Drugs in sport

[jrandom]

Can you link to any evidence proving steroid abuse amongst NZ Rugby players?

No, of course not. I'm not seriously arguing that that's the case. I do remember from 'back in the day' when I was rather involved in the BBing and powerlifting scene that the word amongst the strength coaching community was that carefully-managed anabolic steroid use was not unknown at the top levels of NZ rugby.

But, of course, those rumours would circulate, regardless of whether they were true or not.

Bear in mind that things like fast-release testosterone esters can give a week or a fortnight of seriously boosted recovery, and then leave no trace whatsoever. You'll never stop that sort of off-season augmentation without heavy and continuous randomised testing of all players, all year round.

I really would quite like to see the drug testing programme that the ABs are subject to.

[deanohit]

Drugs are bad mmm'kay!

Personally, I don't like the drugs anymore and I've got no time for people while they are stoned. After working with some guys who take speed (or something) before work to get them through the day, I've got no patience for people while they're on drugs.

[riffer]

No, of course not. I'm not seriously arguing that that's the case. I do remember from 'back in the day' when I was rather involved in the BBing and powerlifting scene that the word amongst the strength coaching community was that carefully-managed anabolic steroid use was not unknown at the top levels of NZ rugby.

Yes, well, you would have a fair idea of how many times I've been asked by bodybuilders if I had any "spare" insulin then?

If the ABs are taking steroids then its yet another example of why they're not tough enough to win when it counts.

[pritch]

have ANY of you even tried these preformance drugs???

Yes! And so have you.

There are a wide range of banned drugs many of which are commonly prescribed, eg asthma medications etc. Even caffeine is banned above certain levels. Some of the substances occur naturally in the body but again are banned above stated limits.

Not all of the banned substances build strength or stamina, some like Beta blockers, slow the pulse which is important to people involved in target sports.

I was prescribed beta blockers but the world championships I was attending were not subject to drug testing. Just as well really, several other guys on the team had experienced "cardiac events" or suffered from hypertension and they were on Beta blockers too.

It isn't just the drugs though, there is blood doping, where the athlete has blood taken off at intevals and then just prior to competition the red blood cells from his/her donations is given back thus increasing the oxygen carying capacity of the blood by increasing the available haemoglobin.

With female athletes there were allegedly planned pregancies which were terminated at the strategic time to facilitate the oportune hormone levels for competion.

It would seem that if national pestige (or dollars) are at issue there are no limits.

[Nasty]

I competed in weightlifting competitions ... as did some of the others here ... I was given a card which explained what was a banned drug ... its quite amazing that sinutab and drugs like that are banned due to containing psuedoepthdrine (sp) .... even in a small amount .. .I was unable to take cold medications etc due to this type of thing. Took me years to get back to taking normal over the counter meds again as i had not taken them for so long ...

When you are talking banned drugs you are talking an extremely wide pool of drugs not just class drugs but common ones. I would not like to take on a rider who is reliant on some of those ones either as it does affect the way that someone may be thinking and their focus level.

[Pixie]

Let the athletes be sponsored by the drug makers. All those Chinese 'women' swimmers could have the brand names emblazoned on their backs.

Shaved into their back hair

[Hitcher]

Sports doping authorities are always in catch-up mode. They are generally very good at locating the last generation of performance-enhancing drugs. Top athletes can afford to stay one step ahead of the law and do so quite successfully.

[SPman]

Once big bucks become involved and not just for the "athletes", it seems anything and everything will be tried, to win.

Ever get the feeling that, once big money comes into a sport and it becomes a business, the fun and enjoyment seem to fly out the window as well as a lot of the sheer grittyness, that people put into it, because they are doing it for themselves, not a trainer, coach, media ravers, sponsors, syndicated organisation or whatever.

I must admit, that the more "professional" a sport gets, the less enjoyable it seems to become, even as a spectator.

[mstriumph]

yeh

watever happened to "it matters not who won or lost but how you played the game .........."

[viewer]

Shaved into their back hair

Owwwwwww........... now I'm starting to bar up!!!

[Pancakes]

Seems to me that a huge number of different substances have been put into the same basket here, in the first post we have "performance enhancing" drugs and the question of having a race bike prepped by someone "on drugs". These are two very different things and even those two groupings are too vast to make a comment on. If there were only two options I'd rather have a bike worked on by someone who'd had a wee toke the night before v.s someone who'd been pissed as and was now hung-over even though booze is legal. In saying that, people should be in a position to perform the job their paid to do in full even if they sweep the workshop floor but where safety is concerned I'd really hope anyone who knows would kick up a fuss.

In regards to "illegal" drugs I think it's really funny that anything that is illegal is viewed (most likely by eye that have never tried anything) as bad when I beleive there can be "a time and a place" just like most on this site agree there is for the odd jaunt past the posted speed limit. The often warned danger in illegal drugs is that some are addictive (and I don't like that, and hate ciggarettes for the grip they get on people but still they are legal. The scaremongers will tell you that you'l like the others so much they'll take a hold on your life which is true for some too) The same people may be binge or habitual drinkers or "neurologically" addicted to crap, fat or sugar filled foods and obese so they can't perform their jobs as well as if they were not obese. Being overweight can cause sleep issues, irregular or imbalenced hormanes and a host of other issues but everyone knows, you gotta leave the wife beating drinkers and pie chompers alone to the detriment of themselves and their families and take out your anger on anyone at all who takes illegal drugs.

[Pancakes]

As for the performance enhancing drugs most of the anti-doping procedures would meant that masking agents would need to be used, or low levels of fast acting and quickly disposed of drugs would be taken. I beleive that the vast majority of performance enhancement in todays sports isn't someone popping a wonder pill then running twice as fast a minute later. Carefully constructed potions are normally used to allow athletes to tailor their growth in the training season and to allow quick recovery. Once they are competing there aren't drugs left as such but the athletes are way better off than they would have been. There are also a whole bunch of things as mentioned before, "blood doping" taking your own blood out, letting your body replace it then having your red cells put back in. In cycling there is an allowed level of blood thickness and riders with a higher level need to proove their geneology back to a mountain tribe etc to show why. The funny thing is the agreed "thickness" is way above the normal level and is almost never found to be natually occuring. Coming from coaching people in rock climbing there were lots of climbers taking Creatine and all the rest. I never let my kids use anythng because they were just kids, even enhancers that were allowed because of the danger to their growing bodies from muscle over development etc.

It's been a massive rant and I've only scratched the surface but you get the idea.

Still weird that people will get drunk and smoke ciggies but not smoke weed, or will take E and reduce the seratonin available in their brain but won't take Cocaine 'cos it's "worse". Only by reputation, not so in actual harmful affects on the body.

Nighty night.

[Mr. Peanut]

Make performance enhancing drugs legal. I wouldn't mind a few of the tested products that filter down, and it would make the sport more interesting.

[pritch]

There seem to be problems with some of the steroids in particular. Some are thought to sometimes damage organs such as the liver and kidneys. Less seriously they can cause massive acne (I'm always suspicious when looking at a sporting champion/zit queen on TV ).

Steroids can also cause violent mood swings (roid rage). If there's an Olympic gold medal or world championship at stake somebody will be tempted.
To risk the associated health problems for no reason at all seems just a little odd.

[jrandom]

There seem to be problems with some of the steroids in particular. Some are thought to sometimes damage organs such as the liver and kidneys. Less seriously they can cause massive acne (I'm always suspicious when looking at a sporting champion/zit queen on TV ).

Synthetic anabolic steroids are all about shuffling carbon bonds around in the testosterone molecule to come up with variants of it that affect different parts of the physiology more than others (you might want something that encourages recovery and hypertrophy even more strongly than natural testosterone, but that doesn't cause hair loss, for instance).

Orally administered steroids have to be designed with a certain configuration (alpha alkylation) to make them resistant to breakdown in the digestive system and liver and allow them into the bloodstream. Unfortunately, being resistant to breakdown in that way also makes them significantly hepatotoxic. Milligram for milligram, the likes of methandrostenolone are actually less damaging than paracetamol, but the fact that one stays on the stuff for weeks on end is what causes damage. Try staying on Panadol for a month, you'll be sick as a dog in no time.

Because of this, injectable esters of testosterone and synthetic derivatives thereof are the usual delivery mechanism for steroids.

Steroids can also cause violent mood swings (roid rage).

Curiously enough, this is primarily due to estrogen. Testosterone and some closely-related steroids break down to estrogen via the aromatase enzyme in the body, and as all married men know, estrogen is a very psychoactive substance! Careful management via aromatisation blockers and inert estrogen receptor antagonists to ensure that levels of estrogen in a man don't exceed normal parameters is necessary to avoid 'roid rage' and other estrogen-related side effects such as gynecomastia (bitch tits).

Anabolic steroids are like any other drug - they have their uses and need to be considered in a holistic system of treatment for any patient. Guys mainly fuck themselves up with the juice by not knowing what they're doing.