October 26, 2008 at 1:17 pm | Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Two professional soccer players tested positive for the banned performance enhancing substances androstatriendione (ATD) and metabolites of the anabolic steroid boldenone according to the MLS. Red Bulls Jon Conway and Jeff Parke were suspended and fined ten percent of their respective salaries for violating the MLS substance abuse and behavioral health policy (SABH).
The Red Bulls team manager claims the doping violation was unintentional. Conway and Parke allegedly purchased a sports nutrition product from a nationwide dietary supplement chain (“Jon Conway, Jeff Parke suspended from Red Bulls for substance abuse,” October 16). Â
According to Red Bulls manager director Erik Stover, both players said “that they ingested an over-the-counter supplement that unknowingly contained a banned substance.”
The statement seems to imply that there was no indication that the banned substance androstatriendione (ATD) was listed on the label of the OTC supplement product. Most likely androstatriendione was listed with a synonymous chemical name e.g. 3,17-dioxo-etiochol-1,4,6-triene or 3 17-keto-etiochol-triene; furthermore ATD and the veterinarian steroid boldenone share at least one metabolite potentially resulting in a false positive for boldenone. Ignorance or naivete regarding supplement ingredients by drug-tested athletes rarely succeeds in exonerating them from anti-doping policy violations.
UPDATE: The product used by Parke was purportedly ALRI Jungle Warfare.
Products containing androstatriendione (ATD) are very popular in the sports nutrition marketplace. One of the most popular products in this category is Gaspari Nutrition’s Novedex XT. Novedex XT is, by all accounts, completely legal and DSHEA-compliant with all ingredients fully disclosed on the label. But if the anti-doping policy in an athlete’s sport has banned androstatriendione (ATD), then athletes would be wise to avoid all OTC supplements containing any and all modified or derivative versions of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD).Â
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August 11, 2008 at 8:06 am | 2008 Beijing Olympics, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
The China Anti-Doping Agency (CADA) spent approximately $10 million dollars and six years to create a new state of the art laboratory specifically for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Roughly one quarter of that budget ($2.7 million) was used to purchase 60-80 various laboratory testing instruments. The primary beneficiaries of these purchases were the analytical laboratory equipment manufacturers Thermo Fisher Scientific, Agilent Technologies and Phenomenex (“Drugs at the Starting Line: The Olympics begin with new antidoping lab and measures to keep athletes honest,” August 11).
Stuart P. Cram, strategic marketing vice president at Thermo Fisher, reports that their company has numerous service engineers available 24 hours a day during the Beijing Olympics to maintain uninterrupted and efficient operation of the Thermo Fisher testing equipment. Chinese Anti-Doping Agency purchased several products from their company including:
- (2) Thermo Fisher DFS Sector Field gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) systems;
- (1) Thermo Fisher Delta V isotope ratio mass spectrometer – used to distinguish between “natural and synthetic steroids”;
- (4) Thermo Fisher triple-quadrupole TSQ Quantum Access liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems
Agilent Technologies supplies the China Anti-Doping Agency with the majority of their steroid testing and drug detection equipment. Stephen B. Crisp, international business development manager at Agilent, states that Agilent also has technicians available 24/7 to maintain the operational status of Agilent equipment that includes 18 liquid/mass stations and 19 gas/mass stations.
- Agilent 1200 Series LC/MS units
- Agilent 6400 Series triple-quadrupole LC/MS units
- Agilent 6100 Series single-quadrupole LC/MS units
- Agilent 6300 Series ion trap LC/MS
- Agilent 7890A GC/MS units
- (8) unspecified laboratory instrumentation
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April 4, 2008 at 1:59 am | Steroid Commentary, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Velo Vortmax blasts WADA for its resistance to change in the face of additional new evidence that the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test is flawed (“Genetic variations in enzyme UGT2B17: Implications,” April 3).
WADA refuses to worry about trivial genetic factors. WADA is loath to do longitudinal tests of athletes. WADA might find a variable that might refute their laboratory findings or challenge their presumption of laboratory perfection. WADA would never invest time and money doing pedigree studies to determine if a single metabolite above threshold for exogenous testosterone is a trait common in a family, or among a group of people found in a geographical region. But idiosyncratic individual differences in medicine have been documented in many pedigree studies. For example, hematocrit levels above 50% have been found in fathers and sons of elite cyclists. These hematocirt levels are inherited tendencies, not based on EPO doping. The same is true for testosterone/epitestosterone ratio(s) and may be true for Carbon Isotope metabolite delta/delta scores.
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March 22, 2008 at 2:12 am | Steroid Commentary, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Source: Wikipedia
The scientific and anti-doping community continue to struggle with the development a test for exogenous growth hormone in athletes. They haven’t even been able to produce scientific evidence that growth hormone enhances athletic performance in spite of anecdotal evidence [from athletes and strength coaches] that this is the case.
But science continues to do a good job at finding weakness in the doping controls currently in place. Tip of the hat to Trust But Verify for alerting us of a new study which, among other things, tells us exactly how much exogenous testosterone some athletes can use and still pass the drug test.
The study reveals serious weaknesses in the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test used by WADA and other anti-doping organizations (“Doping Test in Sports Confounded by Common Genetic Trait,” March 21). Read the rest of this entry »
January 24, 2008 at 12:33 pm | Steroid Commentary, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Russia has funded the new Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RusADA) with new equipment and $5 million. RusADA is an independent agency created to test athletes for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Representatives from RusADA are visiting the United States to learn more about the U.S. doping control program – United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) – and strengthen relationships with their U.S. counterparts. Read the rest of this entry »
January 17, 2008 at 3:20 am | Steroid Commentary, Steroid Health, Steroids and Baseball, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
I’ve written a lot about the loophole of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids, growth hormone, amphetamines, etc. for a competitive advantage. I used the 2006 Tour de France as a prime example, where 60% of drug-tested riders had a TUE for some banned substance. The congressional hearings on the Mitchell Report included testimony that over 8% of Major League Baseball players had TUEs for ADD/ADHD drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin.
Gary Gaffney, M.D., from the University of Iowa College of Medicine, offers a defense of TUEs in his blog: Read the rest of this entry »
January 13, 2008 at 10:32 am | Steroid Health, Steroids and Baseball, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
ESPN reports that trainer Brian McNamee claims Roger Clemens developed an abscess in his buttock resulting from injections of anabolic steroids in 1998. No medical records have surfaced to corroborate this claim. Of course, if Roger Clemens claims that he regularly received intramuscular injections of B-12, then this could have been equally responsible for the alleged abscess. However, Clemens’ attorney has denied that Roger Clemens’ had an abscess.
But ESPN found an “anti-doping expert” who claims that anabolic steroid injections represent a special type of intramuscular injection that is more likely to cause abscesses. According to Gary Wadler of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Read the rest of this entry »
