Steroids

Italy's top sprinter, Pier Francesco Pavoni, today denied allegations by Ben Johnson's physician that he took steroids to enhance his performance. In a written statement released to reporters, Pavoni denounced as "a monstrous conspiracy" Jamie Astaphan's claim that the runner admitted the use of steroids in a tape-recorded phone conversation. (Story, Part III, Page 1.) "I want to confirm I never asked to use steroids. I only took injections of vitamins. I passed dozens of anti-doping tests.

Inhaled steroids, widely used to treat asthma, cause bone loss in young women, researchers report. Anti-inflammatory steroids taken in pill form are known to accelerate bone loss, but it was not clear whether steroids inhaled directly into the lungs also thin bones. Researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital found a direct relation between the amount of inhaled steroids used and a decrease in bone density in the 109 women studied. Bone loss can lead to osteoporosis.

Athletes who take high doses of steroids may risk addiction similar to that of narcotic abuse, doctors warn. In a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors report a case of steroid dependence in a man who regularly took four kinds of steroids. The 23-year-old body builder told doctors he could not stop taking anabolic steroids without experiencing withdrawal symptoms, depression and disabling fatigue. He said he sometimes felt uncontrollably violent, paranoid and suicidal.

Narcotics agents seized illegal steroids and arrested two people in a hotel room in San Ramon, Calif., ending a seven-month drug investigation that discovered widespread use of the drug among area high schools athletes, investigators said Tuesday. Two undercover officers bought $10,000 worth of the drugs at a San Ramon hotel. The names of those arrested were not immediately released pending further investigation.

A doctor who monitors drug testing of athletes for the U.S. Olympic Committee was disciplined by a medical licensing board in 1985 for allegedly using and selling drugs that are banned at Olympic competition. Dr. William N. Taylor, an expert on anabolic steroids and growth hormones, has supervised the collection and shipment of urine samples that are tested for banned drugs while serving as a volunteer Olympics crew chief.

In the 11 months after he broke the 100-meter world record at the World Championships at Rome in August, 1987, Ben Johnson used anabolic steroids during three different periods, his coach, Charlie Francis, said Thursday.

Anabolic steroids, tissue-building substances that are taken by athletes to aid performances, have been used in sports for almost four decades. Anabolic steroids enable the body to maintain an improved nitrogen balance, which aids in the protein synthesis--the key to tissue and muscle growth. Athletes say the combination of new tissue with rigorous training exercises enables them to perform better. Steroids, the synthetic derivative of the male hormone testosterone, were developed in the 1950s.

A report released last Friday by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 262,000 adolescents, mostly boys, have used steroids. Today's Prep Wednesday examines the issue from three perspectives--a former powerlifter who used steroids, a former high school and community college player who used them, and a local high school football program that stresses weightlifting and proper nutrition in building bulk without additives.

The University of South Carolina uncovered six instances of possible rule violations and found "widespread experimentation" by football players with steroids from 1983 to 1987, according to the school's report to the NCAA on steroid use. The five-volume report obtained by Associated Press under the state's Freedom of Information Act found that at least two coaches paid for the muscle-building drugs for players on four occasions.

In response to reports about the use of steroids by Olympic athletes, the Beverly Hills Board of Education has asked that stronger warnings against the performance-enhancing drugs be incorporated into the high school curriculum. The board asked the staff to develop a program that would use discussions and videos to emphasize the dangers of the illegal drugs. The staff also was asked to establish procedures for reporting students suspected of taking steroids. While saying that Beverly Hills High School does not have a problem with steroid use, Principal Sol Levine said the school has more than 800 students on athletic teams and that it was important to get the message out that such drug use represents a "clear and present danger to the health and welfare of students."