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On Performance Enhancing Drugs.
It’s as old as myth, really: Achilles is dipped in the waters of the River Styx, and made nearly invulnerable. Samson lets his hair grow long, and is as strong as a hundred men. Athletes of all sorts have used all sorts of potions and tactics to enhance their strength and stamina. In the modern times, we had the great Canadian cartoon, Underdog,-it’s been banned or edited in the U.S., because Underdog took a pill to replenish his energy in emergencies:
And, of course, we have a personal favorite of mine, Popeye, and his spinach:
Fact is, though., that human beings have been looking for-and finding-an edge in athletic endeavors since the beginning of competition. What is a performance enhancing drug, though? Most of us think of anabolic steroids, or human growth hormone, or EPO, but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has a long list of banned substances, many of which are medications-some over the counter-that have a wide variety of purposes. Others, though, are methods like blood doping, or just an “idea,” like enhancing oxygen uptake. More importantly, why are such substances banned?
Well, because they work-some would like us to think that it’s because they represent serious health risks, and their abuse certainly can, but the fact is that, no matter what you’re told, doctors long ago worked out protocols for the use of anabolic steroids for recovery from injury, muscular development, and shortening recovery that are fairly safe. No, these substances are banned almost exclusively from some sense of contributing to “fair play,” when a truly level playing field would permit the use of them.
Interestingly, something I’ve known about for a long time from my own personal experience has recently been proven: beet juice enhances oxygen uptake, and lowers blood pressure-a great deal, actually, but now it’s been measured. I knew that after drinking beet juice, my blood pressure would typically be a full 10-15 counts lower, both diastolic and systolic, and that my endurance during aerobic exercise would be increased, but last year, a study published in the Journal of Applied physiology demonstrated that it increased endurance by a factor of close to 16%.
Of course, WADA’s Prohibited list doesn’t ban any foods for competition, but it does say this:
Which would include, apparently, beet juice.
I’ve long advocated simply permitting athletes to use whatever they thought they could-under a doctor’s care and direction, of course-to enhance performance. I’ve enjoyed the show that was Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, as well as the end of the recent witch-hunt after him, and his never quite telling an outright lie about his supplementation program: "I’ve never used any banned substances."lfao: I look forward to his reentry into triathlon competition, and perhaps winning the Ironman on his "unbanned (and, no doubt, unknown to most) substances." I watched the major league baseball debacle with wry amusement, watched as a parade of outright lies came out and “tarnished” the records that were set during a time when such substances weren’t banned in professional basaeball. And I’ve seen people do significant, lifelong damage or die from steroid abuse-“use” that didn’t take place anywhere near a doctor’s care and direction, and didn’t really-when one considers the goals and end product of professional bodybuilding-have anything to do with “enhancement,” unless one ascribes to that sort of freakish aesthetic, and, most importantly, abuse that had to be conducted clandestinely in order to simply be competitive. Why not just get rid of the lies, and permit adults-especially professionals-to use supplements and performance enhancers safely?
It’s as old as myth, really: Achilles is dipped in the waters of the River Styx, and made nearly invulnerable. Samson lets his hair grow long, and is as strong as a hundred men. Athletes of all sorts have used all sorts of potions and tactics to enhance their strength and stamina. In the modern times, we had the great Canadian cartoon, Underdog,-it’s been banned or edited in the U.S., because Underdog took a pill to replenish his energy in emergencies:
And, of course, we have a personal favorite of mine, Popeye, and his spinach:
Fact is, though., that human beings have been looking for-and finding-an edge in athletic endeavors since the beginning of competition. What is a performance enhancing drug, though? Most of us think of anabolic steroids, or human growth hormone, or EPO, but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has a long list of banned substances, many of which are medications-some over the counter-that have a wide variety of purposes. Others, though, are methods like blood doping, or just an “idea,” like enhancing oxygen uptake. More importantly, why are such substances banned?
Well, because they work-some would like us to think that it’s because they represent serious health risks, and their abuse certainly can, but the fact is that, no matter what you’re told, doctors long ago worked out protocols for the use of anabolic steroids for recovery from injury, muscular development, and shortening recovery that are fairly safe. No, these substances are banned almost exclusively from some sense of contributing to “fair play,” when a truly level playing field would permit the use of them.
Interestingly, something I’ve known about for a long time from my own personal experience has recently been proven: beet juice enhances oxygen uptake, and lowers blood pressure-a great deal, actually, but now it’s been measured. I knew that after drinking beet juice, my blood pressure would typically be a full 10-15 counts lower, both diastolic and systolic, and that my endurance during aerobic exercise would be increased, but last year, a study published in the Journal of Applied physiology demonstrated that it increased endurance by a factor of close to 16%.
Of course, WADA’s Prohibited list doesn’t ban any foods for competition, but it does say this:
Which would include, apparently, beet juice.
I’ve long advocated simply permitting athletes to use whatever they thought they could-under a doctor’s care and direction, of course-to enhance performance. I’ve enjoyed the show that was Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, as well as the end of the recent witch-hunt after him, and his never quite telling an outright lie about his supplementation program: "I’ve never used any banned substances."lfao: I look forward to his reentry into triathlon competition, and perhaps winning the Ironman on his "unbanned (and, no doubt, unknown to most) substances." I watched the major league baseball debacle with wry amusement, watched as a parade of outright lies came out and “tarnished” the records that were set during a time when such substances weren’t banned in professional basaeball. And I’ve seen people do significant, lifelong damage or die from steroid abuse-“use” that didn’t take place anywhere near a doctor’s care and direction, and didn’t really-when one considers the goals and end product of professional bodybuilding-have anything to do with “enhancement,” unless one ascribes to that sort of freakish aesthetic, and, most importantly, abuse that had to be conducted clandestinely in order to simply be competitive. Why not just get rid of the lies, and permit adults-especially professionals-to use supplements and performance enhancers safely?
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