Steroids Blog

The growing popularity of anabolic steroids is something that has been troubling anti-doping officials in the recent past. Despite many measures to curb the use of steroids, there have been reports of growing number of steroid users. The trends are alarming in the worlds of bodybuilding, professional sports, and aging community.

With reports of many sportsmen on steroids coming these days, one often makes a conclusion that almost every one was on steroids till steroid testing measures were introduced by the anti-doping fraternity.

From SteroidTimes.com:

In a recent study done by Strahm et al at the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses not very reliable (1). They examined the T/E ratio and its variances between ethnic groups because of a testosterone over epitestosterone (T/E) ratio exceeding 4.0 is considered as suspicious of testosterone administration, irrespectively of individual heterogeneous factors such as the athlete’s ethnicity. Strahm and colleagues found that a deletion polymorphism in the UGT2B17 gene was demonstrated to account for a significant part of the inter-individual variability in the T/E between Caucasians and Asians. By estimation of the prevalence of the UGT2B17 deletion/deletion genotype (African: 22%; Asian: 81%; Caucasian: 10%; Hispanic: 7%), ethnic-specific thresholds were developed for a specificity of 99% for the T/E (African: 5.6; Asian: 3.8; Caucasian: 5.7; Hispanic: 5.8).

In other words the group at the Swiss doping lab found out that a blanket T/E ratio is not accurate enough for the testing protocol and that “significant differences have been observed between all ethnic groups.” There conclusion was “that an athlete’s endocrinological passport consisting of a longitudinal follow-up together with the ethnicity and/or the genotype would strongly enhance the detection of testosterone abuse.”

One of the biggest reasons behind the often unshared relationship between sports and steroids is the fact that steroids allow sportsmen to think and act beyond the normal, and for staying ahead of the competition without any hiccups.

The cycling team of Lance Armstrong and of this year’s Tour de France winner is finding it hard to locate sponsor, a fact that suggests that the sport of cycling is collapsing these days under the weight of continuing doping issues.

This team, the Discovery Channel, has been one of the cycling sports’ most successful franchises but recent doping issues in cycling has even left the otherwise optimistic Armstrong into a pessimist about short term future of the sport.

From NYTimes.com:

Many of cycling’s best riders have failed drug tests or been linked to doping in recent years, and doping issues last month all but overwhelmed the sport’s marquee event, the Tour de France. For a sport whose teams enjoy no revenue from ticket sales or television rights, the resulting publicity has started to drain its lifeblood: the sponsors that spend millions of dollars to finance the teams.

Known for the past three years as Discovery Channel and before that as the United States Postal Service squad, the team is owned by Tailwind Sports, a San Francisco-based company that is partly owned by Armstrong. The only American team at cycling’s top rank, it has been searching for a new sponsor since February, when the parent of the Discovery Channel network decided not to renew its three-year contract.

It is worth noting here that not even a single rider of the Discovery team has ever failed a drug test yet that is not sufficient to assure sponsors and avoid the doping suspicions besting the sport. This is nothing but a bad news to the fans and players.

In what can be termed as a victory for doping scientists, Don Catlin and his team of researchers have been able to crack down the chemical formula of a synthetic designer steroid that was previously unknown.

After a spent syringe was anonymously provided to the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), Catlin and his team started working on to identify this steroid so that steroid-taking sportsmen can very well understand that doping officials are doing their best to curb the use of steroids in sports.

From News-Medical.Net:

Urine samples were purposely spiked with the newly identified THG and various analyses carried out to determine how the substance could be detected. Although it is not detectable by standard doping control screening, THG was found to be easily detectable by alternate methods. Once detection methods were established, the substance was administered to a baboon both intravenously and intramuscularly, and its excreted urine collected for analysis. It was determined that THG is detectable in urine after both IV and IM administration.

The designer drug identified in this study is different from anabolic steroids previously found in athletes’ urine samples. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that its use could pose health risks, and it cannot be legally marketed without approval.

Lead researcher Catlin attributes this discovery to the provision of crucial inside information, and believes it to be a valuable contribution to doping control. He says, “Now that there’s a test for THG, anyone using it can get caught, and it’s unlikely to be found again in an athlete’s urine sample.”

THG is different from other forms of anabolic steroids that have been previously used by steroid-taking sportsmen and is detectable in urine after both IV and IM administration.

This discovery has surely brought a much-awaited relief to Catlin and many doping officials like him who have been trying their level best to ensure that sports and steroids do not get well at any juncture of time.