Doping In Athletes!

Testosterone (Tyson Gay)

Figure 1 Tyson Gay winning 200-meter final at the Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 2013 (Epstein, 2014)

Tyson Gay was the fastest athletes on 100m track in 2013 and was expected to win over Usan Boilt in Moscow. However, he had positive results for banned anabolic agent (BBC Sport, 2013). Tyson Gay had failed doping test and was banned over one year despite standard 2 years banning because he had provided USADA some information about others who potentially involved doping (Epstein, 2014). According to his words, he met anti-ageing specialist doctor called as Clayton Gibson. The doctor gave him hormones like testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (BBC Sport, 2013).

Usual sports that involve with abuse of testosterone are sports which require explosive energy and power. The athletes usually use testosterone to boost their strength to the maximum (BS, 2015).  The sports are tennis, sprinting, football, boxing, UFC fighter, cycling and cricket (Edgardaily.com, n.d.). 

Insulin (Antonio Pettigrew)

Figure 2: Antonio Pettigrew

Antonio Pettigrew is a gold medalist in Olympic 4x400m relay has admitted that he took performance enhancing drugs. Pettigrew is presently working in the capacity of an assistant track coach at the University of North Carolina. He never tested positive during his career in which he conquered World Championship gold over 400m in 1991 and world relay gold in 1997, 1999, and 2001.

Insulin (Marion Jones)

Figure 3: Marion Jones

Marion Jones faces jail and she won five medals at the Sydney Olympics after admitted that she took those drugs. Jones became one of the stars of the 2000 Games after winning three gold medals in the womens' 100 metres, 200m and the 4x400m relay and bronze medals in the long jump and the 4x100m relay.

Insulin is widely used today due to its short half-life of four minutes in the human body. Today, insulin is used by bodybuilders to increase his muscle bulk. (Evans, 2003) Insulin has no shown effect on muscle strength and athlete’s performance when it is used at therapeutic doses. For the bodybuilders, in order to increase the power and muscle strength in one hand, they use 10-50 times of the therapeutic doses. (Sepehri, Fard and Sepehri, 2009) It was reported that body builders significantly have greater body dissatisfaction. They drive for higher muscle bulk, and increased bulimic tendencies than either of the other athletic groups. Bodybuilders are group of athlete who involve in the greatest use of anabolic steroids and have the most liberal attitudes towards using steroids. (Blouin and Goldfield, 1995)

It was reported that long-term use of the anabolic steroids such as Insulin may causes cardiac complications. There were two soccer players in the age of 18 and 24 years old died of sudden cardiac arrest. A 20-year-old bodybuilder who involve in abuse of anabolic steroids also died due to cardiac complication. (Evans, 2003) There is another case which a 21-year-old amateur bodybuilder was admitted to the hospital after excessively taking insulin intravenously. After prolonged neuroglycopenia, he developed severe brain damage. (Elkin, Brady and Williams, 1997).

Insulin acts as performance enhancing agent facilitate the glucose entry into cells in amount that is greater than needed for cellular respiration. It increases muscle glycogen concentration and function as muscle glycogen stores which eventually enhance the performance. By regular using of short acting insulin together with high carbohydrate diets, the muscle bulk of bodybuilders, power lifters and weight lifters can be increased through inhibition of muscle protein breakdown. (Sonksen, 2001) It is believed that Insulin is being used as it establishes an in-vivo hyperinsulinemic clamp. The muscle glycogen is increased before and in the recovery stages of strenuous exercise. Exogenous insulin increases the power, stamina, and strength in athlete. It also helps in recovery from strenuous exercise. (Graham, 2008)

Insulin which is categorized as anabolic steroid is preferred by most bodybuilders as they vanish rapidly and would be very difficult to detect. It is also impossible and hard to distinguish from the athlete’s own insulin. Thus, it is a very attractive potential drug of abuse among the athlete nowadays. (Evans, 2003)