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School: Doctor destroyed records after player's death June 3, 2003 SportsLine.com wire reports CHICAGO -- A Northwestern University doctor destroyed records of a routine physical exam of a football player who died three weeks later during practice, the school said Tuesday. The doctor, Mark Gardner, also indicated he knew Rashidi Wheeler had been taking dietary supplements, according to a deposition taken in a lawsuit Wheeler's family filed against Northwestern, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday. School lawyers contend ephedra-containing supplements caused the player's death in 2001. "The destruction of medical records obviously is against university policy, and that destruction was done...

CHICAGO - Thousands of people die every year from overdoses of drugs such as heroin and cocaine, which is an intolerable state of affairs. So here's an idea: Let's outlaw heroin and cocaine. Whoops. We already did that, didn't we? And people kept snorting, smoking or injecting them anyway, despite the risks. Prohibiting a substance is not a cure-all. That's worth remembering when politicians demand that the federal government and Major League Baseball ban ephedra, the herbal stimulant blamed for the death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The widow of Steve Bechler plans to sue the manufacturer of a dietary supplement the Baltimore Orioles (news) pitcher was believed to be taking before his death. Bechler, 23, died Feb. 17 from heatstroke after collapsing during a workout at training camp. In his preliminary autopsy report, Broward County chief medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper linked Bechler's death to a diet supplement that contains ephedra. A bottle of Xenadrine RFA-1, an over-the-counter weight-loss product containing ephedra, was found in Bechler's locker after he collapsed. "The way we see it, Steve Bechler is dead, and ephedra is...

Two years ago, a young organ transplant doctor told me a harrowing story. Recently he had stood by and watched helplessly as a 15-year-old African-American girl died from an enlarged heart. A transplant might have saved her, but high blood pressure, diabetes, and a body mass of more than 400 pounds made surgery impossible. The memory haunted him as he continued to treat more and more children experiencing the deadly effects of chronic obesity. Mostly poor black kids, they marched through his office suffering from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, enlarged hearts, and adult-onset diabetes that promised to fill their...

<p>California youths will be banned from purchasing ephedra, a controversial weight-loss product, under a bill Gov. Gray Davis signed Friday, two years after he vetoed a weaker measure to regulate the substance.</p> <p>Available without a prescription, ephedra has drawn concerns from parents and health experts who say it can prompt seizures and even lead to death.</p>

<p>Sacramento -- A day after the federal government opened a criminal probe into a California company that makes the diet drug ephedra, Gov. Gray Davis reversed his position and said the popular supplement should be regulated.</p> <p>Davis, who has collected more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Metabolife International Inc. since he became governor, sent a letter Friday to federal regulators saying he now plans to sign legislation regulating the drug.</p>

<p>The famously drug-free Mormons, who have long abstained from tea and coffee, instead used to drink a beverage made from a desert plant called ephedra. The National Football League is determined not to let its players — who make a living by slamming into each other and getting knocked to the ground — behave so recklessly.</p>