Testing It Up

Athletes abusing steroids is old news in sports like baseball. There is always a rumor that there is some baseball player using performance enhancing drugs. However, you may be surprised to find out stories of steroid abuse among athletes in sports that do not seem to require performance enhancers.

In tennis, players do not seem to need to pump iron to boost their performance, but former champion John McEnroe said in 2004 that he took steroids without knowing what they are. In skiing, ironically another sport that does not seem to require performance enhancers, a team from Finland tested positive for the drug.

Golf is not spared from news of steroid abuse. Golfing legend Gary Player claimed knowing about some players who took steroids to improve their performance on the green, but this claim was refuted by Tiger Woods. NASCAR driver Ron Hornaday tested positive for steroids in recent years.

For full version of this article, please visit “Steroid Abuse in Tennis, Skiing, Golf and NASCAR Racing“.

Anabolic steroids are hormones that help induce growth through an increased rate in cell division. The use of anabolic steroids is surprisingly popular among the athletes of ancient Greece. Though the practice was forgotten for most of ancient history after the fall of Greece, the use of anabolic steroids was rediscovered accidentally in Germany in the 1930s. Twenty years later, usage of anabolic steroids gained popularity when it was approved by the FDA.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, there were doubts about whether or not there are any benefits to using anabolic steroids. Tests conducted in 1972 showed that people who took anabolic steroids did not really show any significant changes in their bodies. This, however, was disproved in the 1990s through more controlled tests. At the same time, the US Congress put into place the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990, which classified anabolic steroids as a controlled substance. The Act was modified in 2004.

For full version of this article, please visit “History of Anabolic Steroids – How It Started?“.

The FDA has posted a public health advisory warning against use of any supplements that claim to contain steroids or steroid like materials. This report came five days after a raid of American Cellular Labs in California looking for proof that the company sells actual steroids under the guise of supplements. Products that were under investigation are: MASS Xtreme, TREN-Xtreme and six others. Over the last two years five reports have been made related to these drugs and more from other companies citing liver damage. These reports prompted the investigation along with concerns that high school athletes, who are not generally required to undergo steroid testing, may be using them.

Such supplements are readily available in malls and retail outlets across the country which spreads their use and side effects across a wide area of consumers. Steroids and other drugs that are intended to build muscle mass aren’t the only supplements that should require this level of caution. Many supplements make health benefit claims that are simply unfounded and are often outright lies to market the product. Caution should always be used when taking any sort of supplement for health reasons whether it’s for mental or physical results. Discuss the supplements you’re looking into with your doctor before using them, it could lower your risk for side effects and improve your knowledge of the product.

Dr. Phil Astin, physician of the late WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, is set to plead not guilty to a federal jury indictment for 175 counts of conspiracy and the improper dispensation of controlled substances to 17 of his patients, excluding Benoit. He was first handed the indictment in May last year.

The accusations against Astin came in the wake of Chris Benoit and his family’s death. Although not confirmed even by medical examiners, it is widely speculated that the tragedy was caused by Benoit’s use of anabolic steroids.

Anabolic steroids, although not accepted, are said to be used extensively by athletes and celebrities in bodybuilding and wrestling, professional or otherwise. It has also been suspected as the cause of celebrity deaths. Astin is currently accused of over-prescribing anabolic steroids to some of his patients.

Although inconclusive, the question of a doctor prescribing anabolic steroids is controversial due to its reputed adverse effects. In the case of Chris Benoit, it is the belief of a majority of people that what may have driven him to allegedly kill his own wife and son and, eventually, himself, was excessive use of anabolic steroids. One of the drug’s reported side effects is depression which can lead to violent behavior and suicide.

Chris Benoit’s death is not the first celebrity wrestler death that is being linked to steroid use. The death of another WWE star, Eddie Guerrero, who suddenly succumbed to heart failure in November 2005, is also being attributed to steroids. This, however, is being denied. Although an autopsy does not reveal steroids, which means that he was not actively taking steroids at the time of his death, disputed studies on how steroids can lead to the thickening of the heart ventricles is being linked as the cause of his death.

Dr. Astin has a change of plea hearing scheduled for January 29.

A sport is ideally a great activity for everyone to engage in, and children are especially encouraged to get into sports to learn teamwork and discipline. Nowadays, though, the ideal world of sports has been tainted by the proliferation of substance abuse.

As the year 2008 ended, Bulgarian sprinter Tezdjan Naimova was suspended for two years for using performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension was imposed by the Bulgarian Athletics federation after Naimova admitted to manipulating a doping test.

Over the past couple of years, Bulgaria has seen an increase in the number of athletes who were caught using performance-enhancing drugs.

Most of the athletes come from the field of athletics, including runners Vanya Stamblova, Teodora Kolarova and Daniella Yordanova, high jumper Venelina Veneva and hammer thrower Andrian Andreev.

What should have been healthy competitions are now being turned into reasons to turn to performance enhancement. Doping may be on the rise now, but as early as 1904, artificial performance enhancement through the help of medicine, has been used in sports. Marathon runner Thomas Hicks used strychnine injections to boost his performance and help him get to the finish line.

In 1924, drugs were being used in the Tour de France. During the Berlin Olympics in 1936, it is said that the German team used Benzedrine or amphetamines to enhance the performance of their athletes in the games. In 1954, the US weightlifting team started using Anabolic Steroids – known as the miracle muscle pill – to increase their body and muscle mass and perform better.

In recent years, the Tour de France is still being plagued by the use of hormones by cyclists from all over the world. Hormones and anabolic steroids are the more common substances that are used.

It now seems that the spirit of teamwork and discipline that the world of sports is supposed to develop has turned into an unusual competitive drive to be the best, regardless of what it takes. This is why sports events now extensively test for the use of performance-enhancing substances, all in the spirit of fair play.

Just a quarter of a century ago, HIV was a term that could not be spoken freely. Back then, many people were unaware of this disease and how serious it is. Someone found to have it was ostracized from society.

Times have changed. Having the public informed about HIV is now a worldwide effort. From politicians to actors and singers, several of the world-renowned celebrities have joined the fight against HIV and AIDS. A number of these HIV advocates are HIV sufferers themselves. By revealing that they were infected with HIV, they shed better light to the public about the nature of the disease.

Rock Hudson was one of the first major celebrities in the USA who publicly announced that he has AIDS. A year after claiming that he is sick with liver cancer, he admitted that he was suffering from AIDS. He died at the age of 59.

Another HIV-infected celebrity was the Latina actress Ilka Tanya Payan. She was one of the first Latin celebrities to divulge her illness. Since she was heterosexual, she was able to change the preconceived notions of the general masses that HIV was a homosexual disease. Before she died in 1996, she spent her time delivering lectures regarding HIV and AIDS and she was also chosen to become a featured speaker in the United Nations World AIDS Day.

Earvin Johnson, also known as Magic Johnson of the NBA, is one of the most well-known athletes to have HIV. He discovered that he had HIV during a physical exam before the basketball season of 1991. He then went on to write a book about safe sex and teamed up with Dr. Lynn Montana, educating the realities of HIV to the youth. He also founded the Magic Johnson Foundation to disseminate the truth regarding HIV and help those who are suffering from it.

In an entry entitled An Honest Fight Is A Worthy Fight last month, I discussed about the recent issues surrounding the world of sports, specifically on the use of performance-enhancing drugs by high-profile athletes like Chris Leben, Bernard Kohl and Tim Montgomery.

Today, the International Olympic Committee announced that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) successfully developed a blood test to test EPO CERA, a new blood-boosting drug believed to have developed from the classic endurance-enhancing EPO. This drug has been undetectable for a certain period of time, but nothing can escape the extensive arms of advanced science and technology for too long.

The use of CERA has been discovered during the recent Tour de France, with no less than Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl, who finished third, testing positive. German Stefan Schumacher and Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli also tested positive for CERA.

As this new drug has been found to be most useful in endurance events such as cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, the endurance athletes of the Beijing Olympics will take the first round of this new blood tests when IOC starts analyzing samples retroactively next month. Results are expected to be announced within the first quarter of 2009.

The ICO keeps the samples taken from the athletes during the Olympic Games for 8 years. This is in recognition of the advancing technology which may result to the introduction of more advanced doping tests, just like what is happening now.

Beijing samples will also undergo tests for insulin. Although insulin has long been identified as a performance enhancer, the WADA came up with an effective test only recently.

The athletes, whose samples would test positive in this new set of doping tests, could lose the medals and rankings they earned during the Olympics, and could even face bans from international competitions.

Again, we need to go down to the basics and teach our young and budding athletes that there is no other battle that is worth our time and effort than an honest one.

International sports organizations regulating competitions guarantee fair chances to everyone by forbidding athletes to use performance enhancing drugs. This also ensures that athletes do not suffer from any ill effect that these substances may bring.

Just this month, though, we heard quite a number of stories about how top performing athletes in different high-profile competitions have cheated by using banned substances.

Chris (The Crippler) Leben, mixed martial arts star, has been suspended for 9 months from the Ultimate Fighting Championship after he was found positive for the steroid stanozolol, a performance-enhancing drug.

Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl was found using the blood booster CERA at this year’s Tour de France, where he finished third. He was then banned for 2 years by the Austrian National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). Other athletes who failed doping tests at the Tour de France are German Stefan Schumacher, Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, and Spanish Manuel Beltran.

Disgraced Olympic athlete Tim Montgomery admitted to taking Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone before the Sydney Olympics in 2000. This could strip the entire team of the 4×100 Gold Medals it has won in Australia, just like what happened with the US 4×400 Relay Team after Antonio Pettigrew admitted to using performance enhancing drugs middle of this year.

Montgomery set a world record for the 100m sprint in 2002, but such record has been considered invalid when he was found guilty of doping in 2005. At present, he is serving his time in jail for a case on heroin distribution.

It truly is sad when we hear that the athletes we used to look up to fall hard to the ground like this. I believe that we, as a society, must work harder to instill in the minds of our young athletes that an honest fight is always a worthy fight. We need to understand that although winning is good, it is not everything.

According to Dick Pound of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the upcoming Beijing Olympics will be the cleanest in history. The cleanest when it comes to drug use, that is.

With a new “zero-tolerance” policy on drugs, the Olympics may prove to reveal many users of performance enhancing drugs, which would seem to show the programs are working. With more drug testing and more strict policies, could we hope to have an actual clean athletic event? You know, one where it doesn’t come out ten years later that the star athletes won because they were doped up? That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Marion Jones, former Olympic athlete and medalist was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to federal investigators in Friday. Twice, she denied using performance enhancing drugs such as steroids and HGH. Because of these lies, she’s doing time.

Because of her drug use, she was stripped of her Olympic titles, as well, which included three gold and two silver from the Australian Olympic Games in 2000.

It is really unfortunate that athletes can no longer attempt to achieve greatness without resorting to illegal drugs, it seems. Hopefully this drug issue will be put to rest soon.