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Testing Athletes for Drug Use
Why do some “athletes” try to enhance their performances on the track and field by taking drugs?
In my naivety as a child I used to see athletes as superhuman beings, with abilities to perform acts of brilliance, until the 80’s when Ben Johnson was caught pumping his body with anabolic steroids. More recently of course is the shambles surrounding Dwain Chambers, whether you agree with his right to return to athletics or not (personally it’s a no way from me)
Today as a world wise physiotherapist, I don’t necessarily see all athletes as super human; however I do still believe that you can perform brilliantly, without the need to “assist” yourself illegally. I also understand how easy it is to occasionally take something and not really know what’s in it.
As a young athlete this may not be too important YET, but in your future it will be and as the old saying goes “to be fore warned is to be fore armed” (basically, you wont get caught out if you’re armed with all the information!!)
So here’s a little bit of information for the younger athletes, about the types of drugs out there, but also to highlight certain “drugs” that you may not have thought were illegal. This is not a comprehensive list, for further information go on the AAC, the IAAF, or the ASK FRANK web site.

Building Mass and Strength
Anabolic steroids
Beta-2 agonists
Human growth hormone (hGH)

Increasing Oxygen in Tissues
Protein Hormones (EPO)
Artificial Oxygen Carriers.
Blood Doping

Masking Pain
Sadly along with the “glory” of training to become a world-class athlete, injuries also follow. The body cannot endure stresses at a continuously high level; it will inevitably break down and require rest and rehabilitation. However, sometimes athletes try to mask their injury pain with drugs, for “just the next meeting / weekend / until the end of season (how many of you have said that???). Some athletes may then turn to chemical suppressants of their pain, including narcotics, protein hormones, cortisone and local anesthetics.
Narcotics
Narcotics are used to treat pain and include prescription types such as morphine and methadone or the illegal type such as heroin.
Protein Hormones
these are important in reducing inflammation in injuries and allergic responses, there the ones that work in the “fight or flight” situations, allowing the injured to react in a way that should be impossible due to their injuries. So, by using this drug to stimulate internal hormones, an athlete could mask an injury.
Cortisone
Cortisone is one of the above hormones. Medically it is injected to reduce inflammation in injuries and allergic responses, and is often the front line tool of choice for many General practitioners dealing with the “occasional athlete’s” pain. It is often used at high level competitions, however the decision is down to the medical staff there, and they have to decide if by injecting the area what benefits short and long term the athlete may have.
Local Anesthetics
These are often used in the same way as the cortisone injections, and sometimes at the same time, they are used to mask pain in the short-term without impairing mental abilities. They include novocaine, procaine, lidocaine and lignocaine. Athletes may use them so that they can continue to compete while injured. The major problem with their use is the possibility of further aggravating an injury, with any medication that masks the underlying cause not feeling it doesn’t mean it’s not still there

Stimulants, Relaxants and Weight Control
Occasionally to cope with stress, general fatigue and weight, some athletes may turn to stimulating, relaxing and weight controlling drugs. Hopefully this is more of a fictional view of what could be used rather than what is being used.
Relaxants
Relaxants come in various forms, including alcohol, prescription drugs such as beta-blockers, and cannabinoids such as marijuana.
Stimulants
caffeine Amphetamines cocaine
Weight Control
Diuretics are commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure and are often found in diet pills. Diuretics act on the kidney to increase the flow of urine. Diuretics may be used to mask the use of other drugs. Because they increase the amount of urine produced, they dilute the concentration of other drugs in the urine.
Masking Drug Use
As previously mentioned, diuretics can be used to reduce the presence of drugs in urine samples. Other compounds can be used to reduce the presence of banned substances in blood samples.
Epitestosterone
An injection of epitestosterone, lowers the ratio and may hide the use and abuse of testosterone.
Plasma Expanders
Athletes can use these substances to dilute the concentration of banned substances in their blood.
Secretion Inhibitors
Doctors use these inhibitors to treat gout. However, the drugs can be used to manipulate the results of urine drug tests.

Testing Athletes for Drug Use
The majority of drugs that can be used by athletes can be detected in samples of urine. An athlete is told by a drug control officer to submit a urine sample for testing. The sample is then sent to a laboratory for analysis and the results are reported back to the governing athletic agency. For some substances, blood samples may be required.
I would like to point out now that the above just gives an insight into the type of drugs out there, sadly there are many more being developed by drug companies on a daily bases. Thankfully so are the drugs tests to find them.
There are few statistics for the ratio of athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, and due to the lack of definitive world wide guidelines on the tests used and the punishment for being found guilty, it is a discussion that will run and run as we come closer to the next Olympic games.
I still believe athletes are super human being, some sadly fall from grace but the majority train to perfect techniques and skills that we mere mortals on the sidelines can only dream of. So if you’re ever in doubt remember that, somewhere out there is a child (or naïve adult!) that believes in you and your natural talent, so PLEASE keep it that way.

	Author:	physioroute (physioroute's profile, physioroute's blog)
	Posted On:	Mon, 2008-03-03 15:41
	Tags:	badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, cricket, cycling, distance running, field events, football, golf, gymnastics, marathon training, rowing, rugby, running, skiing, soccer training, sprinting, squash, swimming, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, coaching, diet, drugs, exercise, fitness, injury, nutrition, physiology, psychology, supplements, team sport, testing, training, veterans and women
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