General caution about meds and food additives

[Guest guest]

FORMER ELITE ATHLETES COULD CARRY CJD

Athletes worldwide who took human growth hormone prior to 1986 are at risk

for developing the human version of mad-cow disease. That's because the

source of the performance-enhancing drug -- banned in athletic competition --

was then human cadavers, which could have been unknowingly infected with

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The neurological disease has a latency period of

up to some 20 years. So the athletes who took it prior to 1986, when it was

synthesized using recombinant DNA, could still be at risk for developing CJD,

according to Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, a world-renowned sports physician and

expert on performance-enhancing drugs. " They're all still in that window of

exposure where they could develop it, " though he explains the chances are

small. Supplies of human growth hormone were originally intended for children

who were abnormally short in stature.

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Copyright 2000 by United Press International.

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This is an example of why we should not be too quick to want to try new

drugs, food additives, or other substances. It takes years for some harmful

effects to show up.

Kat in Seattle