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Entertainment

‘Liver King’ Admits Steroid Use, Calls Persona ‘Experiment’ – Rolling Stone

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Brian Johnson, better known as the organ-devouring masculinity influencer “Liver King,” has admitted to steroid use in a somber video shared on his YouTube and Instagram accounts.

“I fully own that I fucked up,” he said in the six-minute confession. “I am as sorry as a man can be.”

The pained statement comes in response to a video from another bodybuilder, Derek of the online fitness brand “More Plates More Dates,” that purported to show emails in which Johnson described his steroid regimen — a suite of injections costing some $11,000 per month. Since launching the Liver King persona in August of 2021, Johnson had given several interviews during which he categorically denied using performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his muscular physique. He’d also brushed aside accusations of steroid use from podcast kingpin Joe Rogan.

But in just three days, the hour-long “More Plates More Dates” exposé garnered 3 million views, with many in the fitness community saying it confirmed their suspicions about Johnson.

“I’m here now to set the record straight,” Johnson says in his new video, then sighs heavily. “Yes, I’ve done steroids, and yes, I’m on steroids, monitored and managed by a trained hormone clinician. Liver King, the public figure, was an experiment to spread the message.” He went on to mention the social ills of suicide, depression and anxiety, adding: “Our young men are hurting the most.” He said that when he talks about low self-esteem, he’s talking about himself.

Johnson explained that he was already wealthy, and his supplements business a success, before he adopted the guise of the Liver King for social media. The persona drew a following of 1.7 million Instagram followers in just a year, with Johnson selling his products while advocating a caveman lifestyle featuring extreme exercise and a “natural” raw diet of animal livers, hearts, and testicles. Johnson claimed he never expected Liver King to become a viral sensation — contradicting an alleged email included in the “More Plates More Dates” video where he appeared to lay out a plan for gaining a million social media followers in a matter of months. He has yet to confirm or deny the authenticity of that message, or any other private correspondence now circulating.

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Johnson also pledged to talk about steroid use “openly” in the future, “because I believe that there’s a time and a place for pharmacological intervention,” if overseen by a physician. He once more denied, however, that he’s had ab implants or other plastic surgery.

On YouTube, reactions were mostly negative, with commenters criticizing Johnson for invoking others’ mental health struggles as the reason for his pattern of lying. Some called the video “damage control” or insincere, with many saying he was only sorry he got caught.

Johnson found more support on his Instagram page. “No bullshit, no excuses,” wrote a fan. “Earned respect with me from this post. Much love!” Another remarked, “It takes a lot to admit it when you’ve made a mistake, and honestly, I’m glad you came clean. You’re a really inspiring guy, and definitely someone to look up to in the fitness world.”

Redditors were far less impressed. “The image of him confessing to using steroids is hilarious, like a child with a face covered in blueberry pie confessing to eating a pie,” observed one. “Thinking of all the dudes that legit ate testicles trying to be this guy,” quipped someone else.

As Johnson himself noted, he isn’t a competitive athlete, so it’s not as if he’ll be disciplined or suspended by a sports organization. Nor is the admission that he lied about PEDs likely to diminish his online fame or audience, both of which were built on spectacle from the start. So, although Johnson referred to Liver King in the past tense, expect him to live on, hyping both “ancestral” tenets and the miraculous effects of human growth hormone. Oh, and the importance of never, ever wearing a shirt.

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Health

Steroid use for knee osteoarthritis may make it worse, studies say

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CNN
 — 

A common treatment for some arthritis pain might actually be making the condition worse, according to two new studies.

“Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most chronic, degenerative and progressive conditions, with an estimated incidence of 800,000 patients each year in the US alone,” said lead author of one of the studies, Dr. Upasana Bharadwaj.

Osteoarthritis is a common form of arthritis where the cartilage within a joint breaks down over time and the bones around it change, getting worse over time, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 10% of the patients in the study used injections to manage the pain, added Bharadwaj, who is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of radiology at the University of California San Francisco’s School of Medicine. Two of those pain management injectables are corticosteroids, the more common of the two, and hyaluronic acid.

The studies, which were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, used either radiograph or MRI images to track the progression of osteoarthritis in the knees of patients. Some of those patients didn’t receive any treatment and others got corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections, according to the studies.

Both papers showed a statistically significant increase in progression of degenerative changes in knee cartilage over two years in people that had corticosteroid injections compared with those who had hyaluronic acid or no injections, according to the study authors.

However, just because the images might look worse doesn’t always mean that the people are feeling more pain, said Azad Darbandi, lead author of the other study.

“You might see that the knee looks bad on a radiograph, but the patient might not be having worse symptoms,” added Darbandi, a researcher and medical student at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

The studies highlight a debate in the osteoarthritis scientific community about the role of changes in the structure of the joint. Currently, pain is the primarily recognized symptom, said Jason Kim, the Arthritis Foundation’s vice president of osteoarthritis research. Kim was not involved in either study.

The takeaway from the studies is that corticosteroids should be administered with caution for osteoarthritis pain.

Hyaluronic acid injections may be a promising option for managing pain but is less utilized because there is less research, and most patients have to pay out of pocket, Darbandi said.

“Perhaps hyaluronic acid injections need to be studied for pain management more thoroughly,” he said.

Corticosteroids are a fast way to get pain relief and control inflammation but might not be a good option for long-term treatment, Kim said. Repeated injections can put patients at risk for other problems, such as infections because corticosteroids suppress your immune system, he said.

And some people may not see significant benefit from either steroid or hyaluronic acid injections, Kim added.

For a long-term strategy, Kim recommended building a trusted team of health care providers, including your primary care doctor, orthopedic specialist, physical therapist, nutritionist and rheumatologist.

It could be helpful to manage weight and body mass index, or BMI, to improve metabolic effects and reduce overall inflammation, Kim said. It’s also important to try to exercise and be physically active, he said, adding that walking has been proven to improve arthritis.

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Health

Corticosteroid injections associated with progression of knee osteoarthritis

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Two studies comparing injections commonly used to relieve the pain of knee osteoarthritis found that corticosteroid injections were associated with the progression of the disease. Results of both studies were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting 32.5 million adults in the U.S. Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic, degenerative and progressive condition with an estimated incidence of 800,000 patients each year. More than 10% of patients with knee osteoarthritis seek noninvasive treatment for pain relief through corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections.

Researchers in both studies chose cohorts from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a multicenter, longitudinal, observational study of nearly 5,000 participants with knee osteoarthritis currently in its 14th year of follow-up.

In the first study, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco included 210 Osteoarthritis Initiative participants, 70 of whom received intraarticular injections, and a control group of 140 who did not receive injections during a two-year period. Of the 70 patients who received injections, 44 were injected with corticosteroids, and 26 were injected with hyaluronic acid. The treatment and control groups were matched by age, sex, body mass index, pain and physical activity scores, and severity of disease.

MRI was performed on all patients at the time of the injection and two years before and after. The MRI scans were assessed using whole-organ magnetic resonance imaging score (WORMS), a grading system for knee osteoarthritis that focuses on the meniscus, bone marrow lesions, cartilage, joint effusion and ligaments. The researchers identified osteoarthritis progression by comparing the imaging scores from the initial scans and two-year follow-up scans.

This is the first direct comparison of corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections using the semi-quantitative, whole organ assessment of the knee with MRI.”

Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj, M.D., Research Fellow, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco

Statistical analysis showed that corticosteroid knee injections were significantly associated with the overall progression of osteoarthritis in the knee, specifically in the lateral meniscus, lateral cartilage and medial cartilage.

Hyaluronic acid knee injections were not significantly associated with the progression of osteoarthritis in the knee. Compared to the control group, the group who received hyaluronic injections showed a decreased progression of osteoarthritis, specifically in bone marrow lesions.

“While both corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections are reported to help with symptomatic pain relief for knee osteoarthritis, our results conclusively show that corticosteroids are associated with significant progression of knee osteoarthritis up to two years post-injection and must be administered with caution,” Dr. Upadhyay Bharadwaj said. “Hyaluronic acid, on the other hand, may slow down progression of knee osteoarthritis and alleviate long term effects while offering symptomatic relief.”

In the second study, researchers at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science conducted a case-control study comparing the radiographic progression of osteoarthritis in patients who received injections of corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid.

“While these injections provide some patients with short-term pain relief, the effects of the injections on the progression of the disease are unknown,” said researcher and medical student Azad Darbandi.

Darbandi’s team selected a cohort of 150 patients with similar baseline characteristics from the Osteoarthritis Initiative database, including 50 patients who received corticosteroid injections, 50 who received hyaluronic acid injections, and 50 who were not injected over a 36-month time period. The groups were matched by sex, body mass index and X-ray findings.

Patients underwent X-ray imaging of the knee at baseline and two years later. The researchers analyzed the X-ray imaging, including joint space narrowing, formation of bone spurs, and bone thickening around the knee cartilage.

Compared to patients who received an injection of hyaluronic acid or no treatment at all, patients injected with corticosteroids had significantly more osteoarthritis progression, including medial joint space narrowing, a hallmark of the disease.

“Even though imaging findings for all patients were similar at baseline, the imaging hallmarks of osteoarthritis were worse two years later in patients who received corticosteroid injections compared to patients who received hyaluronic acid injections or no treatment at all,” Darbandi said. “The results suggest that hyaluronic acid injections should be further explored for the management of knee osteoarthritis symptoms, and that steroid injections should be utilized with more caution.”

“Knowing the long-term effects of these injections will help osteoarthritis patients and clinicians make more informed decisions for managing the disease and the pain it causes,” Dr. Upadhyay Bharadwaj added.

Dr. Upadhyay Bharadwaj’s co-authors are Thomas Link, M.D., Ph.D., Zehra Akkaya, Gabby Joseph, John Lynch, Ph.D., and Paula Giesler. Darbandi’s co-authors are Sean Hormozian, Atefe Pooyan, M.D., Ehsan Alipour, M.D., Firoozeh Shomal Zadeh, M.D., Parham Pezeshk, M.D., and Majid Chalian, M.D.

Source:

Radiological Society of North America

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Health

Steroid injections may make arthritis WORSE, studies show 

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Steroid injections used to treat arthritis in the knee may actually make the condition worse, two studies suggest.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Chicago Medical School gathered data from hundreds of osteoarthritis patients to gauge how their condition would react to the shots.

Between both studies, 94 patients who received corticosteroids — anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat a variety of medical conditions — saw their condition deteriorate.

Those who received hyaluronic acid injections, a naturally produced substance that lubricates the joints, saw the progress of their condition slow.

Previous research suggests corticosteroids may damage cartilage in a joint and make it more susceptible to wearing down, leaving patients needing hip or knee replacements.

More than 32.5million adults in the US have knee arthritis, with approximately 80 per cent of adults over 55 years old having evidence of the condition.

More than one in ten of these patients opt to get corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections to relieve their pain.

The above shows the knee joint of a patient with arthritis (left), with the arrows indicating where cartilage has been worn away. The other (right) shows a patient who does not have arthritis

In the first study — to be presented Monday at the Radiological Society of North America — researchers in California analyzed two years of data for 210 patients with osteoarthritis in the knees.

More than half the group — 140 people — did not get the injections during this time.

Among the rest, 44 were injected with corticosteroids, while 26 were injected with hyaluronic acid.

WHAT IS OSTEOARTHRITIS? 

Osteoarthritis – sometimes called ‘wear and tear’ – is a condition that occurs when the surfaces within joints become damaged.

Cartilage covering the ends of bones gradually thin over time, and the bone thickens, according to Versus Arthritis.

Around a third of people aged 45 years and over in the UK suffer from the condition. This equates to roughly 8.75 million people. At least 20 million are known to suffer in the US.

It is different to rheumatoid arthritis, a long-term illness in which the immune system causes the body to attack itself, causing painful, swollen and stiff joints.

Replacement joints are often necessary for osteoarthritis patients, because the joint has been worn down and causes agonizing pain.

 

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Corticosteroids reduce the activity of white blood cells and stop the immune system from causing the painful inflammation.

Hyaluronic acid is naturally found in the fluid of a person’s eyes and joints.

It acts as lubrication for the joints, helping mitigate pain when they are used. 

All were matched by age, sex, body mass index, pain and physical activity scores and severity of disease.

MRIs were done two years before treatment, at the time of treatment and two years later, with scans scored for arthritis progression.

Analysis showed those who got corticosteroid injections had significantly faster arthritis progression compared to the other groups.

The hyaluronic acid treatment group, however, showed a decreased progression of osteoarthritis compared to those who got no treatment.

Dr Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj, a radiologist at UCSF who led the study, said: ‘While both corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections are reported to help with symptomatic pain relief for knee osteoarthritis, our results conclusively show that corticosteroids are associated with significant progression of knee osteoarthritis up to two years post-injection and must be administered with caution.

‘Hyaluronic acid, on the other hand, may slow down progression of knee osteoarthritis and alleviate long term effects while offering symptomatic relief.’

He added that this was the first study directly comparing the two treatments using these types of MRI scans. 

In the second study from researchers in Chicago, data was analyzed on 150 patients who were monitored for a 36-month period.

The group was evenly split between people who got no injections, hyaluronic injections and corticosteroid injections. They were also matched by sex, body mass index and X-ray findings.

Patients underwent an X-ray when injections were administered and two years later, with each scored for progression of the disease.

Those who got the corticosteroid injections had significantly more osteoporosis progression two years later, results showed.

But those who got hyaluronic acid injections or no treatment at all did not have as rapid deterioration.  

Azard Darbandi, a medical student at Chicago who led the research, said: ‘The imaging hallmarks of osteoarthritis were worse two years later in patients who received corticosteroid injections compared to patients who received hyaluronic acid injections or no treatment at all.

‘The results suggest that hyaluronic acid injections should be further explored for the management of knee osteoarthritis symptoms, and that steroid injections should be utilized with more caution.’

Patients may opt to get corticosteroid injections in the knee to provide short-term pain relief against arthritis.

But over the longer term these studies suggest that they can actually lead to more rapid deterioration in the joints, prompting more pain. 

Participants were recruited from the Osteoarthritis Initiative which is an observational study of nearly 5,000 patients. It is now in its 14th year.

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Sports

J.C. Mejia of Milwaukee Brewers banned 80 games after testing positive for the steroid Stanozolol

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NEW YORK — Milwaukee pitcher J.C. Mejia was suspended for 80 games on Tuesday following a positive test for the performance-enhancing substance Stanozolol, the second Brewers player disciplined this season under Major League Baseball’s drug program.

A 25-year-old right-hander acquired from Cleveland in November, Mejía had a 23.14 ERA during a pair of relief appearances for the Brewers on May 11 and 14. He had a 0.84 ERA in nine games with Triple-A Nashville.

Stanozolol is a synthetic steroid derived from testosterone.

“These mistakes have consequences,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Tuesday before his team’s home game against the Atlanta Braves. “It costs him a chance to establish himself as a major league pitcher. He’s got to take this opportunity, use the time to make himself better and see what that brings in August, July or whenever this suspension is completed.”

The penalty comes after Brewers catcher Pedro Severino was suspended for 80 games on April 5 following a positive test for the performance-enhancing substance Clomiphene, a women’s fertility drug used by some athletes to counter side effects of steroids use.

“These are unfortunate situations,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “I think every situation is unique, but it’s certainly unfortunate for the team and its unfortunate for the individual when this happens.”

Mejía made his major league debut with the Indians on May 21 last year and went 1-7 with a 8.25 ERA in 11 starts and six relief appearances.

He was placed on the restricted list Tuesday and will lose about half his salary. His contract calls for him to earn $701,900 while in the major leagues and $160,800 while in the minors.

Milwaukee replaced Mejía by selecting the contract of right-hander Trevor Kelley from Triple-A Nashville.

Mejía and Baltimore pitcher Matt Harvey, who was suspended for 60 games on Tuesday for drug distribution, raised to six the number of players suspended this year under the major league drug program.

Three free agents were suspended for 80 games on April 4 following positive tests for Boldenone: outfielder/first baseman Danny Santana, pitcher Richard Rodríguez and infielder José Rondón. Those were the first suspensions since the major league drug testing program resumed March 11 following a 99-day suspension during the lockout.

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