Doping can turn athletes into super soldiers? Why is it so powerful?

How hard do athletes fight to win Olympic gold medals?

In the day-to-day "self-torture" training, the skills are honed;

In the face of pain again and again, I grit my teeth and persevere;

Refresh your own limits in constant impact;

…

And there are some dishonest athletes who, in order to achieve their goals, begin to use any means necessary - doping.

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Ben Johnson, the men's 100m champion who broke the world record, fell from grace after failing a urine test for doping.

Armstrong, who created the miracle of seven consecutive Tour de France titles, was stripped of his championship title and banned for life for using performance-enhancing drugs.

There are also many athletes who come up with various methods to evade drug tests and urine tests for doping inspections.

Among them, the most amazing one is the boxing champion Tyson. In order to safely pass the urine test, he once used a "fake JJ" tool, which contained a fake bladder with his child's urine in it, and then wore it on himself. This also prevented him from testing positive for doping throughout his career.

In order to better control doping, the Olympic Organizing Committee of this Winter Olympics has specially compiled the "Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Doping Control Guidelines". Even the athletes' menus are carefully crafted: pepper, prickly ash, bay leaves, lotus seeds and other food-borne stimulants will not appear, so as not to affect the athletes' doping test results.

Back to the point, how powerful are those doping drugs that some athletes use to their heart's content and evade detection? And why should they be banned?

In medicine, stimulants originally refer to drugs that can stimulate the human nervous system, make people excited, and thus improve their functional state.

Later, it was abused in the sports world to help athletes improve their performance. There are many types of these drugs that have been abused. According to the latest banned list released by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) in 2022, there are 10 major categories.

However, according to their effects, stimulants can be roughly divided into several categories: strengthening muscles, enhancing endurance, reducing weight, calming the body and mind, invigorating the spirit, and relieving pain:

👉Anabolic steroids are generally used to build muscle.

This is the most widely used and most frequently used type of stimulant, and is also an important target in drug testing.

Anabolic steroids are mostly derivatives of male hormones, which can trigger protein synthesis, stimulate muscle growth, reduce body fat, and enhance strength and endurance.

According to a study published in Nature, under the premise of professional sports training, synthetic steroids can increase the muscle strength of adult males by 38%, and the effect is more obvious for female injections.

Therefore, for sports that rely on muscle explosive power, such as skiing, running, weightlifting, swimming, etc., people are particularly fond of using synthetic steroids.

👉Another common type of stimulant is growth hormone (peptide hormone), which can also stimulate muscle growth.

A study conducted by the American Annals of Internal Medicine on 96 athletes showed that taking growth hormone can increase athletes' sprint ability by 4%.

This may seem insignificant, but when translated into competition, it means that simply taking growth hormone can improve an athlete's 100-meter sprint time by 0.4 seconds for every 10 seconds (many athletes use more than one type of stimulant).

You know, in the men's 100m final at the Rio Olympics, the champion Bolt was only 0.25 seconds behind the last place.

👉The most common substance for enhancing endurance is erythropoietin (EPO).

This is a peptide hormone that can stimulate the body to produce more red blood cells to increase oxygen delivery to muscles, improve body endurance by 34%, and delay fatigue.

Athletes of long-distance sports such as marathons and bicycles are particularly fond of injecting erythropoietin. Armstrong was stripped of his seven consecutive championship titles because he was found to have used this type of stimulant.

👉Diuretics are common for weight loss.

By increasing urine output, it can help athletes lose weight before competition, which is beneficial for athletes participating in weight-restricted competitions.

In the men's weightlifting 77kg competition at the Rio Olympics, runner-up Lü Xiaojun had the same total score as the champion, but because he was 0.64kg heavier than his opponent, he could only win the silver medal. Therefore, diuretics are a "cheating tool" in weightlifting, judo, and wrestling competitions.

👉 Beta-blockers are commonly used to calm the body and mind.

It is mainly inhibitory and can slow down the heart rate, reduce myocardial oxygen consumption, and relieve tension. It can help fencing or shooting athletes stay calm and keep their hands stable during the competition.

👉 Common drugs for hyperactivity include psychostimulants.

For example, drugs containing ingredients such as amphetamine and ephedrine are among the earliest stimulants used and banned. They are also stimulants in the most primitive sense and can have a stimulating effect on nerves and muscles.

👉The main drugs to relieve pain are anesthetic sedatives.

For example, morphine, pethidine, etc. can have a strong analgesic effect and can also produce a state of psychological excitement.

Stimulants are so powerful. If all athletes use stimulants, it will not only ensure the fairness of the competition, but also refresh the limits of human physical fitness. Isn't it a win-win situation?

Don’t think so beautifully. Stimulants have their pros and cons. It is a sharp knife aimed at athletes, and abuse will greatly damage the body.

👉For example, continuous injection of synthetic steroids with androgen as the main ingredient will affect men's normal sexual function, such as hair loss, infertility, and even breast development;

For women, it will stimulate the development of male characteristics, such as rough skin, increased body hair, and inhibition or interference with menstrual cycles. These physiological changes may cause depression.

👉For example, excessive injection of erythropoietin will increase blood viscosity, which may lead to cardiac arrest, stroke, thrombosis, etc.

👉Some psychostimulants and anesthetic sedatives are addictive in themselves and have similar mechanisms of action to drugs. Long-term use can lead to decreased memory, concentration, and execution ability. In severe cases, symptoms of mental illness such as hallucinations, delusions, sensitivity and suspicion may also occur.

Many well-known athletes have died suddenly on the field due to the abuse of stimulants. Such stimulants are as harmful as drugs.

Under normal circumstances, athletes are often plagued by injuries when they retire due to hard training. If they use stimulants again, the consequences are often disastrous.

Therefore, legalizing doping is tantamount to encouraging athletes to overdraw their lives and engage in vicious competition, which obviously violates sports ethics and fairness.

More importantly, the charm of competitive sports lies in challenging the limits of human body and will. Once the abuse of stimulants becomes an unspoken rule, this challenge is no longer a fair competition, but is openly transformed into a competition of capital and technology, ultimately forming a vicious competition cycle that overdraws life.

Fair competition is the responsibility and right of every athlete!

References:

[1] China News Network: "Boxing champion Tyson admits to cheating: using his own children's urine to avoid urine tests". 2020.11.11

[2] General Administration of Sport of China: Notice of the Anti-Doping Center on the issuance of the Chinese version of the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2022 Prohibited List International Standard. 2021.12.10

[3] Metz: Nature: How strong can doping make athletes? 2016.08.08

[4] People’s Daily Online (2020): How much do you know about the dangers of stimulants?

Source: Youlai Healthy Life