com
CLICK HERE