Upset Stomachs in the NBA

This is the story of two NBA point guards. Both were drafted the same year, both were contenders for Rookie of the Year (guy on left got it), and both are blaming food and drink for current bodily woes.

Beast

There he is, point guard of the hour #1. Thursday Derek Rose announced that he had stomach ulcers caused from eating too much spicy food. Friday night he played anyway, for 38 minutes and 22 points.

Did he really have stomach ulcers or was he faking it? And if so, were they really caused by spicy food?

He probably wasn’t lying. He’s just a beast. There are three main parts of the intestinal track in which ulcers originate—the esophagus (called an esophageal ulcer), the stomach (a gastric ulcer) and the most common, the duodenum (a duodenal ulcer). The duodenum is the upper part of the small intestine. Most often, a bacteria called helicobacter pylori colonizes the duodenum, over-stimulating the production of gastric acid. Gastric acid is necessary for digestion, but too much of it causes a depletion in the duodenum’s protective mucus layer.

GROSS, RIGHT? Here’s a friendlier image of what's happening:



So, Rose’s ulcer could have been duodenal and caused by the cutie at left. Awww.






HOWEVER, he’s a professional athlete…under a lot of bodily stress…couldn’t NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) be partly to blame? Yes. NSAIDs such as asprin or Ibuprophen can inhibit the the stomach’s secretion of its protective mucus lining. The ulcer would be gastral, not duodenal. The likelyhood that NSAIDs were to blame depends on whether Rose has chronic pain.

There’s always a chance it could have been the spicy food. I’m not his doctor.

As for the other bballer: O.J. Mayo (O.J. jokes withheld) was recently suspended for ten games for testing positive for the performing-enhancing drug dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA. Though he was drafted the same year as Rose, Mayo’s career has not launched in the same fashion. This season in particular has been riddled with off-court drama and the loss of his starting position.

The NBA suspension announcement came Thursday (about the same time Rose was in the worst pain); Mayo announced Saturday that the performance-enhancing drug must’ve been in an energy drink he bought at a gas station. Is this possible? And/or likely?

No idea. DHEA exists organically in the human body; it is secreted by the andrenal glands (part of the hormone-information-sharing endocrine system, located above the kidneys) and the brain. Studies have shown that supplementation of DHEA doesn’t have too significant of an impact on performance and sometimes even elevates the levels of estrogen instead of the intended testosterone.

Thus, it is entirely possible that he did just get punked by the energy drink people. God knows those things contain everything under the kitchen sink…



Parties like a rock star. (Especially during his USC years.)