Medicine & health

[abadani69]

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[golgol85]

be ghole ma'aroof, i would be carful of the family jewels if you know what i mean vali joda az shookhi, cell phone usage should be minimal.

[abadani69]

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[golgol85]

Woman has rare transplant of digestive system

She eats first meal after getting stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver, intestines

ATHENS, Ala. - An Athens woman who underwent a rare transplant of her digestive system at a Miami hospital last month said she had her first regular meal Friday since the surgery and walked some laps around the ward.

Sara Ultz, 28, was studying at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a master's degree in business when she became ill in August 2005 with a stomach ache. It let to the 13-hour surgery in which Ultz received a stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver, and small and large intestines.

"I was only four classes from being done," Ultz said in a telephone interview Friday from her hospital room. She expects to be in Miami a few more months while recovering.

Ultz first received treatment last year at Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham. Doctors found a bowel obstruction and removed part of her small intestine. But she required more severe surgery and was admitted to the Jackson Memorial Hospital for what is called a multivisceral transplant.

University of Miami surgery professor Dr. Andreas Tzakis, director of the hospital's liver and gastrointestinal transplant program, confirmed Ultz received the transplanted organs.

Tzakis, a UM/Jackson surgeon, commented to The Associated Press in a telephone interview after Ultz's surgery was first reported Friday by The News Courier in Athens.

Her parents, Gail and Ron Ultz, are in Miami with their daughter.

Anne Paschke, a spokeswoman for the Virginia-based Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, said 45 multivisceral transplants were performed nationwide in 2005 and 36 have been completed from January through July this year.

Tzakis said about 300 of these transplants have been done worldwide, about half of them at the Miami hospital. In 2005, the hospital performed 18 transplants and so far this year has performed 28.

Tzakis said the first three months of recovery are the toughest for patients. He said about 65 percent of the hospital's patients getting the transplants are children.

Sara Ultz said her father brought her computer so she's keeping in touch with friends and family by e-mail and cell phone.

"My goal is to move back to Birmingham. That's my city. I've lived there since I was 18," said Ultz, an East Limestone High School graduate who earned a degree in biology in 2000.

During her daughter's medical crisis, Gail Ultz learned she had one of her own — a failing kidney. She was admitted to the same Miami hospital caring for her daughter and now requires kidney dialysis three times a week and will probably need a kidney transplant.

Ultz's mother works for the city of Athens, where co-workers plan a benefit chicken stew and bake sale to help the family pay expenses.

Gail Ultz said she has always carried an organ donor card and thought she would give up an organ if necessary to one of her two daughters.

Sara Ultz will have to remain on expensive anti-rejection drugs throughout her life.

"That is something I'll also have to face if I have a transplant," Gail Ultz said.

She's no stranger to adversity. Nearly three years ago, her brother, Athens Police Sgt. Larry Russell, was gunned down with fellow officer Tony Mims in an ambush slaying.

[golgol85]

10-year-old girl dies of rabies after bat bite

Death marks Indiana's first case of rabies in nearly 50 years

INDIANAPOLIS - A 10-year-old girl who was diagnosed with Indiana's first confirmed case of rabies in nearly half a century died Thursday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Shannon Carroll had been bitten by a rabid bat in June and had been hospitalized since early October, said Riley Hospital for Children spokeswoman Jo Ann Klooz said.

More than 30 of the girl's relatives, friends and classmates were offered injections to prevent the spread of the disease. Some parents whose children attend the girl's school in Bourbon, 25 miles south of South Bend, worried about possible exposure since rabies can stay dormant for more than a year.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted to humans and other animals through saliva, usually in a bite. It attacks the brain and nervous system and typically leads to death once symptoms appear. Human-to-human transmission of rabies is possible through direct contact with saliva, health officials said.

State records show Indiana's last human rabies case was in 1959.

[golgol85]

Big doses of red wine could promote long life

Study: Compound reduced negative effects of high-calorie diet in fat mice
Mammals given ultrahigh doses of the red wine extract resveratrol can get the good effects of cutting calories without having the pain of actually doing it, researchers say.

WASHINGTON - Huge amounts of a red wine extract seemed to help obese mice eat a high-fat diet and still live a long and healthy life, suggests a new study that some experts are calling “landmark” research.

The big question is, can it work the same magic in humans?

Scientists say it’s far too early to start swilling barrels of red wine. But some are calling the latest research promising and even “spectacular.”

The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Aging shows that heavy doses of red wine extract lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice.

Fat-related deaths dropped 31 percent for obese mice on the supplement, compared to untreated obese mice, and the treated mice also lived long after they should have, the study said.

Astoundingly, the organs of the fat mice that got the wine extract looked normal when they shouldn’t have, said study lead author Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. And Sinclair said other preliminary work still being done in the lab shows the wine ingredient has promise in lengthening the life span of normal-sized mice, too.

Sinclair has a financial stake in the research. He is co-founder of a pharmaceutical firm, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., which is testing the safety of using the extract on humans for treatment of diabetes.

For years, red wine has been linked to numerous health benefits. But the new study, published online in the journal Nature on Thursday, shows that mammals given ultrahigh doses of the red wine extract resveratrol can get the good effects of cutting calories without having the pain of actually doing it.

“If we’re right about this, it would mean you could have the benefit of restricting calories without having to feel hungry,” Sinclair said. “It’s the Holy Grail of aging research.”

Resveratrol, produced when plants are under stress, are found in the skin of grapes and in other plants, including peanuts and some berries.

The resveratrol-treated 55 obese mice on a high-calorie diet (one scientist called it a “McDonald’s diet”) are not only about as healthy as normal mice, they are as agile and active on exercise equipment as their lean cousins, showing what can be considered a normal quality of life, higher than usual for obese mice, said study co-author Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging.

“These fat old mice can perform as well on this skill test as young lean mice,” Sinclair said.

The only major body measurement that didn’t improve — aside from weight — was cholesterol and that didn’t seem to matter in the overall health of the mice, Sinclair said.

The study is so promising that the aging institute this week is strongly considering a repeat of the same experiment with rhesus monkeys, coming the closest to humans, after successful resveratrol experiments on yeast, worms, fruit flies and now mice, said institute director Dr. Richard Hodes.

Hodes cautions that it’s too early for people to start taking non-regulated resveratrol supplements because safety issues haven’t been addressed adequately. He pointed to past hyped medical treatments, such as estrogen, that turned out to cause more harm than good.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is working on a high-dose resveratrol pill that unlike unregulated supplements on the market now, would be used as a drug and require Food and Drug Administration approval, said company chief executive officer Dr. Christoph Westphal. And that development and federal approval is about five years away, he said.

Sinclair’s results are so promising that he rushed the study into the science journal while the obese mice are still alive, not waiting several more weeks or months until they die. That raises some issues, including specific figures about mortality, but is understandable, said outside experts. The obese mice still lived past the median age for mice of their weight.

Even would-be competitors are praising the study.

“It’s a fairly spectacular result,” said University of Wisconsin medical professor Dr. Richard Weindruch, who co-founded another biotech company that looks at the genetics of aging and drugs that could expand life spans. “People will go to McDonald’s and afterwards they’ll do super-sized resveratrol.”

“This is fantastic,” said Brown University molecular biology professor Stephen Helfand, who was the first reviewer for the journal Nature and not part of the team. “This is a historic landmark contribution.”

Helfand said he won’t be taking red wine extract supplements — but he has put his elderly mother on them. He said he’s waiting to see if there are long-term ill effects for humans. Mice, he said, are good initial test subjects for human drugs because their bodies function more similarly to humans than differently. However, he added that those differences can prove crucial.

Sinclair said he takes resveratrol supplements, but doesn’t recommend it for others. Sinclair’s mice took such high doses of resveratrol that it would be the equivalent of an adult drinking 100 bottles of wine daily.

Resveratrol works by spurring activity and regrowth in cells’ mitochondria, which Sinclair called “the energy powerhouses of the cell.”

Some scientists, such as Weindruch and Hodes, worry that the research may encourage people to forget about their diets and wait for a red wine cure-all that may never come.

“It’s not an excuse to overeat,” Sinclair said. But he added that for mice at least, this shows you can be “fat, happy, healthy and vigorous.”

[donsaeid]

واكسن آلرژي در كشور ساخته شد


عضو بنياد تحقيقات بيوتكنولوژي كشور گفت: واكسن آلرژي براي نخستين بار در كشور با تاييد نهايي در سطح بين*المللي ساخته شد.



به نقل از روابط عمومي انجمن حمايت از بيماران ديابتي كل كشور، شكوري اميدي با بيان اين مطلب افزود: ساخت اين واكسن با همكاري بنياد تحقيقات بيوتكنولوژي و انجمن حمايت از بيماران ديابتي كل كشور صورت گرفته است.
وي با بيان اينكه تحقيقات فاز پنج تهيه واكسن آلرژي به پايان رسيده است، اظهار داشت: در حال حاضر اين واكسن روي 500 بيمار مبتلا به آسم تست شده است.
اميدي خاطرنشان كرد: اين واكسن روي 95 درصد كودكان دچار آسم واكنش مثبتي به دنبال داشته است.
وي اظهار داشت: شيوع آلرژي در كشور بالا بوده و واكسن آلرژي علاوه بر اينكه نياز بيماران داخل كشور را برآورده كرده و ميزان شيوع در كشور را كاهش مي*دهد، مي*توان آن را به كشورهاي ديگر صادر كرد و يك تقويت كننده سيستم ايمني نيز محسوب مي*شود.

[golgol85]

Study: Genetic testing of tumors helps find best chemo

A new test that looks at genetic material from a patient's tumor is 80 percent accurate in predicting which drugs would be most effective against that particular cancer, U.S. researchers reported Sunday.

The test can be used to predict not only whether a single drug can work to stop a tumor but whether a specific combination of drugs will work, the team at Duke University in North Carolina reported.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers said they used a "gene chip" made by Affymetrix as the basis of the test, done in lab dishes using tumor samples from several hundred different patients with leukemia and ovarian, breast and lung cancers.

They said they would start further testing in breast cancer patients next year.

"With the new test, we think that physicians will be able to personalize chemotherapy in a way that should improve outcomes," said Dr. Anil Potti, an assistant professor of medicine in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy who led the study.

"Over 400,000 patients in the United States are treated with chemotherapy each year, without a firm basis for which drug they receive," said genetics professor Joseph Nevins.

"We believe these genomic tests have the potential to revolutionize cancer care by identifying the right drug for each individual patient," Nevins said in a statement.

"Importantly, we believe this research can improve the efficiency of chemotherapy without changing the drugs currently used in standard practice. Rather, the tests simply provide an approach to better selection within a repertoire of available drugs."

The gene chip is used to scan the messenger RNA from thousands of genes in a tumor.

Messenger RNA translates a gene's DNA code into proteins that run the cell's activities and can indicate how active a particular gene is inside the cell.

Such testing is done to a limited degree now to see whether patients can qualify for so-called targeted therapies such as Tarceva, Herceptin and other drugs. The Duke team looked at older and less-specific cancer drugs such as paclitaxel, topotecan and 5-fluorouracil.

The research team compared their assay's results against the actual results that the patients had with chemotherapy and said their test was 80 percent accurate in predicting whose tumors would be stopped by a particular agent or combination of agents.

[abadani69]

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thanks for the info doctors

[golgol85]

Stem cells fill in for liver in mouse experiment

Stem cells grown from mouse embryos helped power a liver replacement device, Japanese and U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

Their experiment suggests another use for the cells, controversial when taken from human embryos. They used the cells in a bioartificial liver, an implanted device that uses liver cells to replace some liver function.

Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, Ira Fox of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Naoya Kobayashi of Okayama University in Japan and others said their cells saved the lives of mice that otherwise would have died of liver failure.

"Use of this device in mice with acute liver failure, which uniformly die within 4 days of inducing hepatic (liver) failure, resulted in 90 percent long-term animal survival," they wrote.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, and those taken from days-old embryos have the power to transform into any kind of cell or tissue in the body.

But the use of human embryonic stem cells is controversial, with some conservatives, including President George W. Bush, opposing their use on moral grounds.

Proponents say stem cells taken from a variety of sources could transform medicine, offering ways to understand disease and replace damaged organs and tissues.

Liver failure can be caused by viruses such as hepatitis, by drug or alcohol damage and by a range of other diseases. Often the only cure is a transplant, and more than 5,000 liver transplants are done in the United States each year.

More than 17,000 Americans are on the waiting list for a new liver.

"Treatment could be improved by bioartificial liver support, but this approach is hindered by a shortage of human hepatocytes (liver cells)," the researchers wrote.

The researchers grew mouse embryonic stem cells and coaxed them into becoming liver cells. They caused liver failure in some lab mice and implanted the bioartificial livers, seeded with the newly grown liver stem cells.

The new cells "developed characteristics nearly identical to those of primary hepatocytes (liver cells)."

The new cells filtered the blood much as the liver does, and kept the mice alive, while mice not fitted with a device died within two days, the researchers wrote.

[golgol85]

Stem Cell Fish Research Shows Heart Regeneration

New information about how the hearts of tiny zebrafish regenerate could help in developing new ways to treat heart damage in humans, say Duke University Medical Center scientists.


They found that when a portion of a zebrafish's heart is removed, stem cells that form in the wound work with a protective cell layer that covers the wound to re-grow functional heart tissue.


The Duke team also discovered that certain growth factors facilitate interactions between the stem cells and the protective cell layer. The findings are published in the Nov. 3 issue of the journal Cell.


It's believed that the ability to regenerate damaged heart tissue is present in all vertebrate species but, for unknown reasons, humans and other mammals have "turned off" this regeneration function, according to background information in the article.


Discovering the key to this dormant ability could lead to new ways to treat human hearts damaged by disease, the Duke scientists said.


"Multiple types of progenitor (undifferentiated stem) cells have been identified within the mammalian heart, yet it displays little or no regeneration when damaged," senior researcher Kenneth Poss, said in a prepared statement.


"By contrast, zebrafish mount a vigorous regenerative response after cardiac injury. Future studies in zebrafish could help us discover why this regenerative ability is lacking in mammals and potential ways to stimulate it," Poss said.

[golgol85]

Chronic fatigue syndrome is real, CDC says

Chronic fatigue syndrome, once thought by some doctors to be a psychological problem or even a excuse for malingerers, is a real disease that affects more than a million Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Early diagnosis and treatment of the disease are important for recovery -- even though it is not clear what the best treatments are, CDC officials said during a news conference late last week.

"CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is a terrible illness that prevents many people from taking part in everyday activities and participating in the things they enjoy," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.

"Fortunately, there are therapies for CFS that can reduce much of the pain and suffering," she said.

The CDC launched an awareness campaign about chronic fatigue on Friday and published a dedicated Internet site at http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/.

Up to 80 percent of people with chronic fatigue do not know they have it, the CDC said. Its causes are unknown but it can cause profound exhaustion, sleep difficulties, and problems concentrating and remembering.

Flu-like symptoms, including pain in the joints and muscles, tender lymph nodes, sore throat and headaches are also common. "A distinctive characteristic of the illness is a worsening of symptoms following physical or mental exertion," the CDC said in a statement.

"Diagnosis is primarily made by taking a patient's medical history, completing a physical exam and lab tests to rule out other conditions," it added.

"The CDC considers chronic fatigue syndrome to be a significant public health concern, and we are committed to research that will lead to earlier diagnosis and better treatment of the illness," Gerberding said.

Several other illnesses have symptoms that mimic chronic fatigue, including fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, neurasthenia, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic mononucleosis, the CDC noted.

"There are tens of millions of people with similar fatiguing illnesses who do not fully meet the strict research definition of CFS," the CDC added.

No one therapy works but reducing stress, dietary restrictions, gentle stretching and nutritional supplementation have all been shown to help. Drugs are sometimes prescribed.

"For instance, tricyclic antidepressants may not only improve mood, but may help with sleep and pain," the CDC said.

"Patients should be advised to avoid herbal remedies like comfrey, ephedra, kava, germander, chaparral, bitter orange, licorice root, yohimbe and any other supplements that are potentially dangerous," it added.

[donsaeid]

مشاور معاون غذا و داروي وزارت بهداشت:

جلوگيري از ورود داروهاي جديد به كشور به ضرر سلامت مردم است


مشاور معاون غذا و داروي وزارت بهداشت گفت: جلوگيري از ورود داروهاي جديد به فهرست رسمي دارويي كشور و نيز فهرست داروهاي بيمه*اي به ضرر سلامت مردم است.



عليرضا حسني فخرآبادي، امروز در نشست توسعه سلامت و پزشكي و بررسي وضع توليد و واردات دارو به كشور در سالن اجتماعات موسسه فرهنگي ابن سيناي بزرگ در تهران، افزود: در كشور ما شوراي تدوين داروهاي رسمي كشور از اوايل انقلاب و با حذف 500 دارو از فهرست دارويي كشور كار خود را شروع كرد ولي هنوز بررسي دقيقي در اين مورد نشده است كه جلوگيري از ورود داروهاي جديد در اين سالها و محدوديت فهرست دارويي كشور به نفع يا به زيان سلامت مردم بوده است.
وي گفت: بر اساس تحقيقي كه در كشور آمريكا انجام شده است جلوگيري از ورود يك دارو به فهرست دارويي 57 دلار منفعت مالي دارد و در عوض به اندازه 153 دلار به سلامت مردم زيان وارد مي*شود.
وي ادامه داد: البته نمي*توان ورود هر نوع داروي جديد را به كشور كاملا بازگذاشت به خصوص اينكه مسئله داروهاي تقلبي اكنون يك بحران جهاني است اما مي*توان با بررسي دقيقتر داروهاي جديد از نظر كيفيت دارو، ايمني آن و اثربخشي و كارايي آن و به دور از در نظر گرفتن منافع اشخاص يا صنايع خاص فهرست دارويي كشور را اصلاح كرد.
كاووس باسمجي، داروساز و سردبير نشريه تخصصي سپيد نيز در اين نشست گفت: سياست ملي دارويي كشور به هيچوجه متناسب با نياز كشور نيست و نيازهاي اساسي نظام دارويي كشور را برآورده نمي*كند و بيشتر به شرح وظايف وزارت بهداشت مربوط است؛ علاوه بر آن قانون چهارم توسعه كشور نيز جوابگوي مسائل و نيازهاي نظام دارويي كشور نيست و بيشتر مواد آن در حوزه دارو تكراري است.
انتهاي پيام/ز

[donsaeid]

معاون غذا و داروي وزير بهداشت:*

93 درصد داروهاي جهان در فهرست دارويي ايران وجود دارد


معاون غذا و داروي وزارت بهداشت گفت: از 4 هزار قلم داروي مورد تاييد سازمان جهاني بهداشت هزار قلم در فهرست دارويي كشور وجود اما با توجه به اينكه از هر گروه دارويي حداقل يك قلم دارو در كشور ما مجوز دارد در واقع 93درصد گروههاي دارويي دنيا در فهرست دارويي ايران پذيرفته شده است.



رسول ديناروند امروز در نشست مشترك وزارت بهداشت با اعضاي شوراي عالي نظام پزشكي، افزود: يكي از مشكلات مهم نظام دارويي كشور گرايش پزشكان به تجويز داروهاي خارج از فهرست است و متاسفانه بيشترين هزينه دارويي كشور بر اساس ليستهاي موجود به همين داروهاي گران قيمت خارج از فهرست مربوط مي*شود.
وي اضافه كرد: پزشكان در اين زمينه از وزارت بهداشت حرف شنوي زيادي ندارد و بيشتر مخاطب خود را سازمان نظام پزشكي مي*دانند بنابراين از اين سازمان مي*خواهيم براي حل اين بحران با وزارت بهداشت همكاري كند.
وي گفت: تجربه نشان داده است كه بسياري از اين داروهاي جديد تاثيري در بهبود بيماران و افزايش طول عمر آنها ندارد و فقط به علت قيمت بيشتر هزينه گزافي را بر مردم تحميل مي*كند.
وي افزود: ادامه اين مسير رضايتمندي بيماران را كاهش مي*دهد بنابراين بايد با تدوين پروتكلهاي درماني مشخص براي هر بيماري از تجوير بي رويه داروهاي گران قيمت در كشور جلوگيري كنيم.

* گسترش بازار داروهاي تقلبي در جهان

ديناروند افزود: مسئله ديگر گسترش روز افزون داروهاي تقلبي و قاچاق در دنياست كه بازار 6 ميليارد دلاري در دنيا پيدا كرده است، اين بحران جهاني به كشور ما نيز نفوذ كرده است و متاسفانه اين داروها به سيستم داروخانه*اي و رسمي توزيع داروي كشور نيز نفوذ كرده است.
وي گفت: توزيع داروهاي قاچاق در داروخانه ها كاملا غير قانوني است و بايد با جديت با آن برخورد كرد تا حداقل اين داروها به بازار زير زميني و غير قانوني قبلي برگردند تا روش برخورد با آنها مشخص باشد.
معاون وزير بهداشت افزود: براي حل اين موضوع از جامعه پزشكي دو درخواست مشخص داريم اول اينكه پزشكان داروهاي خارج از فهرست را تجويز نكنند، دوم اينكه داروخانه ها به هيچوجه اين داروها را نپيچند زيرا مجراي قانوني اين داروها در مراكز تك نسخه*اي وجود دارد.
ديناروند با اشاره به لزوم وجود داروخانه در هر بيمارستان گفت: همه بيمارستانها بر اساس مقررات موجود بايد حتما داروخانه داشته باشند، البته مي*توانند اين داروخانه ها را به بخش خصوصي بسپارند ولي نبود داروخانه در بيمارستان امري غير قانوني و خلاف است.
وي افزود: آيين نامه داروخانه*ها قرار نيست هر سال عوض شود فقط ممكن است چند مورد به آن اضافه شود كه اين امر نيز با مشاركت انجمنهاي تخصصي انجام مي*شود.
وي گفت: داروخانه هاي زنجيره*اي و هلال احمر هيچ مزيت و امتيازي نسبت به داروخانه*هاي خصوصي و شبانه روزي ندارند و توسعه اين مراكز سياست وزارت بهداشت نيست.
ديناروند در مورد فروش داروي بدون نسخه در داروخانه ها توضيح داد: بر اساس دستور العمل جديد داروخانه ها به جز داروهاي بدون نسخه فقط مي توانند در مواقع كاملا اورژانسي حداكثر براي 48 ساعت دارو در اختيار بيمار قرار دهند، اين دستور العمل به هيچوجه دخالت در كار پزشكان نيست و مشكلات نظام دارويي كشور به خاطر اين بخشنامه نيست بلكه به خاطر تجويز دارو توسط برخي داروخانه*ها و نيز توزيع داروهاي خارج از فهرست توسط آنان است.

[donsaeid]

Steroids 'kill off brain cells'

Using steroids to build bulging muscles can also trigger "catastrophic" loss of brain cells, research suggests.

The drugs are known to raise levels of the male sex hormone testosterone.

A study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by Yale School of Medicine found high levels of the hormone killed off nerve cells.

The researchers believe the effect might explain why some steroid users become aggressive and suicidal - a condition known as hyperexcitability.


The condition is well known in the bodybuilding world, where it is referred to as roid rage.

Lead researcher Professor Barbara Ehrlich said: "Next time a muscle-bound guy in a sports car cuts you off on the highway, don't get mad, just take a deep breath and realise that it might not be his fault."

The Yale team exposed cultured nerve cells to testosterone, and found that it triggered programmed cell death (apoptosis).

This is a natural process that in normal circumstances plays a key role in clearing away damaged cells which might be harmful.

However, when healthy cells also become suicidal, it can cause severe problems, and has been implicated in neurological illnesses, such as Alzheimer's and Huntingdon's disease.

Apoptosis is characterised by membrane instability, DNA fragmentation, and the activation of "executioner proteins", known as caspases.

Aggressive hamsters

A recent US study published in the journal Behavioural Neuroscience found normally placid adolescent hamsters given anabolic steroids become incredibly aggressive.

The effects lasted almost two weeks - the equivalent of half their adolescence.

Post-mortems revealed changes in the hamsters' brain activity.

Dr Richard Melloni, who led the research at Northeastern University in Boston, said it was likely the findings applied to humans.

John Brewer, director of the Lucozade Sports Science Academy, said the findings were not surprising.

"People think steroids are banned because they are performance enhancing, but the second, equally important, reason is that they are known to have a major negative effect on people's health.

"This study provides further evidence for why we should never give in to people who want to use steroids and drugs in sport. The moment we do that we will have a major hit on the health services, as use will cascade down the pyramid of sports."