As the Olympics approach, a look at new research on EPO, Mark McGwire’s admission of steroid use, and other issues of drugs and doping in sports.
Transcript (edited):
CNS: Hi and welcome once again to the CNS Addiction Podcast. Sports news is everywhere as we approach the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There is a recent New England Journal of Medicine article about one of the doping agents commonly used, EPO.
Darryl: EPO, yes that has actually been used for quite awhile. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a class name for a group of drugs that are used to stimulate the production of red blood cells. There are a number of these drugs that were created in an attempt to evade the drug tests. These tests actually determine EPO misuse by measuring the number of red blood cells there are in the body and how much they are breaking down in the urine. If you have more red blood cells than normal, it is obvious that there is something going on. This drug stimulates the bone morrow in the spinal cord to produce more red blood cells. The theory is if youve got more red blood cells in your circulation than normal it will increase the bodys ability to carry oxygen. An increase in oxygen to the muscles will provide more power and endurance, and more oxygen to the brain increases mental acuity. This article reminds me of what is known as the Goldman dilemma. In the early 1980s, researcher Bob Goldman posed this hypothetical question to top athletes If there was a drug that could guarantee you a gold medal but would cause you to drop dead five years later would you take it? Well, it turns out that from the 1980s through today well over half of the worlds top athletes say they would take the drug. They are willing to risk their lives in order to guarantee a gold medal.
CNS: bargain with the devil there.
Darryl: Exactly. The recent reports on EPO, which athletes have been abusing for years to get that competitive edge, find that people who take EPO versus people who dont seem to suffer more heart attacks in their life. It stands to reason if you are getting more red blood cells, you will thicken your blood and that makes it more difficult for your heart causing more heart attacks. EPO users are more than twice as likely to suffer strokes too because more red blood cells increase pressure on the blood vessels especially small blood vessels so they may become overwhelmed and they burst and that is a stroke. So, the hypothetical question becomes real. If there is a drug that will give you a competitive edge at the risk of stroke and or a heart attack, would you take it? I think the answer is clear based on the Goldman dilemma. I believe world class athletes are going to say, Why not? The problem with this though is that their competitors are probably taking the drugs as well. If an athlete is taking EPO and his or her competitor is also taking it – is there really a competitive edge? Both of them have the same competitive resources, so the better athlete is going to win anyway.
CNS: Or whoever has the better drug?
Darryl: What Im trying to get at here is what is an athletes competitive edge if their key competitors are taking the same drug? That simply guarantees that the better trained athlete is still going to win the competition and both have the risk of suffering an early stroke or heart attack.
CNS: Maybe a lot of professional athletes do suffer physical debilitation later in life and perhaps die earlier as a group. But what the study indicates is that elite athletes seem to have a different psychological bias because when normal people were asked the same question what was the answer?
Darryl: 2 in 250, so less than 1%. In recent years non -athletes were presented with the Goldman dilemma and less than 1% said they would take it. So, there is a mindset between world class athletes and the rest of us who are less gifted.
Darryl: Ive worked with Dalvin Williams and Harry Edwards, a sports psychiatrist or psychologist who worked with a lot of professional athletes, and both these men believe that society conspires to abuse world class athletes. We place them in situations where their only persona is that record is the gold medal doing something extraordinary being one of the top 3 people who can do what ever they do. Football was used as an analogy saying that very early on, from Pop Warner or whatever, certain individuals are recognized as having the potential to be a professional or gifted football player. Right away that individual is given special favors, things are done for them. Edwards talked about athletes going to college and never having to write a check for anything everything is paid for. Their families are treated well, and all of this is done to manipulate the athlete to joining the team in order to win a national championship for the college. That situation creates a perception in the mind of the athlete that the only thing of value is winning that national championship or setting that college record winning the Heisman trophy, winning the gold medal. All of those things are at the expense of valuing relationships, or their children, or their post- athletic career. And that is why greater than half the athletes asked answer the Goldman dilemma with: certainly, bring it on! Id take anything that will give me that record or gold medal even though I have to die for it within 5 years.
CNS: Mark McGuire just recently admitted to using steroids during his career.
Darryl: He held the homerun record, for awhile before Bobby Bonds broke it. He was in that race against Sammy Souza to set the new single season homerun record.
CNS: That kind of flies in the face what I was taught about fair play and sportsmanship. It does support societys compulsion to push on athletes; it seems to have a lot of negative consequences.
Darryl: Mark McGuires admission that he took human growth hormones and anabolic steroids during his career and especially during the year he set the single season homerun record. Even though he admitted taking those drugs, which are performance enhancing drugs, he said he did not take them for competition. He didnt take them to improve his hitting ability. He says those were, I think his terms was the God given gifts of his eyesight and his coordination – things like that. He commented that he had taken those medications all during his career for health reasons. But, you know, Ive searched a little bit on the internet myself, Ive looked at papers, Ive read things .Im not sure what health condition he was taking that required him to be taking those drugs especially as big as he is and at his age and stuff like that – growth hormone and anabolic steroids? Perhaps he views himself as not being a cheater so much as a victim of medicine like those athletes that tested for certain chemicals that were in their asthma medication. They didnt know that Olympic regulations put them on the list of banned chemicals – they had asthma and they were taking them to treat their asthma and got stripped of their gold medal.
CNS: What about doping before the 80s.
Darryl: Oh yeah. Its been going on forever. They used to put cocaine in the water bottles of boxers during boxing tournaments. There were stimulants used in football methamphetamine, everything before all the steroids came out. But even in the ancient Olympics there are documents that indicate that the athletes were stripped of their victory wreaths because it was discovered that they were sneaking and eating meat red meat during competition, which was considered to give them an athletic edge. Maybe that was the equivalent of EPO back in 300 B.C. or something! Eating red meat to put more red blood cells into your system was considered unsportsmanlike or unfair and if they were caught, they stripped you of your wreath. So its something about, maybe the mindset of people who are competitive and are searching for that competitive high or that competitive rush and being the winner means more than anything else. The Special Olympics, I think, is fairer than the Olympics. Its about the effort, you know, the effort someone puts out to be able to participate even if they dont win, you know, we should honor the effort. Thats something Ive always felt we are missing in this society – winning becomes everything. The Mark McGuire situation reminds me of somebody who we may have treated unfairly and that is Jose Canseco who was Mark McGuires teammate at the Oakland As when all this hit the fan. He was one of the first who said, Yep. I took all steroids and I got my competitive edge and so did all my other teammates on the team, he named Mark McGuire and others and they denied it. They say he was full of crap, but it looks like as more time goes by, the real honest person here becomes Jose Canseco.
CNS: Im sure we will be hearing more about all of these issues here as the Olympics approach. As ever, we would love to hear from you – if you have a comment or question, drop by our website, which is cnsproductions.com and leave us a note there and we will reply if we can. Darryl, thank you as ever and talk to you soon.