Are some All Blacks De-Facto Drug Cheats?

“How has Deer Velvet stood the test of time? The answer is simple, it works and has no known side effects” [Silberhorns Web Site]  

Southland Company Silberhorn has been selling a wide range of deer velvet & herbal products for as long as I can remember.

Turn on any ‘old geezer’ radio station in New Zealand and you’ll hear either golfer Sir Bob Charles (1963 British Open champion) or Sir Colin Meads (famous All Black) promoting the virtues of ‘SportsVel’ a product which in part comes from deer from Sir Bobs own farm.

Indeed Sir Bob claims to have used deer velvet for 25 years and Sir Colin and wife Verna rave about its benefits on aged joints.

“TLC” is their well versed marketing spiel.

So what could be behind these anecdotal health benefits linked to deer velvet?

Well it’s now been revealed deer velvet products, like that marketed by Silberhorn, contain the 'insulin-like growth factor' IGF-1, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2013 prohibited list.  

In short deer velvet contains an illegal muscle growth supplement.

Illegal to use for any sportsperson.

Banned full-stop everywhere but say Bulgaria.   

In the U.S Fijian golfer Vijay Singh has just been ‘pinged’ for using a similar product.

A NFL footballer as well.

Promoters Sir Bob and Sir Colin are now aghast at this development, pleading ignorance after the fact – a situation Meads is familiar with having been the frontman for a failed finance company.     

Silberhorns manufacturers have been less cagey, owner Ian Carline confirming that the company's products did contain IGF-1, although he had not been made aware until yesterday that it was a banned substance.
 

Carline tried to mitigate growth hormones turning-up in his flagship product by claiming Silberhorn products contained naturally occurring IGF-1 in small quantities.

Going down this track perhaps Carline should get on Oprah Winfrey to plead his case just like the world’s best known drug cheat?

 

A growth hormone is a friggin’ growth hormone whether it comes off a farm owned by a personality-dead millionaire golfer like Charles or out of a dodgy lab in Mexico.    

If it doesn't have side-effects like your site is at pains to emphasise, then what's stopping punters taking ten times the standard dose? 

Anyone with the internet or a phone, plus a a credit-card can buy this product and lets not forget it wasn't called SportsVel because it had a nice ring to it.

Silberhorns product is marketed towards sportspeople and the elderly.  

Drug Free Sport New Zealand executive director Graeme Steele said it didn't matter whether the substance was concentrated, natural or not.

Steeles statement is clear.

 "If it's (IGF-10) there then they shouldn't be taking it at all."

One interesting thing to also come-out of this deer-velvet spray use is Carlines defiant, if not naïve, defence of his product given the scientific evidence, controversy raging here & overseas.   

The owner of Silberhorn wants New Zealanders to know…. 

"Our database is like a who's who in the rugby industry, both current and former."  

Really Ian?
 

I'm sure The International Rugby Board will be chuffed getting hold of your client list.  

KIWI MOTHER PUTS HER BELIEFS AHEAD OF HER SONS WELFARE

The moment I heard her son was named after a chemical element ‘Neon’ I knew we were dealing with a wacko alternative lifer.

This instant opinion was re-enforced when I heard her utterances that the protocol doctors were following was "really evil".

So what were these evil doctors doing exactly?

They were trying to save U.K based Kiwi mother Sally Robert’s son’s life.

Poor 7 year-old Neon has a brain tumour and doctors were proposing to treat him with radiotherapy.

So Roberts took her lad into hiding.

After a five day nationwide search British Police caught-up with the pair.  

Robert’s isn’t exactly sure what therapies will be effective saving young Neon only it’s not going to be radiotherapy.  

When you read the word therapy there is really another word that should be placed in front of it: alternative.

Robert’s estranged husband, Neon’s father Ben Roberts said he too was open to “open to other approaches.”

What these ‘approaches’ are, is open to interpretation.

Bathing the child’s head in goats blood under a full moon?

The legal system has now intervened to ensure Neon is saved from his parents border-line psychotic beliefs that they somehow know better than health professionals who like nothing better to do than in essence torturing children, ignore cures to satisfy their evil agenda.       

The parents waste valuable time seeking out cures which doctors say don’t exist.  

In these all too frequent cases the welfare of the child should be paramount.

Baldness Alchemy

Borrowing from ancient knowledge of alchemy, Holistic Hair is a beautiful stand alone hair care range. Nourishing both the hair and scalp is our focus and the healing properties of aromatherapy oils have been our inspiration [Holistic Hair Web Site]  

I am as they say ‘folically challenged’  

Would I like to have hair?

Sure yes, but I got over it and it doesn’t bother me being partly bald.  

One only needs to scan adverts to see 'going-bald' does bother others.

They are willing to spend a fortune on re-growing hair.

Bill Gates said recently ‘more money was being spent finding a cure for baldness than developing drugs to combat malaria.'

So this intro leads me into the murky world of New Zealand companies marketing products that claim to re-grow or save the hair of those with male pattern baldness ‘naturally’.  

There are of course medically proven products which do have some success in treating hereditary hair loss.   

Propecia and Rogaine are two of these.     

But what about the prevalent, in-your-face ‘natural remedies’ - say those ‘that borrow from ancient knowledge of alchemy’ etc?  

Yes that’s right alchemy, protoscience, a wishy-washy field of that became unfashionable around the same time we stopped treating the sick with leeches.  

This gets me to Nigel Russell’s Auckland company ‘Holistic Hair’ which I read about in an issue of ‘Sunday’ (insert to Sunday Star Times) last weekend (16^th Sept 2012)

In the article by Sarah Murray entitled ‘Hair Today, More Tomorrow’ Russell is quoted as saying he believes [quote] hair loss is treatable.

What by Propecia?

Nope, don’t be silly.

Products like this are the spawn of some evil multi-national pharmaceutical company made in some factory using – shock horror- proper medicine.  

Damn their clinical trials that substantiate their claims for advocacy and the fact I don’t have the necessary authorisation to administer a medicine of this nature.    

He’s what Russell said via ‘Sunday’….

“There are many aromatherapy oils that have shown to support hair growth such as lavender, rosemary and nettle oil. When they are applied to the scalp regularly, the hair appears to be healthier and fuller’

Really?

Aromatherapy oils can treat Male Pattern Baldness?

Let's be honest, angst ridden bald men must be the base clientele of any such hair-studio.

Enter Google.   

There was one small study in 2000 (Cooke, Edzard) that stated aromatherapy may help those with scalp complaints and had some success with baldness - more in women than men from what I can deduce. Hardly conclusive stuff worth spending hard earned money on.    

There was no other independent-study wise I could locate on the net of any substance to say lavender, rosemary oils etc had any success with male pattern baldness, halting excess DHT.  DHT is the hormone that triggers hereditary hair loss.

There is little doubt a product like Nettle Oil will cure itchiness, a symptom of the shedding process, but it is drawing a long bow to say it will stop the genetic condition altogether.  

The less fashionable Castor Oil will do the same in terms of scalp itchiness if that’s what’s bothering you rather than baldness.    

Alpha Keri is what I use.

A free and easy way to stimulate short-term growth is to rub the scalp. This practice will also make hair appear fuller but any initial ‘baby’ growth won’t last though.

Russell continues to dig himself a ditch under the unquestioning eye of Murray.

“There is also herbal remedy known as saw palmetto. When it is combined with a zinc and B stress supplement, this may be a more natural way to deal with hair loss”    

Rubbish.

There is not one shred of scientific, independent evidence to show saw palmetto can halt male pattern baldness. 

Sure SP can reduce the production of DHT, could be useful in prostrate treatments, but this doesn’t translate necessarily into stopping hair dropping out.

Zinc and B-Vitamins – give me a f#cking break!

With or without Saw Palmetto a diet consisting solely of greens, bananas and beef won’t stop pattern baldness.  

This is why most men appear at the doorstep of places like Holistic Hair – to stop male pattern baldness – get more hair.    

They are not after diet advice.

There’s the partners Woman’s Weekly on the lounge table for that.     

In short: don’t believe what you read about ‘natural’ herbal baldness cures for men who have the wrong set of genes.   

They don’t work in the same way as claiming you can magically manufacture gold from common metals.  

It’s all alchemy.