Drugs - a cautionary tale

[moosterbounce]

Not sure if this article has done the rounds before, but it hooked me last night and I couldn't stop reading it. I found it gave a great incite into why some people do what they do...in all sports. I'm sure some of the rules have changed over the years (major league baseball not doing ANY drug testing?!), but I think this is still a relevant article.

http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2009/11/d ... nary-tale/

[george-bob]

I had never really considered the practical implications on an amateur, zero recovery time, it provides an enormous advantage. It is remarkable what a relatively minor change (increasing the amount of red blood cells) can do to overall performance.

Fascinating and frightening article! Thanks for the link.

[DavidL]

Not seen before, but a fascinating read.

Interesting that the authors choice is to not want to take them in the end. Wonder if in a difference situation if that would change, or it is a way we are individually hardwired.

- David.

[Magnum9]

Some people definitely have addictive personalities, regardless of the type of addiction.

[Ozkaban]

Fascinating article. I've often wondered what the impact on your body would feel like in addition to the impact on your sporting performance. Curiosity solved, happy life to be led

[trailgumby]

Read that one awhile back, but never ceases to fascinate.

The impact of HGH on vision is certainly an eye-opener (sorry about the pun )

Amazing that all that stuff is apparently legal in that jurisdicition

[Magnum9]

Also surprised that pro baseball has no drug testing at all!

[Strange Rover]

Read that one awhile back, but never ceases to fascinate.

The impact of HGH on vision is certainly an eye-opener (sorry about the pun )

Amazing that all that stuff is apparently legal in that jurisdicition

My understanding is that all that stuff is legal in any jurisdiction. Its just against the rules of most sports.

Sam

[Mulger bill]

Also surprised that pro baseball has no drug testing at all!

Methinks they have decided that not testing is less embarrassing than the amount of positives they were getting a while back...

[warthog1]

Scary and depressing how much difference it made

[bigfriendlyvegan]

Don't forget that all of these drugs and therapies were developed for legitimate medical uses. No one set out to develop a performance enhancing drug, rather they developed drugs that could be used to enhance performance. All of these drugs and techniques are legal and useful, but in sport they're cheating. If your life or quality of life depended on it, you'd use them.

[gabrielle260]

Interesting that no one in the entire drugs in sport debate has raised the trial the AIS did on EPO. They advertised for participants openly, put them on a medically supervised EPO regime and measured how much performance improvement they got.
The story going around at the time was that the improvement was so great they decided not to publish the result.
I still think it would be fascinating to read the outcome!
Andrew

[george-bob]

i know a guy who was in the AIS trial, two of his group of friends were on the trial, they rode with 4 others who werent on the program. before the program the 6 of them were all equal, no one ever got dropped on climbs, they all rode the same schedule to allow recovery etc. then the two started on EPO, within weeks they were riding twice the amount the other 4 could handle and dropped the rest of the guys on the hills without any difficulty. they were shocked at the impact.

[im_no_pro]

Fascinating read, thanks for the link.

As for baseball, I wish I could say I was surprised.

[ldrcycles]

As mentioned quite a few times already, fascinating. I was interested that my immediate reaction despite what he mentioned about feeling stronger and fresher, was that it just made me all the more determined to never have anything to do with any of that stuff (at least not to make me ride faster, if, heaven forbid, i have some kind of serious illness then whatever).

[Magnum9]

I reckon if it was free, every human on the planet would want HGH at some point in their life. Who wouldn't want to slow the effects of aging and possibly reverse some?

[bigfriendlyvegan]

I reckon if it was free, every human on the planet would want HGH at some point in their life. Who wouldn't want to slow the effects of aging and possibly reverse some?

Every person does get free HGH.

[Magnum9]

Okay, more than they would naturally get. I am guessing it is only expensive now because one company has the patent. When it runs out in fifteen or twenty years there will be generic HGH going cheap I reckon.