Sports fans: Do most athletes use steriods or other drugs?

[Nikki Stone 1]

I've been watching news coverage of Floyd Landis and was thinking about the discussion this morning on DU. One Duer said that most athletes were on steroids or other drugs and needed them to even compete with the others.

Is that by and large the case? How do they mask their usage of these drugs if they do?

[seemunkee]

1. depends on the sport

I don't know of anyone rockclimbing at the highest levels that are using any kind of drugs. At least not for performance enhancement.

I doubt if there are any competitive cyclists that are not using something.

[Nikki Stone 1]

6. Why would rock climbing not require drugs?

I know very little about sports--I did my nails during PE--so I am really serious about knowing.

Thanks.

[sgxnk]

9. it also

depends on how you define "drugs"

one can use the legal definition, or the chemical/biological definition, which intersect - but are somehwat different

for example, there are many DSHEA compliant dietary supplements that are CLEARLY drugs in the biological sense, but are considered dietary supplements due to DSHEA.

yohimbe would be a good example

many dietary supps are banned from competition

another example would be ephedrine

ephedrine is a great OTC performance enhancer, but is banned "in comp" by most sports bodies.

then, there is the grey market stuff, that are considered "research chemicals' but are drugs in the biological sense. for example - IGF-1

creatine, otoh is not a drug in any reasonable sense, but has definite performance enhancing qualities that give it drug like effects

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. Is ephedrine the one that gives you a heart attack?

Or am I thinking of something else?

So vitamins and some supplements are ok, but some supplements are not, and most chemically manipulated stuff isn't either?

I take it these things enhance strength and endurance, correct?

[sgxnk]

14. ephedrine - congresss wants u to think so

yes, ephedrine was what congress WANTED the public to believe was dangerous and that they tried to ban. they used extremely weak AER (adverse event reports) , some bad data, and a lot of histrionics and passed a "ban" making peopel think yer heart would explode if u took it.

part of the problem was moronic teens who in the "more is better" theory took 20 pills instead of 1. well, take a very large amount of LOTS of stuff and it's not good for you. heck, take a whole bottle of nutmeg and you will hallucinate, vomit and have a stronger trip than many people have on LSD. let's BAN EGGNOG!! :)

ephedrine is incredibly safe, but congress was in one of their "do it for the children" modes, and combined with the fact that big pharmaceutical companies HATED ephedra (because it was cheaper, more effective and safer than their prescription diet pills) congress banned it

it was never criminalized for possession or use. but it's sale was prohibited AS a dietary supplement

you could still purchase and legally use it. it just couldn't be MARKETED as a dietary supplement or performance enhancer - only as an OTC medication like in bronkaid

anyways, an appeal court overturned congress' ban. they said (rightly) that congress failed to prove their case that ephedrine was dangerous. and according to DSHEA (a great piece of legislation) - congress needs to prove a dietary supplement is unsafe

to give u an example of the absurdity of their arguments. they introduced the case of a baseball player who died of heart complications/heat complications and had been using ephedra

of course he was also overweight, working out in extreme heat in a sweatsuit (to promote weight loss), severely dehydrated AND a cocaine user .

but it was ephedrine's fault... lol

vitamins are ok for all sports bodies

supplements are ok (some of them) but some of them aren't.

it depends on the specific supplement and the governing sports body.

for example, in my sports body, i can use ephedrine, but not within 1 week of competition

many enhance strength andor recovery andor endurance etc.

many supplements are pure snake oil

some effective supplements are: creatine, branched chain amino acids, ephedrine, glutamine, acetyl-l-carnitine

[Nikki Stone 1]

16. Whoa! Never knew that about nutmeg!

And to think I've been just adding it to cookies and apple cider.

The whole ephedrine thing is interesting. I know that drug companies get pissed off at food supplements. Hell, they've been trying to get vitamines under Big Pharma's umbrella for years.

Are the supplements you mentioned (creatine, branched chain amino acids, etc.) illegal in sports circles? What are they supposed to do?

[sgxnk]

19. yup

http://www.erowid.org/plants/nutmeg/nutmeg_faq.shtml

out of the ones i mentioned the only one that is banned in (SOME) sports that i am aware of is ephedrine. in some sports, it is banned within a week or so of competition

it has a strong stimulant effect.

a decent dose of ephedrine combined with caffeine has many powerful properties

in users who have not built up a tolerance, for example, one can expect to see strength gains of approximately 3-5% which is a LOT. and that's within 15 minutes of taking it

that's why sports bodies ban it

it's also very popular for dieting as it helps stave off catabolism (muscle breakdown) when dieting, suppresses appetite, etc.

creatine, BCAA, ALCAR etc. are all very effective but i suggest a google searhc.

my fingers are tired :)

[Nikki Stone 1]

21. Okay. Thanks for the info

I've enjoyed reading it. :)

[sam sarrha]

22. only to try to make us thing they are doing something about meth, Mexico

is shipping in 90% of the crystal meth on mules... and the DEA is hamstrung to do anything against it.. the dealers are protected

[malaise]

2. Yes

People have been testing positive for decades, but only after the cycling scandal of 1998 did international sporting bodies get serious. With the formation of WADA, national associations have been forced to sign on to enforcing tests and bans. Why they got serious - billions of dollars are involved and while the public and sponsors want faster and stronger, sponsors pretend that sports delivers a plethora of positive values. Scandals do not help their products.

Read this
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1835264,00.html

[sgxnk]

3. if u are referring to me

i said most *ELITE* athletes e.g. competitive cyclists, olympic athletes, etc. do

for the elite athletes, even a small edge can mean the difference between gold and 4th place. or the big contract and ZERO dollars

a fair %age of non-competitive (recreational ) athletes do as well

they are doing it more to improve quality of life, general sports performance, aesthetics, libido, etc.

it;'s often more multifactorial

if yer not referring to me, never mind :)

[Nikki Stone 1]

5. Actually, I didn't remember the poster's handle

I was interested in the issue. I don't really get all bent out of shape about which person has the opinion.

[sgxnk]

8. fair enough

i just wanted to qualify that i said most ELITE athletes use them

i stand by that assessment based on what i have heard from industry insiders, and the olympians (and olympic alternates) i have had the pleasure to work out with, and be humbled by

to put it mildly

:)

[Nikki Stone 1]

13. How do they hide them?

Or are they just lucky?

[sgxnk]

20. all sorts of ways

diuretics (which are also banned) will mask the use of some drugs

some athletes will inject their bladder with 'clean urine ' before a test

other athletes will use really fast acting esters

some will use analogs of AAS (steroids) that are not known at all, so there are no tests for them

that is how victor conte of BALCO labs (google it) got away with it for so long

and some drugs are basically indetectable. IGF is, as far as i know

it's a cat and mouse game. and the athletes are always ahead of the testers

[MrSlayer]

4. I don't think so.

A lot of them do but there are plenty of natural athletes out there.

[flvegan]

7. On a professional level, I would say that yes, largely

some form of performance enhancement is used. Now, I'm not saying everyone is hopped up on gear, but I think most are using something. Even natural talent is going to lean towards the basics (creatine, ephedra) for an edge. Others will go to the dark side. The difference is in the legality. Creatine certainly is no deca, but it's still supplemented for an edge. The only difference is in what's legal and what's not.

Masking usage is very easy these days. 'Roids are designer now, and so long as ratios look right, nobody blinks.

Is there even an accurate test for growth hormone yet, and do they test for it? Probably a pretty good question.

[Nikki Stone 1]

11. But surely these things must cause long term damage

Though I imagine the short term benefits outweigh the long term problems.

How the hell do they make designer steroids? (That just seems so bizarre to me.)

[sgxnk]

24. actually

in many respect, the long term benefits FAR outweigh the problems

many people have had great benefits from hormone replacement therapy

as long as AAS are used RESPONSIBLY, their clinical benefits far outweigh their risks (which are extremely minimal)

the only AAS that pose any real risk are the methylated orals. which pose similar hepatatoxic stress as many other oral OTC drugs like tylenol.

[jayfish]

15. From Personal Experience I Would Say College As Well.

Even at the junior/community level.

Jay

[Nikki Stone 1]

17. That's not good.

Do coaches put that much pressure on players or is the policing just not that good ?

[unblock]

10. i think they all know how to fly below the radar

and they probably think that going right up to the limit actually makes the competition more fair....

[sendero]

18. As I've said here often..

... I believe that football, track, basketball certainly baseball, all have large number of players using one kind of performance enhancing drug or another.

High level athletes have multi-million dollar careers on the line. Genetics are the first gift, training can build on that but steroids in particular can take you that last step.

The physiques of athletes haven't changed drastically since the 70s because someone figured out how to bench press. It's really pretty obvious.

[bucknaked]

23. My sports career ended after high school...

...however, I'd say that 75% of the kids on our football team were taking steroids. Not only that, but also pressuring the rest of us to use them as well.

If it's that bad at the high school level, I can only imagine it's as bad, or worse beyond that.

FYI, our team still sucked. lol!

Oh, and the best part was seeing those guys 3-5 years after graduation, and noticing their early-onset male-pattern baldness (though some tried to hide it by going completely bald, can still see the follicle patterns), lol!