Anabolic steroids are unlikely to be a scapegoat. Dr. Richard Auchus, an expert on steroid biosynthesis at UT Southwestern Medical School, summarily dismissed the connection between the muscle disorder and performance-enhancer drugs such as anabolic steroids and human growth hormone while suggesting recreational drugs as one possible culprit. “You don’t see rhabdomyolysis with anabolic steroid use or growth hormones. You can see rhabdo with GHB. It’s is one of those recreational drugs that can cause this,” according to the consultant to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

At the moment, Chris Doyle, the University of Iowa head strength and conditioning coach, is in the hot seat.  However, Doyle’s colleagues are skeptical that he is to blame. Additionally, even in the aftermath of the rhabdomyolysis scandal, Iowa recruits are reconfirming their commitments to Iowa precisely because of the strength and conditioning program. Doyle has been credited with paving the way for 68 of 78 senior starters at Iowa to go on to play football in the NFL.

Mark Philippi, of the Philippi Sports Institute in Las Vegas:

“[T]he people at Iowa are pretty cutting-edge as far as training and testing and rehabilitation. It’s ironic this happened at a place so respected across the country, a place known for being very, very knowledgeable and proactive.

“Iowa is known for taking good players and making them into great ones. A big part of that is the strength and conditioning program, and maybe this time they tried things they haven’t done before to shake it up or get an edge.”

Matt McGettigan, the strength and conditioning coach for Air Force football

“There’s not been a trend of this happening at Iowa, and it’s not like Chris Doyle to all of a sudden throw everything successful that he’s done over the years out the window. We all know the body of successful work he’s done at Iowa. They’ve had great success with what he’s done over the years.

“Given Chris’ proven track record, it makes no sense to me what happened. Why would Chris all of a sudden change what he’s been successful at? He’s been there and he’s done that.”

Paul Arndorfer, the assistant strength and conditioning coordinator at the University of Tulsa:

“I know Doyle well, and I can say that he is probably one of the most knowledgeable coaches in the business.

“I truly believe that he would never knowingly put an athlete in harm’s way. He also doesn’t ask the players to do anything he has never done before — so I guarantee he’s done that workout himself.

“He might be the most researched guy, most well-read guy out there. It’s not his nature to make a workout to kill a guy, so to speak. His workouts have a purpose.”

Many experts feel it is premature to assign blame because the full story behind the Hawkeye rhabdomyolysis cluster has yet to be told.

Dr. John Graves of the Mayo Clinic:

“Yes. That says that the kids aren’t telling you what happened on the weekend,” he said. “That says there is more to the story than the workouts. There is more going on that they aren’t telling us about … something else that sensitized them, perhaps, to the workout on Monday, and that is what tripped them into rhabdomyolysis.”

Paul Arndorfer, the assistant strength and conditioning coordinator at the University of Tulsa:

“I have had guys do that workout and I have done that workout myself, and it’s (tough), but there’s got to be some underlying reason” for the hospitalization,  Arndorfer said.  Iowa players “do that workout every year at this time and have not had any problems in the past.”

“I would have a couple of questions for the players,” he said. “One is: What were they doing Sunday or over the weekend? … Another is: Were any of them taking a supplement not given to them by the university?”

The University of Iowa is conducting an investigation into the highly unusual cluster of rhabdomyolysis cases affecting the Hawkeye football program that will hopefully answer these questions.

Read more at Steroids.Info: Steroid Use Not to Blame in Iowa Football Mass Hospitalization

Photo credit: Hawkeye Central

Read more at Steroids.Info: Overreaction to Steroid Scandal Destroys College Football Dreams

Read more at Steroids.Info: NFL Gives Advance Notice for Steroid Tests?

Read more at Steroids.Info: Football Player Sentenced for Crime that Led to Waterloo Steroid Scandal

“We’ve got the CFL,” Pound said. “It’s like a bad scene from the NHL. They say, ‘We don’t test in the Canadian Football League because we don’t need to test — there’s no drug use.’ Helloooo. We’re like a refuge for all the Americans… a summer camp for NFL players who have been suspended for drug use.”

This weekend, John Fahey, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), publicly urged the CFL to adopt an anti-doping testing program. Fahey was in Montreal for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee and Foundation Board meeting. Fahey made his comments just prior to the 2008 CFL Grey Cup Final between the Calgary Stampeders and the Montreal Alouettes (“WADA chief challenges CFL to join fight against drugs,” November 23).

“To be here in Montreal on the weekend of the Grey Cup final and to find there is no doping code is very disappointing,” Fahey told Reuters following a WADA board meeting. “I understand there have been discussions and I hope they eventually lead to fruition.
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“There has been dialogue between WADA and the CFL over a period of time but that doesn’t suggest that there is anything imminent.
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“I can only say I think they are draw attention to the game in an adverse way by not having a (doping) code.
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“I don’t see how any sport cannot have an effective anti-doping program.”

The WADA chief’s criticisms of Canadian Football League’s lack of an effective steroid testing program were undermined by WADA board member and British IOC member Sir Craig Reedie who was also in Montreal for the WADA Foundation board meeting.

Sir Reedie hihglighted the failure to implement an effective anti-doping program at WADA due to the noncompliance of over half of the signatories to the WADA code at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (“Drug Rules ‘Not Enforced’,” November 23).

Rules that bind athletes to give details of their daily movements to drugs testers are not being enforced in “half the countries in the world”, it was claimed on Thursday [...]

Sir Craig Reedie, British IOC member and a board member of the WADA, said “half the world” was not operating the system properly – WADA regulations state that athletes must provide testers with their whereabouts for an hour each day.
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Reedie said: “The one issue the world of sport will want clearing up is in relation to whereabouts regulations for athletes.
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“What has come out of Beijing is that half the world operates the system properly and half the world does not.
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“This has come out of a survey done of national Olympic committees, and some are struggling with the whereabouts rules.
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“We have to get the system to work properly so that everyone is operating in the same way.”

The major failure to implement the WADA code by the majority of its signatories compounds the major failure of WADA procedures and protocols to effectively catch dopers. WADA has not developed an anti-doping protocol that effectively closes the testosterone loophole, that has ever detected human growth hormone in athletes, or has thwarted the use of numerous banned blood boosting techniques and drugs. The sad truth is that WADA’s steroid testing program, far from Fahey’s “effective anti-doping program,” is only marginally more effective than the CFL’s drug testing program i.e. no testing at all.

Attorney David Cornwell, representing New Orleans Saints Deuce McAllister, Charles Grant, and Will Smith, made this allegation the NFL appeals hearing regarding the four-game suspensions resulting from bumetanide-positive drug tests (“Cornwell Says NFL Failed to Warn Players That StarCaps Contains Bumetanide,” November 19).

Cornwell contends that Dr. John Lombardo, the administrator of the NFL’s policy regarding anabolic steroids and related substances, testified during the hearing that he learned in late 2006 of the presence of Bumetanide in StarCaps.  Lombardo, per Cornwell, did not share this information with NFL players, because Lombardo feared that other players testing positive for Bumetanide would claim that they were taking StarCaps, even if they weren’t.

Says Cornwell:  “Dr. Lombardo’s failure to disclose what he knew about StarCaps may have exposed NFL players to the significant health risks associated with the unintentional ingestion of diuretics. If Dr. Lombardo had notified NFL players that StarCaps contained bumetanide, Will, Deuce and Charles would have never used the product to lose weight.”

John Lombardo has previously notified teams of supplements that may cause NFL players to fail a drug test even when the banned substance was fully disclosed on the product labels. Why did he not notify players about the great threat of an UNDISCLOSED prescription drug in supplements that may have been used by NFL players!?! (“N.F.L. Is Uneasy About Diet Supplements’ Use,” May 24, 1998).

This month Dr. John Lombardo, the N.F.L. adviser on steroids, sent a memo to every general manager, team doctor and trainer in the N.F.L. regarding two substances, the hormones dehydroepiandrosterone, known as DHEA, and androstenedione. Lombardo said that both are banned substances under the league’s steroid policies and are in an EAS product called Andro 6, sold in health and fitness stores throughout the country and used by many N.F.L. players. Andro 6 is also used to build muscle mass.

The banned substances DHEA and androstenedione ”are listed plainly as ingredients on the labels of these supplements,” Lombardo wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

It appears that NFL players have turned the tables on the NFL anti-doping administrator, potentially opening the door for a lawsuit against the National Football League. After all, John Lombardo had the responsibility as a physician (“do no harm”) to notify management at various NFL teams about the discovery similarly to his notification about androstenedione and DHEA. At the very least, he should have made this information readily available to all NFL players by sharing it with NSF International, the independent company contracted to help NFL players with their dietary supplement decisions via a supplement hotline as part of the Official NFL/NFLPA Supplement Certification Program.

New Orleans player Jamar Nesbit, who has already served a four-game suspension, has already initiated legal action about the manufacturer of StarCaps. We expect more player lawsuits against Balanced Health Products and possibly even lawsuits against the NFL.

Molloy said that Nesbit had four bottles of the StarCaps pills, which were sent off for lab testing, and all of them tested positive for Bumetanide…

“What I’m saying in the complaint is that at least as of then, if not sooner, StarCaps knew there was an issue. They had a duty to advise consumers and to change their product. They did none of that. In fact, the product is still contaminated,” said Molloy, who also has represented tennis player Guillermo Coria and NFL running back Mike Cloud in similar cases, both of which were settled out of court.

“Since the contamination from bottle to bottle was consistent, it’s not inadvertent contamination,” Molloy said. “That really indicates to me that they’re spiking the product.”

Balanced Health Products, the manufacturer of Nikki Haskell’s StarCaps, has recalled a shipment of approximately 2,000 bottles from supplement stores around the country.

John Lombardo, M.D. is the administrator and medical advisor to the NFL Policy on Anabolic Steroids and Related Substances, the Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Ohio State University Medical School and Medical Director of the Max Sports Medicine Institute in Columbus, Ohio.

“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.

Reports of a “rash of positive steroid tests” in the NFL by news websites here and here and here and here are highly misleading and false since none of the players are alleged to have tested positive for steroids by the NFL. Nonetheless, MSNBC stated that one player tested positive for anabolic steroids with the headline ”Report: Saints’ McAllister positive for steroids“, but deep in the article reported the truth that it was bumetanide. There are even plausible indications these may have involved inadvertent doping from weight loss supplements tainted with bumetanide.

First, the prominent anti-doping drug tester Don Catlin recognizes bumetanide as a masking agent but is surprised because it hasn’t been used in over twenty years.

“It can be seen as a masking agent because it produces so much water that it dilutes drugs in the system,” Catlin said Friday in a telephone interview. “But we haven’t seen it used by athletes to mask drugs in over 20 years.”

He added: “It is also banned because some athletes need to make weight and it helps flush water out of an athlete’s body. In general, though, it is used by physicians to control blood pressure and reduce the amount of excess water in the body.”

Secondly, some dietary supplements marketed for weight loss have been empirically shown to be contaminated with bumetanide. StarCaps by Balanced Health Products has been found to contain near therapeutic levels of bumetanide by a 2007 article in The Journal of Analytical Toxicology in spite of claims by the manufacturer that the product contained only natural ingredients.

Third, it appears that the NFL players who tested positive for bumetanide are not only denying the use of bumetanide to mask other performance enhancing drugs, but appear ready to appeal the findings.

Bryan Pittman is appealing.

Atlanta attorney David Cornwell, who has been hired to represent Pittman at his appeal on Nov. 3, issued a statement on Friday that said: “Bryan did everything humanly possible to comply with the NFL steroid policy, including obtaining doctors’ written authorization to take weight-loss medication. He did not use steroids.

Deuce McAllister is appealing.

“I’ve hired an attorney, and I’m going to let him do his job,” he said. “I will be playing this Sunday against the Chargers.”

Fourth, the source who leaked the story seems convinced that bumetanide was not used for masking steroids or amphetamines but solely as a weight loss supplement.

“I don’t think many of them are attempting to cheat, or even know it is on the list. We are talking big guys who have likely never seen a steroid in their life. My understanding of the steroid policy is that it was intended to catch cheaters or people using performance enhancing substances to gain a competitive edge. These guys don’t fall into that category,” said the source.

The only conclusive evidence to support inadvertent doping would be the existence of sealed dietary supplements that can be proven to be tainted through testing. Otherwise, suspicions of doping with other substances will persist.

Former NFL running back Femi Ayanbadejo has filed a lawsuit against Author L. Rea of ALR Industries. He claims an undisclosed ingredient in ALRI Max LMG caused him to fail an NFL doping test leading to his release by the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears. Ayanbadejo tested positive for a “form of nandrolone.” Ayanbadejo’s attorney is blaming the positive steroid test on the manufacturer for possibly intentionally “spiking” the supplement with banned substances or contamination from the manufacturing facility.

I have not had a chance to review legal documents in the case. The owner of ALR Industries did not seem to be aware of the lawsuit and could not provide me with any insight into the case.

But on the surface, I’m not sure it has merit from a legal standpoint. Keep in mind that substances prohibited by the NFL (or WADA) are not necessarily prohibited by DSHEA as over the counter supplements (nor should they be). It does not appear that ALR Industries is guilty of producing supplements unintentionally contaminated with steroids or supplements containing undisclosed steroidal products unless there is evidence other than the failed drug test.

It appears that the ingredient that caused Ayanbadejo to test positive on the NFL’s steroid test was clearly listed on the label and/or marketing materials and identified as a legal progestin similar to other progestin-based steroids like trenbolone and nandrolone.

The active compound in Max LMG is 13-ethyl-3-methoxy-gona-2,5(10)-diene-17-one… It is legal because it is a progestin, and before anyone thinks “birth-control”, remember that trenbolone, nandrolone, methyltrienolone and Methyl-Dien all are also progestins. I doubt anyone will disagree with the effects of these compounds upon favorable body composition.

In addition, the label warned consumers about androgenic side effects.

Possible side effects include acne, hair loss, hair growth on the face (in women), aggressiveness, irritability, and increased levels of estrogen.

When an ingredient is said to be in the same class of compounds as banned steroids “trenbolone” and “nandrolone” (legality notwithstanding) and the side effect of “hair growth on the face (in women)” is listed on the bottle, I think this would be indicative of a dietary supplement that a drug-tested athlete would be wise to avoid. In other words, Ayanbadejo made a mistake and should have known better.

My opinion is based on the following assumptions:

1. Max LMG is not contaminated with undisclosed steroidal hormones, either intentionally or unintentionally.

2. The active ingredient in Max LMG is accurately disclosed as 13-ethyl-3-methoxy-gona-2,5(10)-diene-17-one.

3. A metabolite of 13-ethyl-3-methoxy-gona-2,5(10)-diene-17-one resulted in Femi Ayanbadejo’s positive steroid test for a “form of nandrolone.”

4.  The compound 13-ethyl-3-methoxy-gona-2,5(10)-diene-17-one was legally permitted under DSHEA and the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 whereas the “term `anabolic steroid’ means any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, corticosteroids, and dehydroepiandrosterone).”

Given these assumptions, there does not appear to be a violation of law nor a failure of enforcement (of DSHEA).  Comments are welcomed.

 Chris Connolly, the head football coach and athletic director of Dolgeville High School in Dolgeville, New York, has taken the gateway theory, as it applies to suppplements, to the extreme.

The fear that using most common and casual substances will encourage his players to use more volatile and potentially harmful drugs is what has driven Connolly to ban his Blue Devil teams from using any supplement, including legal ones.

“I don’t even like GNC or EAS,” Connolly said. “We talk about in the preseason and in spring training: eat right, work right and take absolutely no supplements. We don’t even use Gatorade, only water.”

On the one hand, I think it is good to teach young athletes to believe in intrinsic factors as responsible for their abilities and success in sports rather than external factors like supplements. 

But it is borderline irresponsible to be so anti-supplement as to ban Gatorade. I guarantee that more high school athletes die and will continue to die from dehydration and heat stroke than will likely ever die from anabolic steroid use.  Gatorade can help prevent dehydration, heat related illnesses such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Coach Connolly’s irrational fear of supplements places the teenage athletes playing sports for Dolgeville High School at a slightly greater risk for heat related illnesses.

Water works. But Gatorade has been documented to outperform water for various reasons detailed here, not the least of which is the flavor/taste of Gatorade.

Gatorade or Powerade – the electrolytes promote fluid retention & the carbohydrates provide energy for the brain and muscles. Electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium & chloride) are necessary for maximum absorption of water. Athletes typically prefer the flavor of Gatorade or Powerade & will stay better hydrated if these products are available.

There are legitimate reasons to prohibit supplement use by teenagers e.g. problem of contaminated dietary supplements, but the gateway rationale is not one of them.