Anti-doping expert Don Catlin believes the numerous NFL players who tested positive for the diuretic butemanide may have unknowingly used dietary supplements tainted with the drug. (“Alleged use of old-school drug surprises experts,” October 29).
“I’d love to know,” said Don Catlin, a renowned expert who ran America’s first anti-doping lab. “But that’s why the first thing I thought was, ‘They take supplements all the time. Every athlete does. Maybe it’s a bad batch of supplements.’”
We reported previously at Catlin’s bewilderment at the intentional use of butemanide by NFL players as a masking agent for anabolic steroids. There were several plausible indicators that a contaminated supplement could have been the culprit. Experts are indeed baffled by the presence of an old and dangerous drug in anti-doping samples.
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