Roger Clemens=the white Barry Bonds

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by andymac

So, what do they say when they really want a B12 shot?

It's kind of interesting. Anyone knows the purpose of B12 shots?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/sp...rssnyt&emc=rss

In a telephone interview Thursday, Dr. Jerome Groopman, a hematologist and professor at Harvard Medical School, described lidocaine as a common local anesthetic whose injectable form would probably require a prescription. Groopman said that vitamin B12, which does not require a prescription, is administered to patients with a serious deficiency of the vitamin, usually the elderly, and that its value as an energy enhancer was “an urban legend.”

“For someone like Roger Clemens, who certainly looks robust, the likelihood that he would be deficient in vitamin B12 is a stretch,” Groopman said, noting that he had not seen Clemens’s medical records. “It would have no physiological effect. It would only have a placebo effect.”

Is B12 simply a placebo, or does it actually do something?

[Vezna31]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

It's kind of interesting. Anyone knows the purpose of B12 shots?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/sp...rssnyt&emc=rss



Is B12 simply a placebo, or does it actually do something?

My wife is a nurse. I'll ask her when she wakes up to see if she knows.

[Vezna31]

My wife said her and her friend used to give each other B12 shots to help lose weight. It gives a big boost to metabolism. She said a couple of other things too, but it seemed irrelevant to sports, more toward overall health.

[USN Squid]

From 2006:

The End of Allergies?
New research suggests that taking vitamin B-12 could make seasonal allergies a thing of the past. Possible side effects include unstoppable immune function, sharper mental focus, and boundless energy.

For decades now, celebrity athletes and rock stars have been jabbing themselves with vitamin B-12 shots in a quest to elevate their game. While the science behind the practice has never exactly been sturdy, satisfied patients from Mick Jagger to Roger Clemens have reportedly used shots of this common vitamin to boost energy, speed recovery after workouts, improve mental focus, and bolster the immune system. In sports circles B-12 has become a signature of the professional locker room; it was even dragged into last year's steroid scandal, when onetime Oriole first baseman Rafael Palmeiro tried to blame his positive steroid results on the B-12 shot he'd received from teammate Miguel Tejada. (Not that anyone bought it.)

But now B-12 is poised for a different role: the no-strings-attached breakthrough allergy treatment we've long been waiting for. In a Phase III drug trial last fall, a group of seasonal allergy sufferers spent up to six weeks taking massive amounts of B-12 -- 2,500 times the recommended daily allowance -- in the form of lozenges dissolved under their tongues twice daily. The results were impressive, to say the least. The most typical symptoms -- sneezing, congestion, and itchy, runny nose -- were half as severe in the B-12 takers as in the placebo group. Dr. Lyndon Mansfield, a Texas allergist who helped plan the study, says, "The effects were comparable to those that got Claritin approved. But the dramatic thing about B-12 is that it's so darn safe." The tired, parched, spacey feeling so common with antihistamine allergy meds? Nada. And as Mansfield points out, it's practically impossible to OD on the stuff. Perhaps most surprising, though, is the longevity of B-12's effects. Previous studies suggest that the allergy-suppressing benefits still run strong for months after the B-12 treatments. Even almighty Claritin doesn't last more than a day or two.

The secret to B-12's allergy-fighting success appears to lie in the vitamin's ability to retune the immune system. Allergies, after all, are immune malfunctions, and increasingly widespread ones at that. They are now twice as common as they were a generation ago, afflicting more than 50 million Americans. Explanations for this surge vary, but one of the problems seems to be connected to the very nature of modern life: Our immune systems don't get the kind of practice fighting off irritants that they got in the days before air filters and antibacterial soap. As a result, a certain type of immune cell, known as an IgE antibody, stays on a constant hair trigger, ready to call out the body's histamine -- the ultimate source of all that allergy misery -- every time it bumps into a pollen grain.

A company named Cobalis, which funded the Phase III trial, owns a patent on B-12 as an allergy therapy and is seeking FDA approval to start selling lozenges as an over-the-counter allergy medicine. If the company clears the remaining red tape, its product will be on pharmacy shelves by next spring, under the brand name PreHistin. In the meantime, intrepid (or desperate) snifflers can try to replicate the study with their own B-12 fix. Three weeks before the spring pollen starts flying in your area, take six mg of B-12 each day in the form of sublingual lozenges. (The lozenges, available from a variety of leading vitamin brands in one and five mg forms, are a lot easier to track down -- and more comfortable -- than the shots.) Continue the B-12 regimen for a total of six weeks. And if you happen to play a bit more like Tejada when you take the softball diamond this spring, just write it off as a lucky side effect.

http://www.mensjournal.com/healthFit...rgies_b12.html

[Skipaway]

So either Clemens has been taking an useless placebo, or there are something scientists not fully aware of, or B12 is just a code, like Canseco claimed in his book.

[<Pion>]

Originally Posted by Vezna31

My wife said her and her friend used to give each other B12 shots to help lose weight. It gives a big boost to metabolism. She said a couple of other things too, but it seemed irrelevant to sports, more toward overall health.

A nurse I dated gave herself (and an AA partner of hers) regular scheduled B12 shots for her overall health.

[Vezna31]

Did anyone think the taped phone call between Clemens and McNamee sound like it had been edited in any way? I heard a discussion on satellite radio that it was.

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by <Pion>

A nurse I dated gave herself (and an AA partner of hers) regular scheduled B12 shots for her overall health.

She has B12 deficiency issues? Or is she simply doing it as a precaution similar to people take vitamin pills?

[The Wolf]

B12 is good for you in general. I knew a doctor who gave almost all of his patients a B12 shot whenever they had an office visit.

Every time I got a B12 shot I felt better for days afterward. But then, what do I know, I'm a known steroids user.

[heemdream]

Getting a little too graphic now.

Something about an abscess on the Rocket's bootie

Roger had an abscess
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[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

B12 is good for you in general. I knew a doctor who gave almost all of his patients a B12 shot whenever they had an office visit.

Sounds like a doctor who loves to make a bit of extra money? That doesn't sound like good practices.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

Sounds like a doctor who loves to make a bit of extra money? That doesn't sound like good practices.

He didn't charge extra for it.

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

He didn't charge extra for it.

You mean didn't charge extra from you, just charge it to the insurance company, or do you mean he did it out of his own pocket?

[Skipaway]

B12 shots are inexpensive and probably covered by insurance if the doctor diagnosed you to have B12 deficiencies. People with B12 deficency could be depressed and without energy. B12 shots easily solve those.

If a doctor simply gives shot to most patients, I think he's scamming the insurance company.

[Skipaway]

More updates:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3194113

After saying repeatedly that Roger Clemens will answer any questions Congress wants to ask him, a source familiar with the inquiry said Saturday night that attorney Rusty Hardin is hedging over the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's request to depose Clemens under oath next week because it might interfere with his defamation lawsuit against personal trainer Brian McNamee.

The source said Hardin is also making "noises" about not turning over a taped conversation between McNamee and two investigators for Hardin's office recorded Dec. 12, the day before the Mitchell report was released.

The source said that nothing has been decided and it's premature to say whether the committee will be forced to subpoena Clemens to testify before the committee. The source said all the issues will be raised Monday when Hardin meets with committee staffers in Washington, D.C., to discuss Clemens' cooperation.

[Skipaway]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3190923

A congressional source said Thursday that a House committee does not expect to give immunity to former pitcher Roger Clemens or four other witnesses who are scheduled to testify about performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball on Feb. 13.

Clemens' lawyers also will likely be asked if they have a tape recording that McNamee's lawyers say exist in which investigators working for Clemens spoke with McNamee days before the release of Mitchell's report, the congressional source said.

Feels like setting a trap.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

You mean didn't charge extra from you, just charge it to the insurance company, or do you mean he did it out of his own pocket?

Out of his own pocket. It never showed up on any insurance bills.

[KurtBevacqua]

Short of an actual subpoena I don't see Clemens testifying under oath about anything.

[Jason Moyer]

So the Jays trainers and doctor are saying that they don't remember Clemens being treated for an abcess on his bottom, despite McNamee claiming otherwise. It will be interesting to see what his medical record says, because it seems like McNamee can't afford too many more credibility issues.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by KurtBevacqua

Short of an actual subpoena I don't see Clemens testifying under oath about anything.

"

It would be unwise. There's way too much to lose, and almost nothing to win.