Honestly PEDs should be legal and regulated in athletics, if not for performance, then at least for recovery. It's completely arbitrary what's legal and not anyway and a good training program and the best coaches also function as a PED.<p>Make it uniform and regulate it and maybe you keep everyone safe. Or not. I don't really care, I build scripts for a living. /shrug
Doping does work. There are reasons athletes do it and take enormous risk with their careers and health.<p>I remember a long article in Outside magazine where the journalist doped with EPO and HGH to compete in amateur cycling at a level he found to be surprising: <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/1924306/drug-test" rel="nofollow">https://www.outsideonline.com/1924306/drug-test</a><p>Using the word "cheating" is too simplistic of a dismissal for doping, I think.
I'd highly recommend the Netflix documentary <i>Icarus</i>. The filmmaker starts out trying to more or less replicate the doping routine of Lance Armstrong while competing in amateur cycling.<p>I don't want to give anything away, but the documentary takes an incredible turn once the filmmaker meets Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov — who ran the Russian anti-doping lab prior to Russia's ban from the Rio Olympics.<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/icarus-review-netflix/535962/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/ic...</a>
The problem with performance enhancing drugs isn't their use per se, it's the fact that competition at a high level more or less forces you to use any and all means at your disposal to win, and this forces would-be winners to consume large, unhealthy, long-term unstable and harmful amounts of drugs.<p>People who manage sports associations are comfortable with people sacrificing time and fortune for their passion, but they are not (in general) comfortable with creating an environment in which people must sacrifice their health and well-being to compete.<p>PEDs in some form should probably be (and in fact are, in most states) legal for personal use, but I believe that anything with the potential to cause long term bodily harm when abused should be banned in organized competition by the organizers (not some state, unless it's a publicly funded athletic organization). I further believe that unless demonstrated to be safe, most medications should be assumed to be damaging, within reason. There should be a long, slow, tedious path to approval.<p>That's the world view that, to me, does the best job of creating a healthy environment for athletic competition.
The stigma steroids have gotten because of MLB and a few other notable famous athletes is really unfortunate. Low doses of testosterone in men shows great health benefits especially for men >40. HGH and other growth hormones like IGF-1 have also shown great general health benefits. Steroids are schedule 2 drugs on the same level as opioids so just about everyone who is taking them (besides wealthy people who can afford to go to anti-aging clinic where you can be prescribed for this) is doing so low key which makes awareness and education very difficult.
The generic concept of performance enhancing drugs has always concerned me. I've seen nootropics crop up on hacker news occasionally, and I have this terrible feeling that someday the only way to remain competitive in whatever you do will be to take performance drugs regardless of the consequences (unknown or not), be they mental, physical, or otherwise...
Interesting how Meldonium works.<p>When I was doing research on SARMs, GW501516 often came up.
It basically works in the opposite way that Meldonium does, increasing cellular metabolic preference for lipids as opposed to glucose. I wonder which metabolic pathway is optimal for weight-loss; probably a combination of the two.
I don't know the regimen of tests players go through in professional sports, but I've thought for many years that players who depend more on mental sharpness than physical performance (For example a QB in the NFL) are doping to improve mental performance. It always seems the investigations and testing that I hear about or read about in the news revolve around (a) illegal drugs, and (b) drugs that improve physical performance. I've never heard of a case of testing for drugs that improve mental performance.
Would be interesting to know from an evolutionary standpoint why the heart preferentially burns fatty acids, when burning glucose is supposed to be better. The heart muscles have one of the highest rates of use. Maybe there are long-term side effects associated with the glucose pathway?
There isn't any proof that this drug provides any benefit to athletes. It is easy to think all PEDs work when your only knowledge is EPO and steroids. Other stuff... much less testing and the performance boost might be neglible.
When I first heard about this drug (from the Sharapova incident) and looked it up, it sounded like a miracle drug for Rock Climbers, which I am. I have family in Russia as well, where you can buy it over the counter, but I haven't had the courage to try it out yet.<p>This article really makes me want to give it a shot, just for curiosity sake. My main limit on wall climbs isn't technique or strength, it's getting pumped out. Training endurance has been incredibly hard for me. Even when I was younger and played soccer, I was getting winded way before anyone else, even though I was just as active. I've always felt like I have some kind of oxygen weakness, compared to other people.
Better explanation <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk-eiAUgO9w" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk-eiAUgO9w</a> albeit information from the manufacturer.
It's simple, have two leagues.<p>1. Human performance only - no drugs, no implants, no performance boosts.
2. Unlimited league. Take all the drugs you want, when we have them, install new muscles, cybernetic implants, whatever. Go wild.<p>This way, the real purists, who want to push the envelope of human capability get to do so without having to compete with dopers.<p>AND<p>High dollar/prestige sports will fund new and interesting areas of biomedical research. It will be like indy car racing for human bodies.