Tiger Woods’ Doctor Being Investigated
December 15, 2009 by showbizadmin
Filed under Dr. Anthony Galea, Tiger Woods
Just when Tiger thought it couldn’t get any worse another story linked to the superstar has surfaced but this time it is not about his bad behaviour. Seems his doctor is causing the stir.
Dr. Anthony Galea, a Canadian doctor who treated athletes like golfer Tiger Woods, the runner Donovan Bailey, the skater Patrick Chan as well as players of the National Football League (NFL), is being investigated by the FBI.
Reports are now circulating that Dr. Galea is suspected by the FBI of having provided substances to increase performance.
According to the newspaper, human growth hormone and Actovegin, a product illegal in the United States, were found in Galea`s baggage at the US-Canadian border in September.
He is also under investigation in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) suspect him of traffic, advertising and sale of unapproved drugs, as well as criminal conspiracy. The doctor was arrested at Toronto, October 15.
He must appear in court in Toronto on Friday.
Galea and his lawyer say his innovative treatments do not break any laws or violate anti-doping rules in sport. Galea has developed a reputation among elite athletes for accelerating recovery after surgery or for helping them avoid surgery altogether by using a blood-spinning technique known as platelet-rich plasma therapy, as well as other pioneering procedures, on knees, elbows and Achilles’ tendons.
Although he said he prescribed human growth hormone to some patients in his general practice and had used it himself for 10 years, Galea, 50, said in an interview that he had never treated professional athletes with HGH.
Woods apparently contacted because of the slow pace of Woods’s rehabilitation after knee surgery in June 2008. The doctor said he flew to Orlando at least four times to give Woods the platelet therapy at his home in Windemere, Fla., in February and March of this year.
Galea’s legal problems began in late September when his assistant was stopped entering the United States from Canada. Her car was searched by border-crossing guards and authorities found Galea’s medical bag, which contained four drugs, including human growth hormone, Galea said. “It was for my own use,” he said. His computer and a sonogram machine were seized.
Federal investigators in the United States are basing their investigation, in part, on medical information found on Galea’s laptop relating to several professional athletes he treated. Galea said “it would be impossible” for the authorities to have found information linking any of his athletes to performance-enhancing drugs.
On Oct. 15, the Canadian police raided Galea’s clinic, the ISM Health & Wellness Centre in Toronto. Sgt. Marc LaPorte, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Galea was arrested and released the same day after questioning. Greenspan said court documents, which are not public under Canadian law, show that his client faces three charges, one under Canada’s food and drugs act, one under the customs act and a conspiracy charge under the criminal code. The customs and the drug charges relate to the misrepresentation of goods and drugs.
As part of his practice, Galea said he prescribes human growth hormone to patients 40 and over to improve their stamina when working out and to combat fatigue among other health benefits.
Prescribing human growth hormone is legal in Canada but approved in the United States only for a few specific uses that do not include hastening recovery from surgery or injury. In the world of sports, under World Anti-Doping Association guidelines, HGH is banned though rarely tested for because it requires a blood test. The NFL, the NHL, the NBA and Major League Baseball do not test for HGH.
Galea said he uses Actovegin to treat the injuries of some of his patients, including players on the Toronto Argonauts football team, where he has been the team doctor since 2004. Galea said he did not use Actovegin to treat Woods or other U.S. athletes.
Actovegin is a controversial drug that is not approved for sale in Canada and is being closely monitored, though not banned, by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It is essentially strained and purified calves’ blood, and is produced in Austria by Nycomed, a Swiss based company. Actovegin first came to the attention of antidoping authorities in the late 1990s when elite cyclists were found to be using it. Actovegin was tested by antidoping laboratories and no growth hormone or prohibited hormones were found,” said Frederic Donze, a spokesman for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is based in Montreal. “WADA, however, closely monitors Actovegin since we are aware of its use in some sports, possibly in conjunction with other substances that may be prohibited.”
In cycling, for example, some athletes apparently believe that it can accelerate the healing of injuries, especially tendon and muscle tears. Many leading antidoping experts, however, believe there is no benefit and all they get is a placebo effect.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has developed “intelligence” that athletes are using Actovegin to improve performance, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Usada asked the World Anti-Doping Agency to ban Actovegin this year but it declined.
Although he prescribes HGH and Actovegin in some cases, Galea said he never combines those drugs with his platelet-rich plasma injections.
His practice has become a regular destination for injured professional athletes, including NFL players who take red-eye flights on Monday nights for treatment on Tuesdays, their day off, because of the platelet-rich plasma methodology that he began using eight years ago. News of his arrest shocked many in the sports world, especially those who refer to him as “Miracle Man”.
The use of platelet-rich plasma therapy, which has become more prevalent in sports medicine in recent years, is believed by some doctors to dramatically speed up recovery times. Platelet-rich plasma is created by putting a small amount of the patient’s blood in a centrifuge, which separates the red blood cells from the platelets that release proteins and other particles involved in the body’s healing process. No more than a teaspoon of the substance is injected into the damaged area. In some cases, the high concentration of platelets — from 3 to 10 times that of normal blood — catalyzes the growth of new soft-tissue or bone cells.
The treatment catalyzes the body’s instincts to repair muscle and other tissue, said Allan Mishra, an assistant professor of orthopedics at Stanford University and one of the primary researchers in the field. Mishra and other doctors say that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibres.
But other doctors say that more research is needed before the therapy can be embraced as scientifically proven.
Galea said he treated Woods in his home four or five times with a borrowed centrifuge from an Orlando doctor. Each time, he said he drew blood from Woods, spun it to increase the platelets’ count and then injected a small amount directly into Woods’ left knee.
Galea said he flew to Orlando in early August and gave him PRP therapy for a final time.
In October, he said he heard again from Woods that his knee was still bothering him, “but all this stuff started with the investigation, and I couldn’t go see him.”
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