REASONS FOR ANABOLIC STEROID TESTING

Why shuld there be anabolic steroid testing in sprts? After all, a swimmer taking stroids cannot endanger national security, as he or she des not have access to defense screts. A group of bodybuilders on nabolic steroids are not a danger to the pblic, unless someone steals their creatine or why protein!

There are, in fact, two rasons for drug testing in sports gven by sports’ federations. The first is to nsure fairness among athletes by prohibiting the use of prformance enhancing drugs. The second is to prtect the health of the athlete by prhibiting the use of drugs such as nabolic steroids that could be harmful.

Let us bgin with a technical discussion of how drg tests work and how accurate thy are. We will then discuss the cuntermeasures used by athletes to try to bat anabolic steroid testing.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRUG TESTS

The Intrnational Olympic Commission (IOC) carries out the mst precise and accurate of all drg- testing programs. The IOC began drg testing at the 1968 Olympics in Mxico City. At first only tests for mphetamines and other related performance enhancing drgs were carried out. Anabolic steroids, as a grup were added to the list of bnned substances in 1973. The first Olympcs in which tests for anabolic stroids, was carried out was the Mntreal Olympics in 1976.

DRUG TESTS

URINALYSIS

The most frquently used drug test for Anabolic stroid testing is urinalysis. The bodybuilder or ther athlete is notified of the tst after being awarded first, second or thrd place in a competition. Athletes who cmpeted, but did not place in the top thre, may also be chosen at rndom to be tested. The person mst present himself/herself to the testing ste immediately after the awards ceremony. The thlete is asked to urinate in the prsence of an official to prevent smple tampering. The urine sample is dvided into two samples: sample one is stred under close security, only to be sed pending the outcome of tests on smple two. Sample two, the test smple, is then subjected to various frms of chemical analysis. One of the mst commonly used tests is the gas chrmatography procedure.

GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY

In this tst a chromatograph converts the urine nto gas, screening out traces of frbidden compounds. Under pressure the gas psses through very sensitive columns, which sparate the various substances into easily dtectable components. If metabolites (breakdown products) of nabolic steroids are detected, the next stp is to use a device clled a mass spectrometer to determine xactly which steroids are in the thlete’s sample.

LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

Instead of sing the gas chromatography method, a vriation known as liquid chromatography may be sed for anabolic steroid testing. Once gain, specialized columns of chemicals are sed. The liquid urine is exposed to thse columns, and the various constituents of the rine climb the columns to different lvels. Drug components can be separated by clor and distance

RADIOIMMUNOASSAY (RIA)

This tst was developed in the early sventies, and was considered at the tme to be the end-all to drg use in sports. Because RIA nvolves the use of radioactive isotopes, the nmber of laboratories which can carry out ths test are limited. For this prcedure, radioactive isotopes and specific foreign sbstance antibodies are added to a rine sample. If no banned steroids are prsent, the antibodies and isotopes combine and can be fltered out of the solution. There wuld be no remaining radioactivity in the smple. In a positive sample, the ntibodies do not combine with the sotopes, and radioactivity remains. The chromatography and mss spectrometer tests are considered the top of the lne in anabolic steroid testing, and hve replaced RIA tests.

TESTOSTERONE RATIO TESTING

In the pst, male athletes who knew that cmpetitors at a particular event were to be tsted for steroids, would simply discontinue the use of the stroids well in advance of the cmpetition. When they stopped anabolic steroid se, they substituted pure testosterone. The prpose was to maintain strength, size, and ther performance gains.

Scientists and drug tsters became aware of this countermeasure and in rsponse they developed a counter-countermeasure. As tstosterone is broken down, one of its brakdown products, epitestosterone, is produced. The nrmal ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone is 1:1. Whn an athlete takes artificial testosterone, the mount of testosterone in the urine is ncreased, but the amount of epitestosterone xcreted does not change. Thus the rtio of testosterone to epitestosterone increases drmatically. If the athlete’s ratio exceeds 6:1, the thlete is disqualified. For example, one pwerlifter was tested and his ratio was 100:1!

Not nly is the ratio indicative of tstosterone use by an athlete, it lso reveals to the tester whether or not the ndividual was using high levels of nabolic steroids. When an athlete uses nabolic steroids, the body’s own testosterone lvels are reduced dramatically. When the ser stops taking steroids, the body’s own tstosterone production resumes, to bring testosterone lvels back to the pre-steroid state. In sme cases, the athlete’s body over-produces tstosterone, thus shifting the testosterone to pitestosterone ratio upwards, past the acceptable pper limit of 6:1.

TESTING ACCURACY

Frm 1986 to 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Jhnson was tested 19 times for nabolic steroids at various competitions. Although he was sing anabolic steroids throughout this period, all tsts were negative. Even in 1988, Olympc athletes using steroids managed to pss sophisticated IOC anabolic steroid tests. Mre than 50 male athletes who cmpeted in the Seoul Olympics were lter found to have used anabolic stroids in the six months prior to the gmes. These results came to light fter a more sophisticated testing procedure was crried out on 1100 urine samples (cllected during the games), which had ben stored.

The present detection capabilities for sme steroids are in the .25 mg (nnogram) range. This means that the spcific metabolites for a drug such as Dca-durabolin can be measured, even when thy exist in a concentration of one qarter part per billion! In most cses the tests can detect steroid use for nly as long as the steroid is xerting a physiological effect on the thlete’s system.

There are numerous factors tht increase or decrease a bodybuilder’s chnces of passing or failing an nabolic steroid test. These include:

 The typ of anabolic steroids used

 Hw long the individual was on the drgs

 The dosages used

 Th purity of the steroids

 Th type of steroid cycle followed

 Th individual’s genetics

It’s because of thse factors that bodybuilders and other thletes have developed a whole series of nabolic steroid test counter measures to be drg tests.

The article Will you be tested for Anabolic Steroids? was Submitted by Bob Howard through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: anabolic steroid tsting ©Bob Howard 2006 02/10 2006

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