Hollywood starlets on steroids?
By Billy Norwich
"Tsk-Tsk," Says Dr. Pat Wexler
Think it's only A-Rod and his pals who are taking steroids? Well, what about that actress who buffs up for an action film and cites a carrot juice diet? Sound suspect? Well, that's because it could be …
The increasing pressure on celebrities, both male and female, athletes and actors, singers and dancers, to be perfect pushes them to extreme measures, and some will take anything they can to get an edge on the competition.
Besides illegal steroids, there is the business of using Human Growth Hormone, which can be legally prescribed, to slow and possibly reverse the aging process.
According to an April, 2007, New York Times report, some "25,000 to 30,000 Americans take injections of growth hormone for anti-aging purposes, paying up to $1,000 a month." A certain percentage of those folks, of course, are stars - the people many of us admire. And Dr. Patricia Wexler does not approve:
"Human Growth Hormone is unsafe. I know dermatologists and actresses who use it to slim abdominal fat and increase muscle tone and libido. But it can accelerate also a hidden cancer to grow. It can cause funny bone spurs to grow and enlargement of the heart … just to name a few of the many reasons why I consider it unsafe."
In other words, when you think you hear the fountain of youth gushing, get a second opinion.
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