Farrar

H-SC Journal of Sciences (2016) Vol. V Farrar Performance Enhancing Drugs: Usage & Consequences

Jacob M. Farrar '16
Department of Biology, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943
Athletes devote a great deal of time and effort to substance or method meets any two of the their sports. Being a top athlete requires hours following three criteria: It has the potential to of daily training and an intense focus and will. enhance or enhances sport performance, It Athletes invest themselves in their sports and represents an actual or potential health risk to want to see their investments pay off. They want the athlete, It violates the spirit of sport" to win. Of course, training daily improves the chances of winning, but some athletes are willing to go further than that. In 1997, Sports A Brief History
Illustrated interviewed several top Olympic athletes and asked them the following question: "If you were given a performance enhancing methods have been used for a long time. substance and you would not be caught and Substances such as "Mushrooms, plants, and win, would you take it?" (Baron). An mixtures of wine and herbs were used by unbelievable 98% said that they would (Baron). ancient Greek Olympic athletes and Roman Even more shocking were the responses to the gladiators competing in Circus Maximus dating following question: "If you were given a back to 776 BC" (Baron). Additionally, "various performance enhancing substance and you plants were used for their stimulant effects in would not be caught, win all competitions for 5 speed and endurance events as well as to mask years, then die, would you take it?" (Baron). pain, allowing injured athletes to continue competing" (Baron). respondents said that they would (Baron). To some athletes, winning is apparently more In the early 1900s, Olympic marathon runners valuable than life itself. began abusing drugs to enhance their performance through "mixtures of strychnine, What Is a Performance Enhancing Drug and
heroin, cocaine, and caffeine" (Baron) These Why Are They Banned?
mixtures, developed by the coach or team, were widely used amongst athletes (Baron). In the A performance enhancing drug (PED) makes 1950s, the Soviet Olympic team began using feats of athleticism possible that otherwise might synthetic testosterone to enhance strength not have been. The World Anti-Doping Agency, (Baron). This sparked the United States' the agency responsible for creating the list of interest, and the coach of the Olympic weight banned substances for the Olympics, states that lifting team began working with a pharmaceutical PEDs are substances that "have the ability or company. Their efforts lead to the development potential to drastically alter the human body and of the steroid danazol (Baron). In Soviet biological functions, including the ability to controlled East Germany, the East German considerably improve athletic performance in government administered steroids and other certain instances" (USADA). drugs to young athletes, yielding "a crop of gold medalists" (Baron). A list of banned substances The United States Anti-Doping Agency claims in the Olympics was finally established in 1967, that "The negative effects [PEDs] can have on by the International Olympic Committee medical one's body make USADA's mission paramount commission (Baron). as to why no athlete should ever have to consider PED use to succeed in sport" Today, PED use is widespread. According to (USADA). In addition to this, the real fact is that one expert, there is "an over 100 million US most PEDs are controlled substances in the first dollar black market for steroids in the US alone, place. Steroids, EPO, and hGH are all controlled with more than 80% manufactured in Mexico" substances that are regulated by the federal (Baron). Additionally, the projection of "these government. According to the World Anti- figures internationally suggests that the illegal Doping Agency, "a substance or method will be steroid market alone approaches a billion US considered for the WADA Prohibited List if the dollars annually, clearly making it a public health H-SC Journal of Sciences (2016) Vol. V Farrar concern, especially for at-risk groups" (Baron). Who Uses PEDs?
These numbers do not even take into account drugs like hGH and EPO, which are the other Studies have shown that PED use is not limited top-two most frequently abused PEDs (Baron). to professional athletes (Baron). Use has "spread to health clubs, high schools and other How Much Can Performance Be Enhanced?
at-risk populations, creating an over $1.4 billion US dollar industry that is growing daily as new The success of Arnold Schwarzenegger in compounds are synthesized and marketed" bodybuilding was, although impressive, tainted (Baron). The use of steroids has spread to by the fact that some of his success was adolescents in particular. attributed to anabolic steroid use. I wanted to know just how much of that success was due to A study in the 1980s that examined a group of drugs and how much was due to his training. high school seniors indicated that "6.6% of There is a problem in figuring this out—due to respondents had used steroids and more than the vast number of harmful side-effects of two-thirds of the group started using steroids anabolic steroid use, it would be unethical to when they were 16 years old or younger" perform clinical evaluations. As a result, there is (Baron). A similar study of college men found little to no data available that describes the that 2% reported steroid use. Interestingly, 25% strength or lean muscle gains associated with of the respondents that indicated steroid use steroid use, and this is the case for most drugs. were not athletes (Baron). Those respondents "abused There is, however, one athlete's career on which appearance, a problem that continues today and we can speculate the effect of PEDs: Lance is fueled by the media and the "anti-aging" Armstrong. Armstrong, the seven-time winner of marketing (Baron). the Tour De France, admitted to using several different PEDs, including erythropoietin, or EPO More recent data has shown more promising (Wilson). EPO is a hormone that induces the trends. A 2014 study performed by the National production of red blood cells, and in doing so, Institute of Health examined steroid use in a increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the sample of over 40,000 students across more blood (Cleveland Clinic). So, did he really win than 370 schools. The data from this study can those titles due to his blood doping? be found in the table below (data is presented in In 1987, a study was performed that examined the effects of reinjection of autologous blood in Graders Graders Graders
reinjection involves the removal and later reinfusion of one's own blood, producing the Steroids Lifetime 1.00 same results as administration of EPO (Leigh-Smith). This process can lead to an increase of red blood cell mass of up to 10%. This is an enormous increase, as an increase of 5% can take many months of intense training (Leigh-Smith). At the start of the study, the control group and the treatment group of skiers each had the same average completion time on a ski course. Only 3 hours after treatment with autologous reinjection of blood, the treated group was able to complete the ski course in 94.1% of the time that it took the control group to Really? That's a PED?
finish (Hemmingson). These results are fairly significant, and based on them I think it is fair to Not all performance enhancing drugs are as say that blood doping definitely gave Armstrong effective or easily identified as drugs like a big edge over his competition (assuming the anabolic steroids or EPO. One look at a list of other competitors were not doping). the substances banned by the PGA would probably prompt one to ask a few questions. The PGA banned substance list is one of the better lists to examine since along with listing H-SC Journal of Sciences (2016) Vol. V Farrar the banned substance it also explains why/how A Gray Area
it could be used to enhance performance. Consider the following scenario: A professional Although it is illegal anyway, the PGA does football player severely sprains his ankle and regard marijuana as a PED. It is a well-known can no longer move freely without intense pain. fact that smoking marijuana produces a "high", When he visits the doctor, the doctor offers him but the PGA claims that "some athletes have a shot of cortisone to reduce pain and used cannabinoids to decrease anxiety before a inflammation, as well as return him to playing competition" (PGA, 34). Whether or not the sooner. The player gladly accepts and is able to anxiety reducing effects outweigh its effects on return to playing significantly earlier than he focus and motor skills is up for debate. otherwise would have. Interestingly, it turns out that if you are a In this instance, the athlete's performance was professional golfer, aside from avoiding clearly increased by the administration of this marijuana use, you need to be careful of what drug. Without administration of the drug during kind of allergy medication you take since: the same period of time, his performance would have been significantly lower. Additionally, it "Prohibited stimulants are sometimes present in turns out that the injection of corticosteroids near over-the-counter substances such as cold tendons leads to an increased risk of tendon medications, dietary supplements, diet aids and rupture (Soft tissue). It would appear as though headache remedies. The U.S. Food and Drug the use of cortisone is a grey area, left to the Administration (FDA) has placed control on the discretion of the doctors who administer them sales of ephedrine. There are still substances and the acknowledgement of the risks by the that require caution, such as the presence of players who receive them. This is a rare levmetamfetamine in Vicks Vapor Inhaler, instance; most sports have banned every kind of ephedrine in Bronkaid and Primatene tablets, imaginable substance and method that an and epinephrine in Primatene Mist. Over-the- athlete could use to gain an unfair edge. counter medications that contain prohibited substances continue to be available."(PGA) References
Supplements
"Monitoring the Future." National Institute on Drug Abuse. National Institute of Health, Jan. It is valuable to mention dietary supplements 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. when discussing PEDs. Supplements create an interesting dilemma for athletes. Dietary PGA TOUR Anti-Doping Program Manual. N.p.: supplements are not regulated by the FDA and PGA Tour, n.d. PDF. as such may contain ingredients that are inconsistent with the label (USADA). The US Baron DA, Martin DM, and Abolmagd S. "Doping in Sports and Its Spread to at-Risk Populations: possibilities include: An International Review." World Psychiatry 6.2 (2007): 118–123. Print. 1. "The label lists a stimulant or steroid, but when USADA tests the product, that Leigh-Smith, S. "Blood Boosting." British Journal ingredient is not actually in there. of Sports Medicine 38.1 (2004): 99-101. Web. 2. The label lists ingredients that are fine (not prohibited), but testing shows the product contains a stimulant or steroid Hemmingson, Berglund. "Effect of Reinfusion of that is prohibited in sport. Autologous Blood on Exercise Performance in 3. Repeat testing of different batches of Cross-country Skiers." International Journal of the same product do not match (provide Sports Medicine 8.3 (1987): 231-33. Europe Pub consistent results)." (USADA). Med Central. Europe PMC Funders' Group. Web. 14 Nov. 2015. As a result, athletes are "taking a risk by using the label to determine what is in the product" "Erythropoietin Stimulating Agents." Cleveland (USADA). Any supplement could contain a PED, Clinic. Cleveland Clinic, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2015. and an athlete could unknowingly break a rule by using them. H-SC Journal of Sciences (2016) Vol. V Farrar Wilson, Jacque. "Lance Armstrong's Doping Drugs - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2015. "Drug Policies." NFL Players Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2015. U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Source: http://blogs.hsc.edu/sciencejournal/files/2016/03/Farrar1.pdf