Steroids

Originally posted by gull80 "Can of worms"? Small pox has been eradicated. HIV is no longer a death sentence. The mortality rate from heart disease has declined dramatically such that it is no longer the leading cause of death. Life expectancy in the Western world has almost doubled in the past century. That's the impact of medicine. It all depends where you live. HIV is on the comeback in NY, (a very deadly strain) and small pox is again a threat. George

Originally posted by geochuck It all depends where you live. HIV is on the comeback in NY, (a very deadly strain) and small pox is again a threat. The last reported case of small pox in the world was in 1977. The virus now exists only in labs. Check out this link to the CDC: www.bt.cdc.gov/.../disease-facts.asp As for HIV, infected individuals can now live for many years (instead of months) because of antiviral drugs. It's not yet clear if there is a new and possibly resistant strain in New York. What is clear is that high risk behavior in the homosexual population continues to contribute to the spread of the disease.

Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com The spread of HIV and AIDS into Africa has very little to do with anything other than the destruction of traditional social structure by imprerialist governments and western corporations that forced males out of their traditional life-style and into factory towns where prostitutes and drugs were made easily available. Just out of cursiosity, which western corporations have included infecting Africans with HIV as part of their mission statement? Are we talking GM, Boeing, Bank of America, Microsoft? Since we already had western corporations in the west, who can we blame here, eastern corporations like Sony? I have found that self control including the ability to stay away from drugs and unprotected sex with prostitutes has served me quite well as an avoidance strategy.

You are assuming that US social structure is the same as that of other parts of the world. No, I was assuming that avoiding risky behavior is a good way to avoid STDs. I wasn't making some profound social statement as I'm generally not capable of that kind of deep thought.

I understand that other cultures do not have the same values that we do. For instance, I guess other cultures don't view unprotected sex with prostitues as either risky and/or immoral. But, injecting yourself with illegal narcotics has to be viewed universally as risky behavior, unless buying drugs from degenerates is also viewed as an example of upstanding behavior. Unless you lived under a rock in the US, by the mid 80s you knew the risk factors for AIDS/HIV. I don't think it's taken 20 years for this basic knowledge to make it to Africa. Whether or not they choose to alter risky behavior is different than understanding the risks.

Perhaps drugs and prostitutes are not easily available in Charlotte. By the way, do you suppose those corporations are...paying these men to work for them, or do they just force them to live in these towns?

I didn't say any of the corporations were directly providing the drugs anad prostitutes(there is some evidence that some oil companies did encourage their workers to use drugs that were provided). But truly the process many corporations followed in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and other African nations truly lead or facilitated the spread of HIV/AIDS. Many of the factory shanties were designed so that the men who came to work in the factories were unable to pruchase their necessary living needs outside of the corporation provided store. Many of these men, especially in South Afric and Nigeria, were not paid in currency but by vouchers they then had to exchange at company stores. In some South African shanty towns, these vouchers were then used to promote and underground economy. Frequently, the men who went to ork for internatinals were mislead into believing that the vouchers could be used to purchase necessary items for their families or sent to their families. However, they couldn't. Many of these men did use the money they made on prostitutes and drugs. Aquageek, your reasoning is very incorrect. You are assuming that US social structure is the same as that of other parts of the world. I read your social comments and wonder what yuor purpose is? Many of these factory shanties had large numbers of young men seperated from their families and normal social restraints. Having large numbers of young men seperated from their families almost always creates great social change.

Originally posted by aquageek No, I was assuming that avoiding risky behavior is a good way to avoid STDs. Ah ha, what you are assuming is that behavior our culture considers risky is viewed the same way in other cultures.... Risk is relative, culture permeates. If the cultural and political leaders of a society hold to their mandates that HIV does not cause AIDS, or that HIV/AIDS is not transmitted sexually (as many have stated in Africa), then the people cannot be expected to believe that unprotected sex is a risk factor in HIV/AIDS contagion. To get back on the original topic of steriod use, it relates that until people realize the harm steriod use can create they will not consider it risky behavior to avoid. Case in point - the use of steriods by star ball players (or runners, or swimmers or whatever) without obvious consequences creates a feeling among younger athletes that there are no risks. Vicious circle? Yup. Unstoppable? Probably not. But, like the slow recognition in the US that HIV/AIDS was not just a homosexual issue, and not just a drug addict issue, these things take time and, sometimes, a paradigm shift in the prevailing culture. Kae (who knew those advanced degrees in anthropology would come in handy someday)

Personally, I think we should separate out the use of steriods as a performance-enhancing measure and the use as a medical treatment. Being prescribed corticosteriods by a doctor to relieve extreme inflamation and/or pain and the like is completely different from taking them to "beef up". Maybe one of the doctors out there can correct me, but I seem to recall reading something about steriods taken for inflammation etc. are different from the ones taken for 'performance'. I take an nasal spray for my allergies that is (I believe) technically a steriod. Does it enhance my swimming ability? Only in that it allows me to breathe.... And, just to get into the fray, overpopulation and starvation could be much more effectively controlled with better availability of family planning, cultural awareness, greater sanitation, and a more judicious production and distribution of foodstuffs, than by eliminating vaccinations. Kae

The term steroid refers to those hormones derived from cholesterol or 7-dehydrocholesterol. The banned steroid hormones are androgens like androstenedione or testosterone. Mineralocorticoids like aldosterone and glucocorticoids like prednisone are also steroid hormones and are used commonly in medicine.