Agassi’s drug revelations smack of cynical ploy – Yahoo! News

PARIS – Imagined conversation between literary agent and retired tennis megastar with a dirty secret: “You want to get richer with me?”

“How?”

“With ker-plunk.”

“What the hell’s ker-plunk?”

“A tell-all autobiography.”

“Why do they call it ker-plunk?”

“Because that’s the sound the dollars make as they drop into our bank accounts.”

Should we be surprised that Andre Agassi now tells us, 12 years after the fact, that he snorted crystal meth when his life and tennis were at a low? Absolutely not. You could fill a rehab center with all the top athletes who succumbed over the years to cocaine, weed, alcohol, binge-eating and the rest.

But we are entitled to feel manipulated by the manner in which Agassi’s sordid confessions are being dished out — in tantalizing — even addictive? — little doses that will likely have readers, mugs that they are, heading for stores and hungry for more.

Was that taster good? Now buy the whole dose.

In the same way that Agassi’s assistant Slim cut and readied “a small pile of powder on the coffee table,” choice morsels from “Open: An Autobiography” — on sale Nov. 9, folks! — have been sliced, diced and pushed on us.

“Andre Agassi reveals his drugs shame,” “sensational confession,” the Times of London trumpeted, among four publications that paid for rights to headline-grabbing excerpts.

“Slim is stressed,” read the juiciest part of the Times’ extract. “He says, ‘You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell’s gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high … Make you feel like Superman, dude.’”

Get that, kids?

Agassi took crystal meth and still won five more Grand Slams, reclaimed the No. 1 ranking, wed Steffi Graf and tugged heartstrings with his tearful 2006 adieu to pro tennis at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

So either counselors have been overdoing their warnings that crank, ice — call it what you will — is one of the most addictive and ruinous drugs out there. Or, more likely, it’s simply easier to kick the habit when you’re rich enough to hire personal trainers to beat you back into shape and not living in misery with no future beyond your next high.

In short, was Agassi’s drug-taking really worth sharing because it offers a universal and valuable lesson about how mistakes can be corrected? Or, mindful of its potential impact on those who look up to him, should he have kept this to himself?

The Times’ excerpts don’t really allow us to answer those questions. Guess we’ll have to buy the book. Instead, the message that comes across loudest is that crystal meth seems pretty fabulous. Too bad it makes your teeth fall out.

“A tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy,” Agassi says.

Perhaps recalling this high was cathartic for Agassi, but lacing his account with a bit more soul-searching might have been more educational.

As International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge noted, “If his admission would go together with the message to young athletes that it should not be repeated, then that would be useful.”

Equally disturbing is Agassi’s revelation that he failed a drug test but escaped sanction by telling a dog-ate-my-homework lie to the ATP that he “drank accidentally” from a beverage that Slim had spiked, “unwittingly ingesting his drugs.”

Question for those who run tennis: How many other stars were let off the hook like this? If Agassi, by then a three-time Grand Slam winner, hadn’t been such a crowd-pleaser, would he have been punished?

The year Agassi snorted was also the first to see a tennis player suspended for drug use. But who had ever heard of Ignacio Truyol of Spain, ranked No. 127 and convicted for a steroid and a stimulant?

Given retired players’ subsequent autobiographical confessions about how they toked and sniffed, it now seems a glaring failure that the sport didn’t clean house as vigorously as Agassi says he did on meth’s high, tearing around dusting his furniture, scouring his tub and making his beds.

Bidding among publishers competing for Agassi’s memoir reportedly topped $5 million — more in line with what a former U.S. president might expect — when Alfred A. Knopf acquired the rights in 2007.

“White House money,” a rival publisher, David Hirshey of HarperCollins, said at the time.

Now drip-drip-dripped excerpts are creating pre-sale buzz.

Maybe money from the book will go to one of Agassi’s philanthropic endeavors. Having earned more than $31 million in career prize money, perhaps cash wasn’t his motivation for this at all.

But if not, then, as with drugs, don’t be taken in.

____

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org

When a friend or loved one need drug intervention it is hard to find the right one to find. With the fact that many insurance either only covers part of the cost or none at all, it is important to find low cost drug rehab centers. Even though drug rehab centers can still be expensive, it will cost much less in the long run. While there is no guarantee that one program will work 100%, it is far less expensive than the time lost by addiction, medical expenses, not including the loss of money and possible criminal actions.

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There are pay as you go services, where a loved one can pay for each service as it comes up. Low cost drug rehab centers each have their own polices when it comes to payment plans, from sliding scale applicants and a few that may even allow monthly payments. Check with each center to find out which of their plans may suite your needs.

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Mesotherapy vs. Cellulite For A Knockout
 by: Barry Lycka, M.D.

In the battle to look good, there’s a cosmetic treatment that is going a few rounds with cellulite and small fatty deposits. Mesotherapy is knocking out fat and rejuvenating skin in people who give it a try. Chances are you’re doing everything that you can to cut away cellulite and small fatty deposits. You’re watching what you eat. You’re using creams and lotions. But, nothing is working, right? Well, that’s because cellulite is the heavy-hitting problem facing men and women alike. It is one of the hardest cosmetic problems to get rid of!

Gweneth Lowe is the mother of two children. She has been in the ring with fat for about five years. She works out in a gym three times a week for an hour. Still, she could not get rid of the fat in her problem area. Her thighs. 10 sessions with mesotherapy has given her the relief she’s been working out for. Lowe says, “I’ve lost about three inches from my hips. My thighs have shrunk. I’m down to a dress size 6 and loving it!”

Lowe gained her weight and cellulite after having babies. However, doctors believe cellulite and small fatty deposits affects more than 90% of post-puberty women. Wow, I bet you can’t believe it affects so many people! We don’t have any accurate data on the number of men who suffer from it. Men just don’t complain about it as much as women. Cellulite and small fatty deposits are seen as a “ladies problem.” You can find the extra fat most commonly on the butt, hips, and legs. Overweight people are not the only ones affected by it. Skinny people can have cellulite and small fatty deposits as well.

You’ll definitely know cellulite when you see it. It gives the surface of the skin a lumpy often-dimpled affect. Cellulite forms due to water retention in fat cells. The fat cells are surrounded by tissue. The tissue hardens forming a sclerosis. The result is the cottage cheese appearance on the outward layer of the skin. And fatty deposits form because of genetics. It’s not your fault you have them. Mesotherapy helps to get rid of the fat to sculpt your body where it’s needed.

More and more physicians are putting their money on mesotherapy as a viable means to fight cellulite and excess fat. Mesotherapy has been used in France for years. Dr. Michel Pistor invented it in 1952. However, the treatments popularity is just now coming to the forefront as a safe and effective cosmetic treatment. And it is used in dozens of countries by thousands of trained practitioners.

You may be wondering exactly how does mesotherapy work? It’s quite easy. Let’s look at the procedure.

The treatment sessions take only a few minutes. However, you may need several injections over the course of several weeks. Fortunately, the needle that is used is tiny. Doctors’ estimate that four to ten sessions is enough to block your ability to store fat and stimulates your ability to burn it up. The drugs are injected into the middle layer of the skin called the mesoderm. That’s where mesotherapy gets its name.

The drugs work together to break down fat faster than any other method. A licensed practitioner puts medication and vitamins into the middle layer of the skin using microinjections. The medicine helps to reshape the body. A single mesotherapy session can cost as much as $500 because of the amount of drugs that are used. The treatment uses drugs that are commonly used for asthma and high blood pressure.

Vitamins and supplements are also used to knock out the fat. Two drugs in particular are already approved by the FDA for use in other procedures. One of the medications is an asthma drug called aminophylline. A cardiac drug called Isopreteranol is also used on a widespread basis. Here’s two other commonly used medications that are injected into your system. They’re called phosphatidylcholine and sodium deoxycholate..

As I mentioned, you may have to go through at least three to five sessions before you see any results. The number of treatments depends on several factors including, the severity of the condition and the cause of the problem. Mesotherapy helps to improve the body in many ways. It improves blood flow to the area that’s being treated. It dissolves excess fat deposits, removes hardened tissue and improves lymphatic drainage.

Now that you know how mesotherapy works, you’re probably wondering how safe is it? It’s safe according to the doctors and researchers who have trained in it. However some doctors are concerned about the concoction of drugs that are used together to eat away at the cellulite and small fatty deposits. Some say that the Food and Drug Administration should approve all the drugs that are used for use together. So far, they are approved for use apart. And a medical doctor is licensed to use medications as he/she sees fit.

A second concern is what happens to the fatty acids if they are not burned off? Where are they going? The ideal situation is for the fatty acids to burn off. However, a problem could arise if the fatty acids go directly into other tissue. This could lead to damage in the other tissue increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Fortunately, none of these concerns have materialized despite hundreds of millions of treatments done around the globe. No wonder- for people like Gweneth Lowe the benefits far outweigh the concerns. She says, “I’m just happy to get rid of the excess fat. I eat right. I see my doctor on a regular basis for checkups. I’m happy with the results.” You could be too! Mesotherapy gives you a viable option if you want to get rid of cellulite and small fatty deposits.

About The Author

Dr. Barry Lycka is an internationally known cosmetic dermatologist and surgeon who practices in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where he has worked from 1989. Recently, Dr. Lycka was chosen as Alberta’s Dream Makeover Doctor. For more information you can visit his website at http://www.BarryLyckaMD.com.

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