The New York Times is reporting
New Suspect in Sports Doping: Viagra
Except that the Marywood study does not involve the bedroom, but the playing field.
It is being financed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is investigating whether the diamond-shaped blue pills create an unfair competitive advantage in dilating an athlete’s blood vessels and unduly increasing oxygen-carrying capacity.
If so, the agency will consider banning the drug.
Viagra, or sildenafil citrate, was devised to treat pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in arteries of the lungs.
The drug works by suppressing an enzyme that controls blood flow, allowing the vessels to relax and widen.
The same mechanism facilitates blood flow into the penis of impotent men. In the case of athletes, increased cardiac output and more efficient transport of oxygenated fuel to the muscles can enhance endurance.
“Basically, it allows you to compete with a sea level, or near-sea level, aerobic capacity at altitude,” Kenneth W. Rundell, the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Marywood, said of Viagra.
Some experts are more skeptical.
Anthony Butch, the director of the Olympic drug-testing lab at U.C.L.A., said it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to prove that Viagra provided a competitive edge, given that the differences in performance would be slight and that athletes would probably take it in combination with other drugs.
Scientists have the same uncertainty about the performance-enhancing effects of human growth hormone, though it is banned.
But some athletes do not need proof — only a belief — that a drug works before using it, Dr. Butch said.
“I think it’s going to be a problem,” he said.
Through the decades, athletes have tried everything from strychnine to bulls’ testicles to veterinary steroidsin a desperate, and frequently illicit, effort to gain an advantage.
Several years ago, word spread that Viagra was being given to dogs at racetracks, said Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, based in Colorado Springs.
This is just another reason why the Antidoping Agency needs not to be taken seriously, are they going to hand out a 5 tournament suspension to Chi Chi Rodriguez because he decided to pleasure the wife that week, I think not. It would mean the end to ALL senior sports as we know them. With the option of sex or playing a pro sport, I am guessing that most will choose sex, if not for sex, women, and money, why would there be a need for pro sports. What will be next? Will they ban tampons because they make women more aerodynamic? I get the point that they are suppose to regulate sports and make the playing field level, but in all reality the only way to do that is to regulate genetics, because it seems like that is where the advantage starts. Like I have said many times before, I could do all the steroids in the world and still have NO chance of being an Olympic runner. So why don’t they do that, make extraordinary genetics a performance enhancing issue. None of the above seem like logical ideas, so I say once again, get a clue. Flo Jo was an asthmatic and used an inhaler, did that give her an edge or did it relief a condition that hindered her running ability? I think she was at a disadvantage, and needed it to have a chance, but according to such B.S. thoughts, it helped her breath so that is a performance enhancing drug. When will this nonsense end? Hopefully soon, but not likely. In the mean time we can sit back and laugh, knowing these people are college educated, and yet don’t see how crazy such testsare. It would mean an automatic drug test for every guy who seems to have a noticeable semi hard on. With cheerleaders like the ones the Dallas Cowboys have, man I would get tested after every home game. Well it was there so I wrote about it but wish I came out of this blog a smarter man, yet I didn’t. Have a good night.
