Is this really fair? (Saint's Thomas suspended for 'roids)

Did he just start taking the medicine? Wouldn't the league have said something before? I mean, it's not like he's a rookie who just appeared on the scene this year

The possibility of having a positive steroid test from inhaled steroids is virtually impossible for a few reasons. I say this as a physician and former asthma researcher.

Firstly, inhaled steroids for asthma have minimal systemic effects due to their absorption at the local level (the lungs) to provide better targeted therapy. Therefore, their detectable blood level is null, unless I suppose you inhaled a tremendous dosage, which in any case would not be a clinically feasible approach to treating asthma.

More importantly, steroids used in asthma treatment are related to a certain hormone, cortisol, and not androgens (like testosterone-another hormone), which are anabolic (muscle building). The steroid testing done in the NFL looks for sources of anabolic steroids and not those steroids used to treat asthma.

And I agree that it will bode well for the Skins' running attack to have him out for this game...

For argument's sake, what if Thomas just happened to use the Advair right before his drug test. Would it be possible that with it being fresh in his system, that it could trigger a false positive in the test?

I've taken Advair. Guess this explains why I'm not in the NFL.

Me too! And it explains why I am a 300 pound super athlete who can run a 4.3 40 and jump over the moon... (Actually, I am a skinny "vertically challenged" philosophy professor...but whatever ;) )

NYCSkin, would you say that the doctor probably stood up for Thomas because he also works for the saints?

NYC Skin--nice post--good to have some actual knowledge on the board...(not that everyone else isn't just FILLED with knowledge ;))

Question (don't answer if you are worried about liability--seriously): Are there documented long-term risks with Advair? It works great on controlling my asthma, but I am not so happy about putting any sort of steroid in my body for long periods of time. Thanks, and like I said--don't answer if it's a problem. (Am I hijacking this thread?)

For argument's sake, what if Thomas just happened to use the Advair right before his drug test. Would it be possible that with it being fresh in his system, that it could trigger a false positive in the test?
If the NFL was testing for these types of steroids, I believe that only oral asthma steroids would register in a blood test, not Advair or similar inhaled steroids.

So, it sounds like there are underlying things going on, and both Hollis Thomas and the Saints medical staff are using his asthma to cover up.

NYCSkin, would you say that the doctor probably stood up for Thomas because he also works for the saints?
Probably, but he surely must know his rationale is incorrect. The Saints could be using this for some damage control. Most of these team docs are orthopedic guys but they should still know basic immunology and asthma. If I were the team doc, I would have argued that he took an oral steroid for his asthma and attack the test for having some crossreactivity to these class of steroids. Still farfetched in my mind, but a bit more of a credible argument.

I'm so confused now, but I'm going to trust NYCSkin over John Clayton. Thanks for clarifying!

The league has a policy that others have been suspended for even though it was incidental. The doctors, player, team, should have consulted the NFL before they started him on these drugs that they knew had a ban substance. The doctor Amoss also used the word "possibility" which is not 100% and also leaves the door open to other causes for a positive test.