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CONTENT:
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Illegal Substances
In cooperation with intergovernmental organizations, governments, public authorities and other public and private bodies, like the International Olympic Committee
(IOC), the International Sports Federations, the National Olympic Committees and the athletes, the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) makes proposals on measures to fight doping in sport and to standardize drug testing.
Their List of Prohibited Substances and Methods is the IOC's official list.
Click HERE
for the new (01 January 2003) detailed list of forbidden substances and methods or DOWNLOAD
the official IOC document (PDF).
Erythropoietin (EPO) is a glycopeptid hormone which controls the formation of red blood cells (erythrocytes) in the stem cells of the bone marrow depending on oxygen requirements. EPO is produced chiefly in the kidney tissue. EPO is composed of amino acids. At four places in the protein chain there are links with different glycosidic residues. Because of the variety of these sugar residues there are different EPO forms, whose physiological effects are comparable although their physical and chemical characteristics are somewhat different. The genetically engineered recombinant human
erythropoietin (in the presented literature abbreviated as: rHuEPO, r-HuEPO, rhu-EPO, rhEPO or rEPO) is identical with natural EPO as far as the amino acid structure is concerned. However, there are slight differences in the sugar chains. These differences also have an effect on the physical and chemical
behavior of the molecule.
The effects of EPO
EPO stimulates the maturation of reticulocytes to erythrocytes in the stem cells of the bone marrow. The increase in the number of erythrocytes leads to an increase in the amount of storable oxygen per blood volume portion and, in connection with this, to the improvement of oxygen transport capacity and an increase in endurance performance.
This effect is similar to the one achieved through altitude training. A side effect of therapeutic rhEPO administration is increased blood pressure.
Because of its effects on the oxygen storage and transport capacity the use of rhEPO leads to increased performance in sports which benefit from the aerobic metabolism.
These are, for example, running distances from 800m on. Research done on
athletes using EPO indicate an increased oxygen supply of more than 15%.
RhEPO is a well-tolerated medicament and has few adverse effects. However, if rhEPO is administered in an excessively high dosage and in an uncontrolled way, the result is an increase in blood viscosity and thus a high risk of coronary and cerebral vascular occlusions. The risks associated with the intake of too much rhEPO even increase when training is done at altitude or in the case of dehydration.
How can EPO be detected?
Detection of EPO doping in athletes appears to be difficult. Since natural and recombinant EPO have an identical amino acid structure, recombinant EPO is virtually indistinguishable from the natural hormone. Current tests involve the use of either direct or indirect methods. Direct methods for the detection of EPO aim at identifying slight differences between the genetically engineered and the natural EPO. Researchers
have tried to utilize the electrical charge differences between human and recombinant EPO to separate the two forms of EPO by means of suitable separation methods (e.g. capillary electrophoresis). Although this separation is possible, great volumes of urine (up to 1
liter) are needed. Therefore, indirect detection processes which require only small amounts of urine or blood are
favored instead. Indirect methods for EPO detection are for example:
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The definition of reference areas. This means that an increased EPO concentration in blood or urine must be distinguished from a physiological or pathological increase. However, working with reference values is only possible if the variation range of the standard EPO values is very narrow so that the EPO concentrations after EPO administration can be distinguished from the reference values. These conditions are fulfilled when blood is used
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The measurement of biochemical factors whose concentration in blood depends on the EPO concentration. This applies, for example, to the serum concentration of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), which is increased following rhEPO administration. However, the sTfR concentration is also increased after altitude training
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The determination of fibrin and fibrinogen degradation products in urine after EPO administration.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH), commonly called somatotrophin or somatotrophic hormone, is a polypeptide hormone with a molecular weight of 21,000 (composed of 191 amino acids), and is produced by the pituitary gland, a small gland located directly behind the eyes.
During the past three decades, HGH has been used to treat growth deficiencies found in children. It used to be a difficult and expensive process to extract this vital hormone from the pituitary gland, but can now be produced synthetically via genetic manufacturing techniques. The synthetically produced hormone differs from the natural pituitary-derived hormone in that it contains an additional methionine amino-acid terminal.
With the capability of synthetically producing 10 g of HGH from a 10-liter bacterial suspension, a limitless supply of growth hormone has arrived. This is very promising for those who intend to use the drug for appropriate medical reasons, but the potential for abuse in non-medical related areas is high.
The effects of HGH
Growth hormone is a powerful anabolic hormone that affects all body systems and plays an important role in muscle growth. It is released from the anterior pituitary in response to a variety of stimuli including exercise, sleep, stress, and the administration of a variety of drugs and amino acids. Serum levels are variable and are dependent on such factors as age, sex, body composition and level of fitness. Animal experiments have shown that growth hormone can partially reverse surgically induced muscle atrophy and weakness. Growth hormone administration to normal animals leads to muscle hypertrophy, but this muscular growth is not accompanied by increased strength.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) affects many body tissues. In adolescents it stimulates linear growth and the aging of the bones. In addition, HGH stimulates the intracellular transport of amino acids and causes nitrogen retention, a supposed marker of protein anabolism. The activity of messenger RNA is also affected, causing increased protein synthesis in specific cells. In addition, HGH stimulates the intracellular breakdown of body fat so that more fat is used for energy. The synthesis of collagen (the sticky substance that is the glue of the body) is stimulated, which is necessary for strengthening of cartilage, bones, tendons, and ligaments. Finally, HGH stimulates the liver to produce somatomedins, which are messenger molecules sometimes referred to as growth
factors.
How can HGH be detected?
HGH is a banned substance which, like other endogenous hormones such as erthythropoietin (EPO), presents considerable analytical difficulties compared with doping agents that are not naturally found in humans. While anabolic steroids may have been the buzzword in the 1980s, the "hormonal manipulator" in the 1990s is Human Growth Hormone (HGH).
There are two main problems in detecting hGH abuse. Firstly, the hormone occurs naturally in the body, so that distinguishing an administered dose from the natural pool is difficult. Second, it is not practical to set a blood level of hGH that would be considered unnaturally high and indicative of doping, because levels of the naturally occurring hormone can vary by more than 100-fold in response to factors such as nutritional state, sleep and exercise.
Anabolic steroids are drugs that resemble testosterone, a hormone that is produced in the testes of males and, to a much lesser extent, in the ovaries of females. Testosterone is partially responsible for the developmental changes that occur during puberty and adolescence and is also involved in controlling the rates of buildup and breakdown of the main biochemical components of all tissues, including muscle.
Because testosterone and related drugs affect muscle growth, raising their levels in the blood could help athletes increase muscle size and strength. Athletes who use anabolic steroids also claim that they reduce body fat and recovery time after injury. But the androgenic side-effects – such as increased body hair and a deepening of the voice – are not always desirable, particularly for women. To counteract these side-effects, scientists manufacture steroids that retain their anabolic effects but have a lower androgenic effect
(e.g. androstenedione and nandrolone).
The effects of Anabolic Steroids
Medical experts see significant dangers in the use and particularly the gross over-use of anabolic steroids. Some of the effects are minor or only last while the drug is being taken; others are more serious and long-term. For example, anabolic steroids can cause
infertility, impotence and shrinking of the testicles, breast development in
men, enlargement of the clitoris, alterations in the menstrual cycle and
excessive growth of body hair in women. Both sexes can suffer from male-pattern baldness,
high blood pressure, acne, abnormalities in liver function, kidney failure and
heart disease. Mood changes are also seen. Some reports suggest that large doses of anabolic steroids tend to make men irritable and moody at best, and at worst,
aggressive, raging, murderous, and suicidal.
Female athletes, more than male athletes, are likely to gain a competitive edge by using male hormones, which give females more muscle, less fat, narrower hips, and higher hematocrits.
How can anabolic steroids be detected?
Anabolic steroids and their by-products can generally be detected quite easily in urine, using mass spectrometry. However, since they occur naturally and their levels in the body fluctuate daily and can vary from person to person, setting a threshold above which an athlete is deemed to be ‘using’ anabolic steroids remains a subject of debate.
Testosterone and a related compound, epitestosterone, are eliminated from the body in urine. When an athlete takes anabolic steroids, the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (the T/E ratio) increases. The International Olympic Committee states that an athlete is guilty of doping if their urine sample shows a T/E ratio above 6.
There are problems with this test. Some athletes have been shown to have a naturally high T/E ratio, so that the threshold of 6 could be set too low. Alternatively, athletes with a naturally very low T/E ratio may not go above 6 even if they are taking additional testosterone. Scientists have been working to develop more reliable tests. One promising approach involves the use of an isotope ratio mass spectrometer, which can detect differences in the ratio of carbon isotopes in different compounds. This technology can distinguish between testosterone produced naturally by the body and synthetic
compounds.
Beta2 agonists (clenbuterol, terbutaline, albuterol, salmeterol) are not anabolic steroids but are potentially anabolic, and so their systemic use is banned.
Studies show that clenbuterol affects animals in different ways. It increases muscle mass and cuts fat in livestock and in laboratory animals, mainly from a selective hypertrophy of skeletal muscles. It can retard muscle wasting in denervated rodents. Research also suggests that, although clenbuterol increases muscle mass in rodents, it decreases the oxidative potential of those same muscles, perhaps by decreasing the expression of the beta2 adrenergic receptors or by preferentially increasing nonmitochondrial proteins. As a result, clenbuterol decreases endurance running in rodents. This decrease in performance, however, can be offset, in mice at least, by an exercise regimen.
Strength athletes use it to retard loss of muscle and "strip" fat to "define" muscles. Some athletes note troubling tachycardia while on clenbuterol; others have stopped taking it because of
tremor.
Caffeine is a legal drug (to a urine level of 12 micrograms/mL) that can be ergogenic for both elite and recreational athletes. Recent controlled studies find that moderate doses of caffeine (3 to 6 µg/kg) ingested 1 hour before exercise enhance endurance performance at legal urine levels. In one study of trained runners, a high caffeine dose (9 mg/kg) before "race-pace" exercise increased endurance running time and cycling time an astonishing 44% and 51%, respectively. How caffeine does this is unclear, but a metabolic action is most likely involved, in that caffeine increases plasma free fatty acid levels and muscle triglyceride use, while sparing muscle glycogen use early in exercise. In addition, increases in plasma epinephrine usually occur, but are not essential to the endurance enhancing effect of
caffeine.
The effects of Caffeine
Recent research suggests caffeine is also ergogenic for exercise lasting 20 minutes or less. Caffeine can enhance performance in a 20-minute swim, a 100-m swim trial, a 1500-m treadmill run, and brief bursts of all-out cycling. Any ergogenic effect in these efforts is surely not from muscle glycogen sparing, because the exercise is too brief. Rather, it probably stems from an effect on the brain (decreasing perceived exertion or increasing motor-unit recruitment) or from a direct effect on skeletal muscle.
The ergogenic effects of caffeine vary greatly, but are most predictable in trained athletes who habitually use caffeine. Few studies, however, have been done in the field, so the extent of caffeine's ergogenic effects during competition remains unclear. In a recent controlled field study, caffeine did not improve performance in a 21-km road race in hot, humid
conditions.
Genetic Vaccines
According to an article
in Scientific American future athletes may be using an alternative
muscle-building drug in the next decade: genetic vaccines. A vaccine based on an engineered gene would offer some major advantages compared with anabolic steroids. In separate experiments over the past couple of years at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia and at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, researchers tested muscle-building vaccines based on engineered genes. Injected into mice, the vaccines boosted muscle mass in the animals' legs by 15 to 27 percent. Amazingly, the increases were measurable in only a month or so and didn't require any exercise at
all.
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Training 
