Major League Baseball Bans Under the Tongue Deer Antler Spray Use

On Aug 6, 2011, ESPN reported that MLB players have been issued a warning regarding use of Deer Antler spray administered under the tongue.

Deer-Antler spray contains "potentially contaminated nutritional supplements" along with IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor) which players have used in the past as an alternative to steroids, especially given it can't be detected in urine samples (only blood testing).

What's with Deer-Antler spray specifically? Scientists discovered IGF-1 in the velvet of immature deer antlers and IGF-1 is considered a performance-enhancer that mediates the level of human growth hormone in the body.

Why under the tongue (sublingual administration)? Because the mucus membrane is quite thin under the tongue richly underlaid with capillary blood vessels allowing for direct diffusion of the substance directly into the body's bloodstream with little or no alteration. This process takes less than a minute to occur. This is in contrast to swallowing a pill which gets digested in the stomach with acid, further digested in the intestines with enzymes, absorbed into the hepatic circulation where further degradation occurs in the liver before getting into general body circulation for effect. A 30-60 minute process.

That's why sublingual nitrogen is such a potent medication to treat chest pain due to an impending heart attack. It works FAST!

It's another reason why sublingual immunotherapy otherwise known as allergy drops is a growing acceptable alternative to allergy shots to try and cure allergies.

Read the ESPN story here.

Tall Women (Over 5'1") Have Higher Risk of Cancer!

Female models may be tall and beautiful, but they are also at markedly increased risk of developing cancer. The New York Times reported on a fascinating research article regarding height of a women and risk of cancer.

Specifically, for every four-inch increase in height over 5 feet 1 inch, the risk that a woman would develop cancer increased by about 16 percent, especially for:

• Colon Cancer (RR per 10 cm increase in height 1.25, 95% CI 1.19—1.30)
• Rectal Cancer (1.14, 1.07—1.22)
• Malignant Melanoma (1.32, 1.24—1.40)
• Breast Cancer (1.17, 1.15—1.19)
• Endometrial Cancer (1.19, 1.13—1.24)
• Ovarian Cancer (1.17, 1.11—1.23)
• Kidney Cancer (1.29, 1.19—1.41)
• Brain/Spine Cancer (1.20, 1.12—1.29)
• Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (1.21, 1.14—1.29)
• Leukaemia (1.26, 1.15—1.38)

It is hypothesized that the levels of growth hormone responsible for human height might also be involved in cancer development or because taller people are at greater risk for mutations simply because their bodies are comprised of more cells.

The increased cancer risk was found to be also true across Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America populations.

Perhaps now there's a reason why the average female is 5 feet, 3.8 inches tall! It's a balance between social preferences for being tall versus negative biological consequences for being tall.

The good news here (if there's any) is that head and neck cancer does not increase with height.

Read the NYT article here.

Read the research abstract here.

Reference:
Height and cancer incidence in the Million Women Study: prospective cohort, and meta-analysis of prospective studies of height and total cancer risk. The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Issue 8, Pages 785 - 794, August 2011 doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(11)70154-1