The Olympics are upon us once
again, and the essential question arises: are these people
really tributes to the human spirit or are they just lycra-encased
walking drug cabinets? All athletes deny taking performance-enhancing
drugs, but many of them seem to suggest that all of their
competitors are juiced to the eyeballs, skilfully avoiding
detection by hypersensitive tests. So how do they get
away with it?
Research commissioned by the New
Scientist and carried out by Dr Robert Weatherby
of Southern Cross University, New South Wales and colleagues
set out to answer this question. Of the 24 athletes
recruited, six functioned using legal performance aids
� caffeine, pseudoephedrine, colostrum, creatine, tribulus
(a tropical root extract) and the hypoxicator (a breathing
device used to simulate altitude training). The remaining
18 athletes were blindly randomized to take either placebo
or testosterone enanthate at a dose about 50 times lower
than that typically found in professional athletes.
Researchers then measured changes to athletic performance,
mood and immune response.
Despite such tiny doses, Dr Weatherby
found that the maximum performance boost came after
just three weeks, as opposed to the anecdotal 10 weeks
steroids are supposed to take to kick in. At this stage,
the testosterone subjects had improved their bench press
performance over baseline by 8.2% compared to 1.8% for
placebo subjects. Their 10-second total power output
on a stationary cycle had risen by 8.1% compared to
just 0.1% in placebo subjects.
Recent media attention has focussed
on synthetic steroids, but natural testosterone use
is still "rampant" in sports, according to Canada's
chief doping tester, Professor Christiane Ayotte of
the Montreal Doping Control Laboratory.
In some ways abuse of the natural
hormone is harder to detect. Finding evidence of testosterone
injection relies on measuring the TE ratio, the ratio
between active and inactive forms in a urine sample.
This number typically doesn't rise above one in normal
people. In doping athletes it can go up to 10, or temporarily
fall below one if they stop injecting. But at the levels
seen in this study, detection would rapidly become impossible.
Athletes who follow Dr Weatherby's
doping regimen would very likely escape detection, and
he firmly believes they would improve their chances
of winning. Nonetheless, just as the performance benefits
of steroids appear at lower than expected doses, so
do the negative consequences.
Even at these low doses, said Dr
Weatherby, "the body's ability to defend itself against
viruses and cancers is likely to be significantly lessened."
Moreover, psychological analysis showed a steady decline
in empathy and consideration for others.
Far from being a tribute to the
greatness of the human spirit, many elite athletes may
find their own spirits stunted by the drugs that build
their muscles, becoming instead an homage to humanity's
sneakiness and thirst for glory.
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