The Times On Testosterone - Huh?

The Times fashion and Style section presents an article on testosterone and steroids in athletics; this quote left me wondering whether the author, Natasha Singer, ever reads the sports pages:

But do bigger, steroid-enhanced muscles generate big winners?

“We assume that, if you are stronger, you will perform better, but that might not necessarily be true,” said Michael S. Bahrke, a steroids researcher in Ellison Bay, Wis., and co-editor of a book called “Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sport and Exercise.” “For football and baseball players, explosive muscle mass might relate to more power, but it is difficult to document that it leads to better performance.”

Larger muscles might even be detrimental for certain athletes. For marathoners, enhanced muscles could put more weight on joints than they can handle, leading to injuries, Dr. Bahrke said.

I am taking for granted that Dr. Bahrke is being quoted out of context here; maybe he is trying to say that not all athletes will benefit from using steroids.  But is he seriously doubting whether some athletes have benefitted from steroid use?  Is he saying we would struggle to document an improvement in Barry Bonds' stats late in his career?  No way.

Ms. Singer does present some other plausible caveats:

Some athletes illegally use anabolic steroids, the muscle-promoting drugs or hormonal substances that are chemically related to testosterone, in the form of injections, skin patches, creams or pills. These steroids can stimulate muscle building. But they will not transform couch potatoes into pole-vaulters.

“Steroids are not going to take someone without athletic ability and turn them into a star athlete, or teach you how to swing a bat and connect with the ball,” said Douglas A. Granger, the director of the behavioral endocrinology laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. “But if you have a certain athletic presence, testosterone could take you to the next level.”

Well, yes - steroids represent an oddly virtuous form of cheating since they only help if you put in the hard work of hitting the gym.

We also get this quote, just before the jaw-dropper which caught my eye:

“Synthetic steroids take you from being a natural normal male to being a supermale with muscles that are bigger and stronger,” said Dr. Donald H. Catlin, the director of the Olympic Analytical Laboratory, a drug-testing facility, at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Athletes love to take steroids because they work.”

"Because they work".  Duh.

Comments

[SteveMG]

Andrew Sullivan wrote an interesting albeit overly long piece a few years ago on how synthetic testosterone injections affected his body (Link).

What struck me about the piece was that Sullivan notes that "within hours" of his injection he felt a deep surge of energy, a surge that lasted for several days. My previous understanding was that the hormone had longer term benefits and not short term ones. Wrong.

SMG

[J. Peden [Joe P.]]

What, read the sports page? I mainly wonder if Natasha Singer ever went to school or has yet noticed the difference between men and women.

[JJ]

There's a fairly good round-up of information on doping in the Wikipedia entry on Lance Armstrong and the entry on Floyd Landis.

They include Armstrong's run-in with the lab that said he was positive for EPO in 1999 that resulted in an independent investigation of the lab.

Some doctors have said testosterone does have a quick boosting effect. It looks like others say that it does not.

The temptation is too strong for there not to be drug cheating in endurance sports. So there will be cheaters.

However, the fiasco that is due process, especially with cycling, has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with testing procedures.

In Landis' case, he has hypothyroidism, a condition that also may have tilted the tests.

So what is the normal sports body, especially if you have, for example, survived cancer, need some drugs for basic health, and still continue to race?

Maybe the problem could be solved by letting every athlete hand out souvenir urine samples for testing at "your favorite drug-testing lab."

[cathyf]

An interesting question is just how strong the placebo effect is. So the coach convinces the player that he has this fantastic steroid, and this brilliant way to mask it and they will never be caught. The reason that they will never get caught is that the "steroid injections" are normal saline, while the "masking drug" is sugar pills.

So would merely convincing the player that he is being doped be considered illegal doping?

cathy :-)

[Legaleze]

Why don't the sports conglomerates just agree that there is drug use and have the users admit it. Allow drug use in sports, but have the users tested such as they would in any drug trials. Here you have a large group who, even when it's against the rules or law, use these substances. Why not allow it and have them declare they're using, and test it so that it may benefit a large population in the future?

[SteveMG]

Why don't the sports conglomerates just agree that there is drug use and have the users admit it.

Well, let's wing it:

In many cases the use of some of these drugs is illegal. Unless we find doctors willing to prescribe the drugs for non-medical reasons.

Still would have to change the law.

And then we have the issue of harm to the athletes. Even with informed-consent, what would the liabilities be for the sports (or the doctors, teams, et cetera) if the athlete later suffers long-term and severe illnesses due to his use of the drugs?

Then we have the issue of "designer drugs" or new mixes of substances that no ones what harm a user will suffer.

What about teams' pressuring players to use drugs? Would players who openly use some drugs get not only an on-the-field benefit but also off-the-field ones as well. $$$$

A Pandora's pill box best kept closed.

SMG

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