Doping, Performance-Enhancing Drugs, and Hormones in Sport

Mechanisms of Action and Methods of Detection

Anthony C. Hackney

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780128134436
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Analytic Chemistry

Doping, Performance-Enhancing Drugs, and Hormones in Sport: Mechanisms of Action and Methods of Detection examines the biochemistry and bioanalytical aspects of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and other questionable procedures used by athletes to enhance performance. The book informs the specialist of emerging knowledge and techniques and allows the non-specialist to grasp the underlying science and current practice of the discipline.

With clear and compelling language appropriate for a broad spectrum of readers, this book provides background on prevalence, types of agents, their actual or supposed benefits, and their negative effects on health. The technical aspects of detection are discussed, followed by a discussion of why detection is a problematic and still-evolving science. To facilitate comprehension, each chapter is organized in a uniform way with six sections: (1) standard medical uses, (2) why the drugs are used by athletes, (3) biological mechanism of action, (4) what research says about efficacy in improving performance, (5) major health side effects from use and abuse in sport, and 6) concluding key points.

• Presents the scientific concepts of how performance enhancers work, how they are used, and how they are detected and masked from detection
• Features language that is neither simplistic to scientists nor too sophisticated for a large, diverse global audience
• Provides a short "close-up" in each chapter to illustrate key topics that engage, entertain, and create a novel synthesis of thought

Chapter 1

Overview

Doping in Sport

Abstract

Performance-enhancing substances have been used in athletic competition at least since the ancient Greeks. In the 1920s, sports governing bodies implemented restrictions because of health concerns for the athletes, but they had little effect because no testing was done. The development of synthetic hormones and their widespread abuse by athletes led the International Olympic Committee to issue a list of banned substances. Testing began with the 1968 Olympics, but abuse continued with banned and yet-to-be banned novel substances through the 1990s. To further combat the problem, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was established in 1999 to take on a full time “policing action” role. Scientists working with WADA developed better detection methods, but cheating remains a serious problem. Exceptions are granted by WADA to allow use of banned substances such as steroids for athletes who can show a legitimate medical need, but exceptions are difficult to obtain.

Keywords

Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs); sports doping; sports ethics; anabolic steroids; World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA); sports cheating; health effects of performance-enhancing drugs

Performance-enhancing substances, drug or otherwise, have been used in athletic competition since ancient times. The Greeks documented use more than two millennia ago. But if the phenomenon is nothing new, its prevalence and the magnitude of associated health risk have made it a major public issue. Hardly a week goes by without a news story about a major athlete caught doping or a medical finding about morbidities associated with pharmaceutical and nutritional supplements used by athletes. This chapter is an introductory overview of doping in sport—the essentials of what is happening, why it is happening, and what is being done about it.

History and Current State of the Problem

The ancient Greeks used special diets and stimulating potions to fortify themselves in their Olympic Games. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, strychnine, caffeine, cocaine, and alcohol were commonly used, especially by distance runners and cyclists. An example of such early athletic use occurred in the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games marathon. Thomas Hicks of the United States, the ultimate gold medalist, took raw eggs, injections of strychnine, and doses of brandy throughout the race. This was viewed as perfectly acceptable by the authorities, and many coaches and athletes developed their own concoctions and usage protocols.¹

In the 1920s, sports governing bodies implemented restrictions on what came to be known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) because of health concerns. However, these restrictions were essentially ineffective, because no testing was done to confirm or refute use. The pharmaceutical development of synthetic hormones such as testosterone in the following two decades made matters worse as these agents gained widespread use in sport. Public pressure on world sports authorities to introduce regular and rigorous testing was increased, in part due to the death from PED use of a Danish cyclist at the 1960 Rome Olympics and the media storm that followed. This very public event shocked the sporting world and lead to a public outcry. In 1967, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took action and founded its Medical Commission, which established the first list of substances that athletes were prohibited from taking. Testing of athletes was finally introduced at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble and Summer Games in Mexico City that same year. Nonetheless, from the 1970s to the 1990s, PED use flourished as new designer drugs and techniques such as blood doping were devised by dishonest athletes and coaches. There were even large-scale state-sponsored doping programs. The former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was a major culprit in such programs throughout its existence (1949–90), and recent evidence points to continued widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian sports agencies and the Russian government.^1,2

Bioanalytical methods for detection of PEDs during the early period of test development lacked accuracy and reliability. This resulted in a lack of confidence in the results. In the 1990s, there was debate in the IOC, other international sports federations, and individual national governments about the exact definition of doping, enforcement policies, and ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Overview: Doping in Sport
• Chapter 2. Anabolic Androgenic Steroids
• Chapter 3. Stimulants
• Chapter 4. Glucocorticoids
• Chapter 5. Peptide–Protein Hormones
• Chapter 6. Beta-2 Agonists
• Chapter 7. Hormone and Metabolic Modulators
• Chapter 8. Narcotics
• Chapter 9. Beta Blockers
• Chapter 10. Athlete Testing, Analytical Procedures, and Adverse Analytical Findings
• Chapter 11. The Future of Performance Enhancement in Sport
• Index