Word: bechler
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Steven Bechler wasn't a great pitcher, but he may change baseball forever. Bechler, 23, fell ill Feb. 16 during a workout at Fort Lauderdale Stadium in Florida, where he was hoping to be picked up for a second season by the Baltimore Orioles. The next morning he died of complications from heatstroke. The story may have ended there--a private tragedy for Bechler's family, including his pregnant wife. But Dr. Joshua Perper, the medical examiner who autopsied Bechler, used the righthander's death to call for a crusade. After finding a weight-loss supplement in Bechler's stomach...
...conventional wisdom that hardens so quickly often needs to be reviewed in slo-mo. No one is sure whether ephedra killed Bechler. Toxicology studies that will show how the various chemicals in the herb behaved in his system won't be completed for two weeks. "The impact of ephedra on temperature is minimal and therefore could not have been a primary factor, in my view," says Richard Kreider, president of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists...
More broadly, ephedra science is a fledgling, uncertain field: doctors can't say definitively that the plant is dangerous, especially when taken appropriately (Bechler took three pills, not the recommended two). Last summer the Bush Administration commissioned a major Rand study of ephedra, which should provide more answers when it is published this spring...
What is clear now is that for personal medical reasons, Bechler probably shouldn't have taken the ephedra pills he was on, Xenadrine RFA-1. The label says potential users should "consult a physician ... before using this product if you are at risk of" 18 conditions, including high blood pressure and liver disease. Perper told TIME that Bechler would have known from a medical exam three days before he died that he had borderline high blood pressure. Two years ago, Perper says, Bechler had a liver test that showed abnormal results. It's unclear whether Bechler consulted anyone before taking...
Many athletes swallow the herb to give them an energy boost; it increases blood pressure and heart rate. Bechler apparently wanted that boost because he had gained 10 lbs. and because he knew he needed to hustle to make the team. (In the three games he pitched last year, he gave up three homers.) Many major leaguers told reporters last week that they take ephedra to improve performance. "It's a good supplement if taken right," Bechler's teammate Jay Gibbons told the Baltimore...