Doping Journal (ISSN 1812-948X) News

Научный Корреспондент Вашингтон Пост: Золото Майкла Фелпса на Олимпиаде в Пекине - Результат Акустичекого Допинга перед Стартами

2008-08-23T11:09:00.000+03:00

Слушать iPod перед стартом - это все равно что принять допинг препарат перед самым олимпийским заплывом

Рик Вейс (Rick Weiss)
Старший сотрудник, Центр Прогресса Америки
научный корреспондент газеты Вашингтон Пост

Представьте, что Вам выпала честь выступить на Летней Олимпиаде в Пекине. Вы идете по Пекинской улице за день до соревнования, и уличный торговец подаёт вам скрытый от посторонних глаз намек подойти по-ближе. В нерешительности, Вы все же приближаетесь. В тот самый момент, когда незнакомец открывает полы своего пиджака – вы видите странный приборчик, наполовину погруженный в его внутренний карман.

«Тссс,» - говорит он, - «Хотите выйграть Золото? Гарантирую помощь! Причем помощь эта – легальная!»

«Что это,» - спрашиваете Вы, когда он подносит поближе волшебный приборчик, размером даже меньше, чем кредитная картаа, и торчашими из него проводами.

«Внутричерепной трансдуктор,» - говорит торговец на ломанном английском. – «Прикрепляешь к своим ушам и... фокусируешь свой мозг, увеличиваешь кислородную емкость крови, подготавливаешь мышцы для соревнования. Сделано в Китае,» с гордостью заверяет «горе-бизнесмен».

«Так это же устройство для Допинга,» - восклицаете Вы с негодованием.

«Нет, нет!» машет руками незнакомец, в ужасе озираясь по сторонам, чтобы убедится, что никто не услышал инкриминируемого ему заявления. – «Я же сказал, всё 100% легально.»

«Как же он называется?» - спрашиваете Вы.

Китаец оглядывается по сторонам, и говорит шопотом, так, чтобы никто не услышал «iPod,» - мы называем это Ай Под. Он помог Фелпсу. Он может помочь и Вам”

***

Сегодня практичеси каждый знает, что Майкл Фелпс, восьмикратный Олимпийский чемпион, побивший мировые и олимпийские рекорды в плавании на летней Пекинской Олимпиаде 2008 года, фанат mp3 плейера с торговой маркой Ай Пода (iPod). За считанные минуты перед каждым олимпийским стартом, в ушах Фелпса обязательный атрибут его имиджа – эти самые провода зашишенной торговой марки. Сам Фелпс неоднократно говорил, что он слушает музыку Эминем, Янг Джизи, Лил Вайне и Джей-Z (Eminem, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z) для усиления воли к победе и концентрации.

Если разложить на его технические составляющие, iPod – это не что иное, как прибор, который передает электрическую энергию в энергию акустическую, в данном случае музыку

Улавливаете, куда я клоню? Прежде чем я продолжу, отвлекитесь от своей системы координат, обывательской точки зрения. Прислушайтесь и подумайте о следующем. Сейчас поясню. Упомяну Российского доктора и ученого доктора биологических наук Алексея Кудинова, ведущего научного сотрудника академической группы академика ТТ Березова, НИИ Биомедицинской Химии имени Ореховича РАМН, с которым мне довелось неоднократно общаться на разные биомедицинские темы. Среди прочего Алексей Кудинов редактирует организованный им во время Афинской Олимпиады 2004 года, издаваемый и возглавляемый им научный Допинг журнал. Так вот неделю назад, вскоре после того, как я задумался и сам провел параллель между Ай Подингом и допингом, доктор Кудинов прислал мне ссылку на его публикацию в Олимпийском авторском блоге спортивных комментаторов американской газеты Балтимор Сан, издаваемой в родном городе Фелпса. В этой публикации Алексей поднимает те же вопросы о допинге, котрые я сам хотел обсудить со своими читателями. Грустно, что этот блог вызвал немедленное экспансивное высмеивание сетевыми читателями.

“Кто оплачивает эти идеи?” написал один из респондентов, как-будто в ответ на радикальный призыв Кудинова к Фелпсу вернуть свои медали. Другие называли саму идею о том, что музыка усиливает силу атлета перед соревнованием не иначе как «глупостью», «идиотизмом», “навеянной деньгами”

Один умный комментатор утверждал, что “автор статьи может написать в статье в Допинг Журнале, что он сам использует допинг». Другой не столь «здравомыслящий» назвал очерк Кудинова «бесполезной тратой чернил». В действительности, впрочем как и со всеми онлайн публикациями, чернила тут не причем, мы уже давно про них забыли.

Но давайте разберемся в проблеме. Если разложить на его технические составляющие, iPod, предлагаемый гипотетическому олимпионику торговцем-китайцем – это не что иное, как прибор, который передает электрическую энергию в энергию акустическую, в данном случае музыку. Но как всякий знает, музыка может оказывать существенное психологическое и физиологическое влияние на организм человека. Музыка может помочь слушателю расслабится. Музыка может вызвать агрессию или восторг. Может породить прилив эмоций и внутренней энергии.

Если Вы считате, что это общие слова, то как насчет научной работы, опубликованной в Журнале Исследований Медицинских Сестер (Journal of Nursing Research) в 2003 году. Это исследование показало, что у тех госпитализированных младенцев, которым включали музыку, происходило существенное увеличение кислорода крови, по сравнению с детишками, не получающими такой «музыкальной терапии». Теперь вспомните, что Анти-Допинговый Код Всемирного Анти-Допингового Агенства, его последняя редакция 2008 года, действительная на Олимпийских играх 2008 года в Пекине, в своей статье M1, подкатегории “Запрещенных методов,” запрещает использование “искусственного усиления поступления в организм, транспорта и доставки кислорода...”

Я полагаю, что изложенное выше поднимает интересный правовой и философский вопрос о том, что же попадает под понятие “исскуственный”. Говоря словами одного из наиболее циничных блоггеров-комментаторов: «каждый знает, что дыхание увеличивает кислород крови. Должно ли это также считатся запрещенным?» Так далеко в рассуждениях я не пойду. Нормальное дыхание конечно никто отменять не собирается, но как быть с гораздо менее естественными способами, такими, например, как глубокое дыхание, разгибание (растяжка) или разминка?

Дальше – больше! Музыка может влиять не только на уровень кислорода. Кудинов цитирует научную работу Стефана Кёльша из НИИ Мозга имени Макса Планка в Лейпциге, Германия, который опубликовал не один десяток научных статей о влиянии музыки на организм человека. Согласно Келша, музыка вызывает так называемый эффект релаксации. Это означает, что для выполнения одного и того же объема работы, после прослушивания музыки будет затрачено меньше мышечной массы атлета, а это опосредованно также увеличит кислород во всем организме, поскольку «не работающие мышцы» его потреблять не будут.

С учетом многочисленных разговоров на нынешней Пекинской олимпиаде о рисках и подводных камнях “шумовых эффектов и колебаниях,” которые могут привести даже у самых лучших гимнастов к потере равновесия, можно сказать определенно: релаксация имеет большой потенциальный эффект на соревновательный потенциал спортсмена и его способность бороться за медали.

Кстати сказать, успокоительные лекарства, такие как бета-блокаторы, запрещены во многих Олимпийских спортивных дисциплинах. Пример тому – вторая неделя Олимпиады, когда у Северо-Корейского Олимпионика стрелка Ким Джонг Су отобрали серебрянную и бронзовую медали после того, как его анализ крови дал положительный результат на пропранолол, который замедляет серцебиение на фоне нервозности, и считается допингом потому, что снижает беспокойство и усиливает концентрацию.

Музыка перед стартом может дать Фелпсу и дополнительные преймущества. Именно в момент отмены музыки всего за минуту или две перед стартом. Еще одна научна работа Итальянских ученых, опубликованная в 2005 году установила: внезапная музыкальная пауза после интенсивной музыки перед началом соревнования даёт «меломану» счастливый билетик на олимпийский подиум. Потому что музыка вызывает возбуждение, а последующая музыкальная пауза – волну релаксации-расслабления. Как раз то, о чем и говорил немецкий исследователь Стефен Кельш.

“Музыка, особенно у тренированных людей, сперва концентрирует внимание во-время быстрых [музыкальных] ритмов, а затем вызывает релаксацию во время музыкальной паузы,” заключает исследование итальянских ученых.

...Весь текст статьи Рика Вейса включает еще несколько параграфов на философские вопросы, что же такое допинг. Оригинальный английский текст находится по приведенному веб адресу на сайте ScienceProgress.org

Оригинальный текст: Оригинальный текст: Рик Вейс. Майкл Фелпс использует акустический допинг? (Слушать iPod – все равно что использовать допинг препараты) Биоэтика: Прогресс Науки. Веб сайт AmericanProgress.org Опубликовано онлайн 22 Августа 2008 [Весь Тескт]
Rick Weiss. Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper? (Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs) Bioethics: Science Progress by AmericanProgress.org Published online 22 August 2008 [FullText]

Литературный перевод на Русский язык – Алексей Кудинов, Doping Journal, http://www.dopingjournal.org

Об авторе: Рик Вейс (Rick Weiss) – до июня 2008 года - репортер газеты Вашингтон Пост, освещающий вопросы науки и медицины. Он пришел в эту столичную американскую газету в 1993 году, а в 1996 году возглавил команду, занимающуюся вопросами генетики, молекулярной биологии и другими аспектами биологии и медицины.

До того, как прийти в столичную Вашингтон Пост, Вейс работал пишущим журналистом в Журнале здоровья Сан Франциско и ряде других медицинских изданий. У Вейса – степень Бакалавра по биологии Корнельского Университета, Нью-Йорк (1974), а также степень Магистра Журналистики, полученной в аспирантуре Университета Калифорнии в Беркли (1983-1985). Статьи Вейса являют собой пример лучшей отвественной научной журналистики, и украшают такие издания как Вашингтон Пост, Нью-Йорк Таймс, Лос Анжелес Таймс, журнал Сайнс, Дисковер (Открытие), Хроника Сан Франциско и другие.

С июня 2008 года Вейс – старший специалист Центра Прогресса Америки

Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper? Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs

2008-08-22T18:30:00.002+03:00

by Rick Weiss
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Former Washington Post Science Reporter

Original Publication:

Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper?
(Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs)
Bioethics: Science Progress by AmericanProgress.org
Published online 22 August 2008
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/08/doping/

Imagine you have qualified for the Olympics and are walking down a Beijing street the day before your event, when a vendor gives you a covert signal to come closer. You approach warily as he opens a flap of his trench coat, revealing something half tucked into an inside pocket.

“Pssst,” he says. “You want to win gold? Guaranteed to help. And perfectly legal.”

“What is it?” you ask, as he shows you a mysterious device, smaller than a credit card and with wires dangling from it.

“Intracranial transducers,’” he says in practiced English, pointing to the ends of the wires. “Stick them in your ears and they focus the brain, increase blood oxygen, prepare muscles for action. Made here in China.”

“So it’s a doping device!” you say with disgust.

“No, no,” the man exclaims in a hoarse whisper, looking around to make sure no one else has heard your incriminating comment. “Like I said, totally legal.”

“So what is it called?” you ask.

He looks askance again, then leans over and whispers in your ear: “‘iPod,’” he says. “We call it ‘iPod.’ It worked for Phelps. It can work for you.”

***

It is now a widely known fact that Michael Phelps, winner of a record-breaking eight gold medals in this year’s Olympics, is an iPod fanatic. In the minutes before diving into the pool, those trademark white wires were almost invariably hanging from his ears. He has confessed at various times to using tunes by Eminem, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z to motivate him and enhance his concentration.

When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music.

You see where I am going with this. And before I go any further, why don’t you get it out of your system? Let me have it. I know what’s coming because soon after I began to wonder about the parallels between iPoding and doping, an Israel-based medical doctor and scientist with whom I have communicated occasionally in the past—Alexei Koudinov, who among other things edits an online scientific publication called The Doping Journal—sent me a blog in which he raised the same issue. And that blog, I saw, had led to instant and effusive derision by his online readers.

“Who pays this guy to think up things like this?” one respondent wrote, after Koudinov argued the undoubtedly extreme case that Phelps should give up his medals. Others called the idea that music should be classified as a performance enhancer “asinine,” “silliness,” “a crock,” “ridiculous,” and “mean-spirited.”

One clever commentator claimed that “The writer of the article is qualified
to write for that [Doping] Journal: He is a Dope!” Another, less clever, called Koudinov’s posting “a waste of ink.” In fact, as with most online postings, no ink was involved.

But let’s pursue the idea a bit further. When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music. And as everyone knows, music can have profound psychological and physiological effects. It can relax a listener. It can anger or enthrall. It can excavate deep emotions and energy.

If that is not specific enough, consider research published in the Journal of Nursing Research in 2003, which showed that hospitalized infants who had music played for them had significantly higher oxygen levels in their blood than other babies . Now consider that the 2008 World Anti-Doping Code of the World Anti-Doping Agency, in Article M1 under the category of “Prohibited Methods,” bans methods of “artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen….”

I suppose this raises the interesting legal and philosophical question of what is “artificial.” In the words of one especially cynical blogger: “As just about everyone knows, breathing increases blood oxygenation. Should this also be considered illegal?” I won’t go that far. But even if normal breathing is acceptable, what about the arguably less-natural activities known as deep breathing or stretching or limbering up?

Moreover, music can affect more than mere oxygen levels. Koudinov cites research by Stefan Koelsch of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, who has published research on biological responses to music. According to Koelsch, music can induce biochemical “relaxing effects.” Given all the talk during this year’s Olympics about the risks and downsides of “having the jitters,” which can throw even the best of gymnasts off their balance beams, relaxation is clearly a big potential benefit.

Yet anti-jitter drugs, such as beta blockers, are expressly prohibited in many Olympic sports (including marksmanship, as evidenced last week when the North Korean Olympic shooter Kim Jong Su was stripped of his silver and bronze medals after blood tests came up positive for propranolol, which can slow a heart that is racing from nervousness and, in so doing, reduce anxiety and enhance concentration).

Phelps may even have received a double benefit by yanking out his ear buds in the last minute or two before competing. Research published in 2005 suggests that intense music followed by a sudden silent pause may be just the ticket for someone poised at the edge of an Olympic pool, since the music itself can boost arousal and the sudden silence that follows can induce, in handy sequence, a wave of relaxation.

“Music, especially in trained subjects, may first concentrate attention during faster rhythms, then induce relaxation during pauses,” that study concluded.

...continue reading full article at the ScienceProgress.org web site

Música que Phelps ouve na beira da piscina é doping?

2008-08-19T00:05:00.003+03:00

Antonio Prada, Portal Terra

PEQUIM - A cena é conhecida. E virou marca. Phelps remove os fones de ouvidos dois minutos antes de cada prova começar. Fez isso diversas vezes nos Jogos Olímpicos, nas eliminatórias, semifinais e finais das provas no ginásio Cubo d'Água.

Ganhou oito ouros. Quebrou recordes. Virou mito. Depois de 40 exames antidopings, antes e durante as competições, há quem acredite que o aditivo que move o corpanzil com tempos agora memoráveis nas piscinas sai dos dois pequenos alto falantes que entram pelas grandes orelhas e ocupam o cérebro.

O doping musical do garoto branco de Baltimore, 23 anos, é o negro rap. Ouvir música aumenta a capacidade de oxigênio no sangue e melhora a performance do atleta, segundo o Instituto Max Planck para Cognição Humana e Ciências do Cérebro, em Leipizig, na Alemanha. E isso é ilegal, atestam alguns especialistas.

Quem defende a tese é o doutor Alexei Koudinov, editor do Doping Journal Web site, baseado em Israel, que não tem dúvidas: "ouvir música com fones de ouvido antes do início de uma competição é método inválido e os ouros e recordes de Michael Phelps em Pequim são falsos. As medalhas deveriam ir para outros competidores", escreveu.

Koudinov utiliza várias análises, entre as quais a do doutor Stefan Koelsch, do instituto alemão, para tentar enquadrar o uso da música como doping. Segundos os estudos, que divulgam como o corpo reage à música, os sons podem ter influências sobre a taxa de respiração, a qual altera os níveis de oxigênio no sangue. O relatório reporta mudanças claras na taxa de respiração durante a audição de músicas.

O artigo cita ainda pesquisas da Universidade de Pávia, na Itália, realizadas com crianças, que concluem que a retirada de um estímulo musical momentos antes de uma prova de natação induz aos efeitos reportados por Koelsch.

A pesquisa mostra que a música causa melhor saturação de hemoglobina com o parâmetro de oxigênio, comparado com iniciativas sem música, indicando incremento na taxa de transferência de oxigênio (método considerado proibido em competições de acordo com o Código Mundial Anti-Doping, artigo M1, atualizado em 2008).

A utilização da música minutos antes de uma competição ainda não foi avaliada pela Agência Mundial Anti-Doping (Wada).

Enquanto isso, Phelps dá play no seu ipod e recebe adrenalina na beira da piscina, ao som, entre outros, do rapper norte-americano Lil Wayne, que carrega tatuagens pelo corpo inteiro e tem cara de bad boy: 'I'm me, so Who are you? You're not me; You're not me and I know that ain't fair, but I don't care' (Eu sou eu, então quem é você? Você não é eu; Você não é eu e eu sei que não é justo, mas eu não ligo).

Source: Antonio Prada, Portal Terra. Música que Phelps ouve na beira da piscina é doping? [17/08/2008 :: 18:42] jbonline.terra.com.br semana.com

Also see: Doping Journal Vol.5, 2 (13 August 2008)

Using better science to deal with doping

2008-08-18T15:08:00.000+03:00

Doping scandals have plagued sporting events like the Olympics for years and show no signs of going away. Finding cheaters isn't easy, but the difficulty of the task doesn't justify the bad science and scare tactics routinely used by anti-doping authorities.

There are four reasons commonly cited to discourage doping: It compromises athletes' health, creates an uneven playing field, damages the integrity of sport and sets a poor example for youth. Many scientists and bioethicists believe current international anti-doping policies aren't helping in any area.

Though there is some evidence that substances like steroids are harmful to youth, most of the horror stories regarding banned substances are little more than fairy tales. A 300-pound linebacker or a screaming line drive can inflict more harm on an athlete than the contents of any syringe.

One of the most outspoken critics of anti-doping authorities is Dr. Bengt Kayser, director of sports medicine at the University of Geneva. He claims that the ban on performance-enhancing drugs hurts elite athletes, who will use them anyway, because they are less likely to seek appropriate medical supervision.

In a 2005 article in the medical journal The Lancet, he claimed legalization would "encourage more sensible, informed use of drugs in amateur sport, leading to an overall decline in the rate of health problems associated with doping."

Authors of a recent statement in the British Medical Journal were even harsher in their rebuke of anti-doping agencies, claiming they exaggerate the dangers of drugs like steroids and are driven more by a "misguided moralistic motivation to protect sports" than by a desire to protect athletes.

The argument that doping should be legalized in sports is hard to swallow. If that were the case, we might as well hand out medals to chemists at the Olympics. However, it does stand to reason that making an activity illegal doesn't necessary stop it and, quite possibly, makes it more dangerous.

Of even more concern to scientists than the fear-mongering is the lack of scientific rigour displayed in anti-doping laboratories. Tests to detect doping are calibrated by monitoring the effects of a banned substance on a few volunteers. Any well-designed study for a disease treatment would have a large sample size with some participants on the drug and others on placebos, and neither subjects nor scientists would know who is in which group.

Not only are anti-doping agencies using tests of dubious merit, they exhibit an alarming lack of transparency. The editorial board of the journal Nature recently took these agencies to task, claiming that "by not publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study . . . the anti-doping authorities have fostered a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy and fear."

Nobody wants the results of sporting events to be determined by who has the best drugs. Anti-doping authorities are on a valid mission, but they are not exempt from the basic standards of good science.

Source: Using better science to deal with doping. The Ottawa Citizen (19 August 2008) [FullText]

Scientific evidence invalidates Phelps Beijing 2008 Olympic swimming gold, world records?

2008-08-14T00:22:00.008+03:00

For a referred article by the Doping Journal, images, timing and other data please use this citation and link:

A Koudinov. Scientific evidence invalidates Beijing 2008 Olympic Swimming medals
The Doping Journal Vol. 5, 2 (13 August 2008)

Did you notice that Michael Phelps wears earphones and is listening music just before his every Olympic start, at Beijing's Olympiad Water Cube pool deck, be it finals or semifinals? I first noticed that before his first gold swim on August 10: Phelps removed earphones 2 minutes before the start, and he was the only swimmer who worn earphones at the pool deck. Intriguing scientific evidence testifies: Listening to music improves blood oxygen capacity and is a performance enhancement.

There could be several mechanisms, says Stefan Koelsch of Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, who has published 40 articles on the subject of how the body reacts to music. Dr. Koelsch says that "music can have influences on the breathing rate (e.g. via emotional effects such an increased arousal) which will alter oxygen levels in the blood, or relaxing effects (so that fewer muscles consume oxygen, which also increases oxygen levels)." He says that his group "has reported clear changes in breathing rate on a conference last year, with breathing rate being higher during pleasant music." In line with Koelsch conclusion are the data of the research article by Luciano Bernardi group of the University of Pavia, Italy, implying that the withdrawal of music shortly before the swim race induces relaxing effects noted by Koelsch.

Evidence comes from the research done with human infants. It showed that music causes better saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen (a so-called SPO(2) parameter, compared with control subjects receiving no music, indicating an "enhancement of oxygen transfer") and that increased by music, oxygen saturation returns to the baseline faster compared with control, making it hard to detect the transient oxygen saturation shortly thereafter. While Koelsch preferred his own explanation on how music can improve body oxygen capacity, Dr. Alexander Cherniak, a researcher at the Chuchalin Pulmonology Institute of Moscow, Russia agrees that medical experimentation with infants allows good standardization of the research protocol, appropriate statistics and could be projected onto the adults.

So what? Can one call listening to music shortly before entering the swimming pool for competition a performance enhancement? Yes, say both Koelsch and Cherniak. If so, how long could this enhancement last? "Duration [of the effect is] not certain, from seconds to minutes," adds Koelsch. Beijing Olympic and world records by Phelps fall into the expert's projected time frame. Yes, testifies Dr. Vance Bergeron, of Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique in Lyon, France: "[M]usic next to the swimming pool, less than 2 minutes before the start could indicate performance enhancement because of transient increase of blood oxygen capacity."

Bergeron adds that such a performance enhancement is "a bio-chemical feedback mechanism from an external source. The external source in the present case, music, is available to everyone, not harmful to the athlete or his peers, and carried out under full disclosure, hence I do not see how this conflicts with fair play and honesty," but says that "I am not an expert on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)."

Well, one doesn't have to be an expert on WADA policies, as the scientific evidence provided herein enforces all to take WADA code as is. The Prohibited List 2008 of The World Anti-Doping Code reads:

PROHIBITED METHODS
Article M1. ENHANCEMENT OF OXYGEN TRANSFER
The following are prohibited:
2. Artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen...

Straightforward ruling results in a straightforward conclusion: Listening to music through earphones before the start is in line with other measures prohibited. Therefore, Phelps' Beijing swimming golds is faked and should go to others who battle for it fairly.

Readers talk:

"I can understand why many of you claim heresy for the words of the author of this article. But just take Michael Phelps out of the picture, and just use any athlete. If listening to music increases oxygen to the bloodstream - which is an artificial act, it technically falls under the definitions of the codes and is illegal... But of anybody, Michael Phelps does it for a reason, and he knows why."

Posted by Ben at Baltimore Sun Olympics Sports Blog, August 14, 2008 6:59 PM Voice your public or scientific opinion after reading Doping Journal article.

Doping Journal, www.dopingjournal.org , is an independent free online publication on every aspect of doping science and antidoping policies. The journal serves an unbiased research and development of the science on doping, fair and science based transparent anti-doping laws, transparency of policies and the translation of the research into routine lab practice. Special objective is to protect athletes from the misconduct by WADA, IOC, CAS and Sports Federations. The journal aims to become a leader and worldwide forum on doping science and practices by all interested parties, scientists, medical professionals, athletes and lawyers. Alexei Koudinov and The Doping Journal have no competing financial interests.

Also available at Rick Maeses's Beijing Olympics Blog Of the Baltimore Sun Sports Section (13 August 2008)

Doping by the pool invalidates Phelps first American swimming Beijing 2008 Olympic gold, world record

2008-08-10T13:31:00.005+03:00

For a referred article by the Doping Journal, images, timing and other data please use this citation and link:

A Koudinov. Scientific evidence invalidates Beijing 2008 Olympic Swimming medals
The Doping Journal Vol. 5, 2 (13 August 2008)

During Athens 2004 Summer Olympic games we explained why music by the pool is a behavioral doping and prohibited by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in competition blood-doping method of "the use of products that enhance the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen" (Doping J, Vol.1, 1, 27 August 2004 www.dopingjournal.org/content/1/1). We based our conclusion on the analysis of the previously published research (J Nurs Res. 2003 Sep; 11(3): 209-16) that showed how in humans, music makes saturation of oxyhemoglobin significantly higher (compared with control subjects not receiving music therapy), and that as a result of music the level of oxygen saturation returns to the baseline faster (compared to the control subjects receiving no music), making it hard to detect the transient enhancement of the blood oxygen capacity shortly thereafter.

These data clearly imply that music by the pool is not yet recognized blood-doping method that conflicts with the essence of olympism, and WADA/IOC calls for "ethics, fair play and honestly". Wearing headphones by Michael Phelps today morning seconds before the 400 metres man individual medley well qualifies an invalidation of the American first swimming Olympic gold and world record by Phelps.

Doping in sport news headlines 2008/04/24

2008-04-24T11:10:00.002+03:00

Anti-doping czar chosen to lead Glasgow Games in 2014
The Herald - Glasgow, Scotland, UK
British sport's anti-doping czar has been named chief executive of the organising company for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. ...

Jones teammates start fundraising defense
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
But Jones had her medals stripped last year after she admitted to doping during the Sydney Games. Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee ...

2014 Commonwealth Games chief named
The Press Association -
... the chief of an anti-doping agency. John Scott, currently director of Drug Free Sport at Sport UK, has been appointed chief executive of the 2014 Games. ...

New UN Special Adviser visits the IOC
Olympic.org (press release) - USA
... of the World Anti-Doping Code. It calls upon governments to join efforts to strengthen ethics, personal responsibility and integrity in sport. ...

HELSINGIN SANOMAT INTERNATIONAL EDITION - SPORT
Helsingin Sanomat - Helsinki,Uusimaa,Finland
According to the commercial Finnish television channel Nelonen’s news programme Nelosen Uutiset, the use of doping and covering it up was systematic within ...

WADA dropping appeal in sprinter's doping case
Oakland Tribune - Oakland,CA,USA
WADA appealed that decision in February to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland but decided to drop the case last week. ...

Doping law to become weightier
Kathimerini - Athens, Greece
Doping is a national issue. We want sport to be about values and not substances.” Liapis was flanked by Yiannis Ioannidis, his deputy minister who is in ...

Olympic gold medalist drugged with GHB
San Diego Union Tribune - United States
American sprinter LaTasha Jenkins can compete again after the World Anti-Doping Agency dropped its appeal of a US arbitration ruling that cleared her of a ...

Greene doping allegations hit IAAF
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
... glow of another Olympic summer looming, the sport is yet again rife with allegations about doping involving one of its greatest champions. ...

The role of genes in doping tests
EUROPA - Brussels, Belgium
Sport is all about fair play. But for some athletes it is more about winning at all costs, even if it means using prohibited substances to improve their ...

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Doping in sport news headlines 2008/04/23

2008-04-23T02:10:00.002+03:00

American sprinter LaTasha Jenkins free to compete after WADA drops ...
The Canadian Press - LONDON
LONDON — American sprinter LaTasha Jenkins is free to compete again after the World Anti-Doping Agency dropped its appeal of a US arbitration ruling that ...

Petacchi frustrated by CAS wait
AFP -
ROME (AFP) — Italian sprint king Alessandro Petacchi admitted on Tuesday that the wait to find out if a doping appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport...

Is professional cycling dead?
GwinnettHerald.com - GA,USA
... of his title and banned from the sport for two years. Cycling has long been the subject of intense scrutiny by fans and the media alike over doping. ...

LaTasha Jenkins cleared to compete
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
The two-time world championships medalist is the first to successfully get a doping charge by the US Anti-Doping Agency overturned. ...

Greece toughens doping law following weightlifting scandal
International Herald Tribune - France
... substances by athletes in competitive sport a felony instead of a misdemeanor. The law will also bolster powers at the domestic anti-doping agency, ...

Wells makes doping claim
TeleText - Scotland,UK
The Scot, who won the 100m gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, admits he is disillusioned with the sport after hearing the damning allegations...

Digicel donates $8m to JOA
Jamaica Gleaner - Kingston,Jamaica
With the Games just over three months away the sports minister came out strongly against doping in sports. "Doping in sports is becoming too prevalent and ...

Softball is the victim of a bad call by the IOC
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
Eliminating softball, a women's sport, won't help those numbers or promote the inclusiveness the Olympic movement supposedly promotes. ...

With checkered roster and brash style, Rock Racing bringing ...
International Herald Tribune - France
... with riders scorned by other teams in the cycling establishment, especially now, when the sport tries to escape its darkest chapter, the doping era. ...

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Doping in sport news headlines 2008/04/21

2008-04-21T00:01:00.000+03:00

Capturing doping attitudes by self-report declarations and...
7thSpace Interactive (press release) - New York,NY,USA
Known-group validation strategy yielded mixed results: while competitive sport participants scored significantly lower than non-competitive ones on the PEAS ...

D'Arcy hires legal heavyweight
Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
French was banned for an anti-doping violation after a seizure of suspected banned substances at the Australian Institute of Sport. ...

Football: Playing dirty
Warsaw Business Journal - Poland
... PZPN has requested that Minister of Sport and Tourism Mirosław Drzewiecki appoint a soccer prosecutor to tackle issues like corruption, doping, ...

Award for excellence in sports doping
Laboratory Talk - UK
He has held research positions at the Institute of Biochemistry, German Sport University, Cologne, since 1994. He has degrees in sports sciences (German ...

Football: Claude Mattocks’ reserve test also positive
Malta Independent Online - Malta
The reserve doping test on the Valletta FC player Claude Mattocks was again found to be positive. The MFA is now awaiting the report of the Medical ...

Tyson Gay anchors relay victory at Mt. SAC
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
What about doping? His performance-enhancing drugs are limited to Advil, multivitamins and ice packs, Gay said. His sport is suffering through a period ...

Richard Moore - Rugby codes escape doping microscope
Scotsman - United Kingdom
A version of this code, which has operated in cycling for years, may also exist in rugby, if the latest statistics from UK Sport are any indication. ...

Hamilton still on his bike, says doping troubles in the past
International Herald Tribune - France
He's also an avid cyclist, a lightning rod in the sport, and was trying to assemble what he called a dream team of sorts. Hamilton listened to his sales ...

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Doping in sport news headlines 2008/04/20

2008-04-20T00:57:00.002+03:00

The dark side of sport
iAfrica.com - Cape Town,South Africa
Former athletics golden girl Marion Jones lied to federal agents three times over doping and subsequently received a six-month prison sentence. ...

Opinion: LeMond speaks out to help cycling
Colorado Springs Gazette - Colorado Springs,CO,USA
Now he looks at his sport with sadness. Cycling has been devastated by doping scandals. Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton and dozens of others have been ...

Is golf an Olympic game?
Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville,FL,USA
By Garry Smits, The Times-Union Tim Finchem has golf's governing bodies on board for a uniform anti-doping policy, the Federation of PGA Tours, ...

Boldon letter' adds to Greene crisis
Guardian - UK
The letter says: 'My own coach, doping my competition while he smiles in my face and preaches the "we are clean and they are not" gospel. ...

Lazar takes sport objectives to international stage
SKNVibes.com - Basseterre,St. Kitts and Nevis
We also talked about the development of improved and standardized anti-doping laws when it comes to sports," said Lazar. Because an official report from the ...

Random drug tests for all athletes
The Nation Newspaper - Bridgetown,St. Michael,Barbados
He also said education workshops would be undertaken "to sensitise Barbadian athletes of National Federations on the issue of doping in sport". ...

Olympics: Fair play, solidarity and fraternity
Jakarta Post - Jakarta,Indonesia
Since this proclamation, the next three Olympics have been staged peacefully, with the media back to focusing on world records, doping issues and the hosts' ...

Austria to tighten anti-doping laws
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa
Under current legislation, athletes who dope cannot be charged under criminal law, but merely face being banned from their sport by the sporting authorities ...

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Australian Antidoping Body Clears Thorpe of Doping

2007-09-10T13:44:00.000+03:00

Ian Thorpe, five-times Olympic gold medallist for Australia, has been cleared of doping allegations and the case against him is closed, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) said yesterday, but the case remains open as far as FINA, the international governing body is concerned.

Last week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne ruled in favour of FINA and against ASADA on the principal of whether the international federation has a right to appeal against a lack of action by the Australian authority. The normal time frame for such cases to be determined is two months, while in Thorpe’s case 17 months have passed since he provided the urine sample that was to prove troublesome.

FINA will now call on ASADA to send its documentation for review and evaluation by the Doping Control Review Board. FINA director Cornel Marculescu told The Times: “We will then see if the case should be taken further or whether that is the end.”

Thorpe was investigated by ASADA after a random drug test taken in May 2006, six months before his retirement, showed unusually high levels of naturally-occurring hormones. ASADA at first took no action but was forced to reopen investigations [although it claimed that it had never closed them] after FINA forced its hand by threatening to take the matter to CAS.

ASADA chairman Richard Ings told a news conference in Melbourne that the investigations confirmed Thorpe had not committed an offence. “The evidence available does not indicate the use of performance enhancing substances by Mr Thorpe and that he has no case to answer,” Ings said. “ASADA considers the matter closed.” Ings said ASADA had reached their conclusion after seeking expert medical and scientific opinion from the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (ASDMAC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratories in Australia and Canada and the ANZAC Research Institute in Sydney.

“Experts from these internationally respected organisations were unanimous in their opinion that the evidence available does not indicate the use of performance enhancing substances by the athlete,” Ings said. “While the matter has taken some time to resolve, ASADA was absolutely determined to ensure that the results of our examination would leave no room for doubt.” The investigation was launched after a random sample taken from Thorpe in May 2006, shortly after he had undergone surgery to repair a broken hand, showed slightly elevated levels of testosterone and leutenising hormone. Both substances are naturally occurring and ASADA said it was common for athletes to show slightly elevated levels without any suggestion of an offence. Some anti-doping experts believed, however, that the Australian authority needed to show evidence that proved there was no case to answer. No such evidence had been provided - until now.

The swimmer’s case became public knowledge during the world championships at Melbourne in March this year when the leaked test results were published in a French newspaper. Thorpe always maintained his innocence and agreed to co-operate with the investigation. He expected to be cleared, he said back in March. He would also fight for his reputation and seek to weed out the mole who broke WADA’s code of conduct in leaking the laboratory results that not even he had had knowledge of.

“We were pleased that ASADA consulted independent experts from internationally respected organisations and they were unanimous in their opinion that there was no evidence of the use of performance enhancing substances,” Thorpe’s manager Dave Flaskas said in a statement. “We always believed this would be the outcome and Ian’s reputation as a fair competitor would be affirmed.” It is a widely held view. But the story is not quite over yet and will not be until FINA medical experts tick an official box that declares Thorpe free to go.

There was no comment from Thorpe, who is on holiday in the United States."

Doping by the pool, however, remains the behavioral doping issue by Thorpe, Phelps, and others.

Source: Craig Lord. ASADA clears Thorpe of doping. Times online (31 Aug 2007) [FullText]

Party drug tests queried

2007-09-08T13:44:00.000+03:00

New Zealand's sport anti- doping agency has questioned the merits of out-of-competition testing of athletes for recreational drugs such as Ecstasy and cannabis.

The issue is in the headlines after Australian rugby league legend Andrew Johns admitted regularly taking recreational drugs during his career.

Under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, athletes are tested for recreational drugs only on game days, but the Australian federal government yesterday flagged that anyone who plays top-level sport faces being tested for illicit drugs at any time. It proposes extending the powers of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to enable such testing.

But Drug Free Sport New Zealand chief executive Graeme Steel told the Sunday Star- Times that out-of-competition testing in New Zealand would escalate lab costs alone by $150 a sample and questioned whether DFSNZ should be the agency to deal with recreational drug problems in sport. "There are significant problems trying to shoehorn in a recreational drug testing programme alongside a performance-enhancing related programme.

"They're entirely different issues and they need different responses. To take a specific substance because you feel like you might get a better result in a sporting competition . . . is entirely different from doing something because it makes you feel good with your mates. When you take a performance- enhancing drug you're cheating - it's a kind of fraud - you're trying to get a result you haven't earned. Therefore a severe penalty is warranted.

"If you are taking recreational drugs, you're probably harming your health, but you're not getting an advantage that you wouldn't otherwise have. So the same range of penalties in our view are not appropriate." No sports in New Zealand have an in-house recreational drug- testing programme.

In the year to June 30, there were 12 positive results from DFSNZ tests in New Zealand, 11 for cannabis and one for BZP, found in party pills.

Source: Gary Birkett. Party drug tests queried. Sunday Star Times (2 sep 2007) [FullText]

NFL & Doping

2007-09-06T13:44:00.000+03:00

Source: Bob Ford. No surprise: We're coping with doping. philly.com (3 Sept 2007) [FullText]

"In a sports weekend full of shocks and surprises - the Appalachian State upset of Michigan, a baseball no-hitter by a guy who looks to be about 12 years old, the Eagles getting their own roster cuts wrong on their official Web site - the news that Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots was caught using human growth hormone was pretty far down the list of things difficult to believe.
Perhaps it is just a national fatigue with stories about performance-enhancing drugs, or perhaps sports fans don't really care if their heroes cheat, or perhaps once you have an average looking fellow chunk up and hit 73 home runs, everything else is going to pale in the pharmaceutical game of can-you-top-this.

But there was Rodney, admitting to the commissioner that he used a "banned substance," which sources later confirmed was HGH. He obtained it to help him recover from knee surgery and get back on the field for his 14th season at the age of 34.

Which he will.

If the NFL were one of the organizations that operates under the World Anti-Doping Agency code - which includes every Olympic sport - Harrison would be banned for a minimum of two years, an automatic consequence in that other world.

In Rodney Harrison's world, however, he will get a four-game suspension, which makes cheating the equivalent of an ankle sprain, and not a high ankle sprain, either.

The reaction to the bust of Harrison has been muted around the league and actually supportive in the area of the New England fan base. He isn't just another player up there. He is a huge part of what has become a Patriots dynasty, as well as the NFL's all-time leader in sacks by a defensive back. He's the only player in league history to record at least 25 sacks and at least 30 interceptions in his career.

In New England, the reaction has gone like this: Gosh, Rodney is a great guy and it's a shame he did that, but he only wanted to do anything he could to get back on the field for the Pats and, if you fault him, you have to fault him for caring too much.

"My purpose was never to gain a competitive edge," Harrison said in a statement. "Rather, my use was solely for the purpose of accelerating the healing process of injuries I sustained while playing football."

For their part, Patriots' fans would just as soon Harrison get a parade for his actions, not a suspension.

The same reaction would happen anywhere. Harrison is to New England what, say, Brian Dawkins is to Philadelphia. If the situation took place here, the reaction would be identical. A guy on another team who takes performance-enhancing drugs to recover from injury is a cheater and a guy on my team who does so is a gutty competitor who made a tiny error in judgment.

Four weeks into the season, Harrison will be back as if nothing ever happened, just as Shawne Merriman of San Diego came back from his four-week steroid vacation last season and made the Pro Bowl. Even the NFL was a little embarrassed by that. Beginning this year, a player can't be selected to the Pro Bowl if he was suspended during the season. So, Rodney Harrison can't get to Hawaii, but otherwise he'll be good to go.

It only takes a quick Google to find many Internet sites willing to sell HGH, and touting the "Fountain of Youth" properties of the hormone, which replaces the ever-diminishing pituitary gland output, allowing for more muscle, less fat, stronger tendons and ligaments and quick recovery from workouts and injuries. Unless it's used wrong, of course, in which case it can kill you. But that's definitely in the fine print.

Administered under the direction of a reputable physician in the proper amounts, HGH is popular because it works. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it has become the drug of choice among professional athletes. When Arizona pitcher Jason Grimsley got his HGH in the mail last year, just minutes before the feds knocked on the door, he was asked how many baseball players use the drug. "Boatloads," said Grimsley, who named names, reportedly Roger Clemens', although no one paid very much attention because it was just another one of those drug stories.

Just last week, quarterback Tim Couch admitted that he used HGH to recover from surgery and Cowboys assistant coach Wade Wilson was found to have gotten the hormone from an Internet site, purportedly in order to control diabetes. Why he would choose an online Dr. B. Young over a more legitimate source of medical care is an unanswered question.

And there is more to come, perhaps not "boatloads" since most players are smart enough to distance themselves from the actual transactions, but there will be more.

There will be more because a reliable urine test for HGH doesn't exist. Even the blood tests are open to challenge, and none of the players' unions allow blood testing, anyway, so that's a moot point. The big leagues in American sports don't test for HGH and that makes it open season, regardless of what they say about getting tough on drugs. Guys are going to slip up like Harrison and get caught because they were sloppy, but no one will test positive - at least not now.

Get ready, then, for more stories, and a deeper fatigue beneath their weight. Don't expect more shocks or surprises, though. We're a long way past that."

Source: Bob Ford. No surprise: We're coping with doping. philly.com (3 Sept 2007) [FullText]

British Olympic Association must take decision, IOC's Rogge says

2007-09-04T13:44:00.000+03:00

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insists the decision on whether Christine Ohuruogu should be allowed to compete in Beijing next year can only be made in Britain.

The 23-year-old took gold in the 400metres at the World Championships in Osaka last week, just days after completing a suspension for missing three out-of-competition drugs tests.

Ohuruogu was allowed to compete in Japan under UK Athletics rules, yet is banned from future Olympic participation by British Olympic Association regulations. Her appeal against that decision is due to be heard next month.

And Rogge, in London for a sponsorship extension signing ceremony with electronics giants Panasonic, made it clear whatever was decided by the BOA would be good enough for the IOC.

He said: "My view is very simple - this is a matter for the British Olympic Association."..."

Source: British Olympic Association must take decision, IOC's Rogge says. Jon West, PA Sport (lasy viewed 4 sep 2007) [FullText]

Cobalt salts administration to athletes: a new treat?

2006-03-21T18:54:00.000+02:00

Citation: Giuseppe Lippi, Massimo Franchini, Gian Cesare Guidi. Cobalt salts administration to athletes: a new treat? Doping J News (17 March 2006). Available at: http://dopingjournal.org/news/

Authors: Giuseppe Lippi, Massimo Franchini, Gian Cesare Guidi

Authors Institution: Istituto di Chimica e Microscopia Clinica, Dipartimento di Scienze Morfologico-Biomediche, Università degli Studi di Verona, Ospedale Policlinico G.B. Rossi, Piazzale Scuro, 10, 37134, Verona, Italy; Servizio di Immunoematologia e Trasfusione, Azienda Ospedaliera di Verona, Verona, Italy.

News Release text: Verona, Italy -- (17 March 2006) -- Competition is connatural to human and animal nature. There is rather a long history of techniques and substances employed to enhance the athletic performance and to achieve unfair success in sport, with little knowledge or acceptance of potential detrimental effects on the health (Ref. 1). Owing to the favourable effects on endurance performance and recovery, blood doping has become commonplace to endurance sport disciplines over the past decade (Ref. 2). The currently accepted definition of blood doping contemplates methods or substances administered for non-medical reasons to healthy athletes for improving the aerobic performances. Therefore, it includes means aimed to produce an increased or more efficient mechanism of oxygen transport and delivery to peripheral tissues and muscles. In endurance sports like cycling, triathlon, cross-country skiing or marathon running, boosting the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity can enhance performances by over 20%. Following the commercial availability of erythropoiesis stimulating substances, namely recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEpo), a black market for it quickly developed. The numerous physiological and practical advantages of Epo encouraged the wide diffusion of this innovative doping technique, which rapidly emerged as a major issue for the public health (Ref. 3). It was not until some years later that reliable laboratory tests for detecting rHuEpo became available (Ref. 4). Given the elite athlete's innate inclination to experiment with novel doping strategies, the scientific community might be facing a new, unpredictable crisis. It is well established that induction of a mild hypoxic condition generates a wide series of adaptative responses (Ref. 5). In the clinical practice, cobalt chloride is administered to treat some forms of anemia. In animal models, the administration of cobalt chloride promotes selective powerful activation of hypoxic genes, including the Epo gene (Ref. 6). The final result of this cobalt-promoted genetic induction is enhanced Epo production and more efficient stimulation of the erythropoietic response, achievable at the moderate oral dose of 30 mg/kg (Ref. 7).
Although high serum cobalt has been anecdotally reported in athletes (8), there are as yet no definitive evidences of its administration to improve the athletic performances. Nevertheless, we can not rule out that cobalt misuse in athletes might become a serious risk for the very next future, along with gene doping (Refs. 6, 7). Inorganic cobalt salts administration is potential detrimental for the athlete’s health, as it largely accumulates in liver and kidney, promoting organ damage and dysfunction due to enhanced oxidative stress, even at a low dosage of 33.3 mg/kg (Ref. 6). Excessive cobalt administration might also negatively influence the thyroid activity. Owing to this severe and unpredictable side effects, cobalt chloride administration might reveal as a serious threat for the scientific community and for the athletes’ health. Cobalt is not currently included within the list of banned substances issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Although, testing for cobalt administration during competition may lead to wasted efforts, as its pharmacodynamic properties discourage misuse near or at the time of competition, effective strategies for unmask this potentially deleterious doping practice are compelling. Accordingly, the WADA is currently working on the introduction of cobalt salts testing within revised antidoping panels (Ref. 8).

References:
1. Lippi G, Guidi G. Doping and sports. Minerva Med 1999;90:345-57;
2. Lippi G, Franchini M. The new frontiers of blood doping. Recenti Prog Med 2002;93:1-8 ;
3. Lippi G, Guidi G. Laboratory screening for erythropoietin abuse in sport: an emerging challenge. Clin Chem Lab Med 2000;38:13-9 ;
4. Lippi G, Franchini M, Guidi G. Second generation blood tests to detect erythropoietin abuse by athletes: effective but not preventive? Haematologica 2004;89(4):ELT05 ;
5. Lippi G, Montagnana M, Guidi GC. Albumin cobalt binding and ischemia modified albumin generation: An endogenous response to ischemia? Int J Cardiol 2006;108:410-1
6. Lippi G, Guidi GC. Gene manipulation and improvement of athletic performances: new strategies in blood doping. Br J Sports Med 2004;38:641
7. Lippi G, Franchini M, Guidi GC. Cobalt chloride administration in athletes: a new perspective in blood doping? Br J Sports Med 2005;39:872-3
8. Arribas C. Alerta, cobalto en la sangre. El Pais, 20 February 2006.

Blood journal study suggests IOC testing for erythropoietin is faked

2006-02-25T03:19:00.002+02:00

Rehovot, Israel -- (23 February 2006) -- The study published in the major international scientific journal on blood science and medicine suggests International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) testing for Erythropoietin (Epo) is based on faked science.

Erythropoietin (Epo) is a glycoprotein hormone that is mainly produced by the kidney. It boosts the production of red blood cells by promoting the proliferation, differentiation and survival of progenitor cells of the erythroid lineage. Recombinant human Epo (rhEpo) is widely used for the treatment of various forms of anaemia. Since rhEpo increases the body's maximum oxygen consumption capacity and endurance by increasing red cell mass, it has also been embraced as an aid in endurance sports. However, this use of Epo was prohibited by IOC and WADA , which has led to the screening of athletes for rhEpo abuse.

Endogenous and recombinant human forms of Epo have different pattern of molecule modification called glycosylation. Such a tiny difference between natural Epo, its' biotechnological and structural analogs (such as Darbepoetin) leads to the molecule electric charge differences that have been exploited to distinguish endogenous and recombinant isoforms by a so called isoelectric focusing technique.

The adopted by WADA urine test for EPO is based on a combination of isoelectric focusing on a gel (a semi-analytical separation of proteins according to the molecules' net electric charge), the transfer of proteins from gel to a special paper and protein detection by a double immunoblotting, not well established complicated and operator-dependent procedure to immunologically detect proteins of interest with an antibody color reaction.

In the Blood journal study research group led by Associate Professor Monique Beullens and Professor Mathieu Bollen (of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) and their colleague Dr. Joris R Delanghe (of the Department of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital, Gent, Belgium) shows that widely-used by IOC and WADA Epo test can lead to the false-positive detection of rhEpo in post-exercise, protein-rich urine of the endurance sports athletes.

As a result of a disputed case of alleged rhEpo-abuse by an endurance athlete with post-exercise proteinuria, European scientists wondered whether the test for rhEpo can lead to false-positive results, perhaps as a result of cross-reactivity of the Epo-antibodies with unrelated to Epo other proteins of urine.

Straightforward experimental protocol of the reported study leaves little doubt that the major urinary protein that WADA test visualizes with the ani-Epo antibodies is not Epo.

The article by Belgian scientists therefore challenges WADA claim that "the detection method for EPO is valid and reliable." Similarly faulty now sounds another WADA statement that the method for Epo detection "has undergone an extensive scientific validation..." and that "it is a well-established procedure widely accepted by the scientific community, as demonstrated by publication in a number of international scientific journals."

Contrary to WADA claim, the Doping Journal analysis of citation impact of earlier publications on Epo testing in urine indicates IOC/WADA method for Epo testing is not scientifically popular/accepted or well-established. An in depth analysis of the articles behind the IOCs' urine test for Epo shows these earlier publications missed critical control experiments and were not designed to exclude non-specific false-positive misidentification of other non-Epo urine components.

Therefore "The 2006 Prohibited List" section S2 on "Hormones and Related Substances" of The World Anti-Doping Code (stating with regard to Epo that "unless the athlete can demonstrate that the [Epo] concentration was due to a physiological or pathological condition" [an urine sample] deemed to contain a prohibited substance Epo") provides the grounds for blood doping corruption by IOC and WADA, abuses athletes, and obstructs Olympic play true principal.

The study published in an advanced online publication of the Blood, suggest that WADA data on blood doping are invalid, and that innocent athletes could lost their Olympic medals because of IOC and WADA misconduct. Latest possible IOC false detection of Epo took place at Salt Lake City during Winter Olympic Games 2002, when two Russian cross-country skiers (Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova) and one Spanish athlete (Johann Muehlegg) were stripped off their medals after testing positive for Epo analog Darbepoietin. The present Blood study published during the XX Olympic Games 2006 in Turin, Italy, indicates Olympic champions could wrongly suffer IOC sanctions.

Other aspects of the misconduct by IOC's WADA are analysed in the leading article of the just published first issue of the newly established International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.

Blood ( www.bloodjournal.org ) is the Journal of the American Society of Hematology, the major peer reviewed international journal on science and medicine of blood with very high latest impact factors of 10 .

Doping Journal ( www.dopingjournal.org ) is an independent non-profit international peer-reviewed scholar publication on every aspect of doping science. It is a so called Open Access (OA) publication available free of charge to everyone with a computer and an Internet connection. It is indexed by the National Library of Medicine USA, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and a great number of academic and public libraries worldwide. The multinational readership trend of the Doping Journal can be accessed at the journal readers' map.

For more information contact Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD, editor, Doping Journal, P.O.Box 1665, Rehovot 76100 Israel, tel: (972 54) 796-8607 , postmaster[at]dopingjournal.org

For a link-rich text of this news release follow this link

Blood journal study suggests IOC testing for erythropoietin is faked

2006-02-25T03:19:00.001+02:00

Blood journal study suggests IOC testing for erythropoietin is faked

2006-02-25T03:19:00.000+02:00

The Doping Journal and Neurobiology of Lipids share the legacy of the new NIH public-access policy

2005-02-08T09:07:00.000+02:00

Doping Journal shares its sister publication welcome address to the NIH New Policy on Open Access:

"Neurobiology of Lipids (NoL) welcomes the announcement by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) new "Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research" effective May 2, 2005. The NIH requests the Agency grant recipients to deposit resulting publications in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central (PMC, a free governmental archive of the life sciences literature) within 12 months since originally published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The article deposition in NIH archive will no doubt benefit the scholars themselves. This is because deposition in PMC archive will ensure the publication is preserved for future generations and gets maximum and barrier-free exposure to both peers and the public. For the Policy wording on these and other issues (such as reliability of article access at PMC site and their integration with other NIH Databases) please see original NIH document:

Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research.
Notice Number: NOT-OD-05-022 (Release Date: February 3, 2005; Effective Date: May 2, 2005).
Issued by National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Freely available at this link.

While the new Policy calls for the voluntary submission of final author manuscripts and does not affect the ability to copyright, all NIH grantees now have a new issue to consider when selecting the journal to publish at. To fulfill the NIH request, authors publishing in the majority of the traditional journals (i.e. those where authors transfer copyright to the publisher) will have to go through a process of resubmitting their papers to the PubMed Central archive. Moreover, the authors will often need to select for PMC archive the manuscript version with the changes introduced during the publication procedure, because many publishers (ex. Elsevier) allow archiving of the author's version of the manuscript only.

Neurobiology of Lipids has met the National Library of Medicine quality requirement for PubMed Central archiving and is presently successfully working on bringing its' prior publications' collection into the Extensible Markup Language (XML) files' format (suitable for deposition in PMC) using just released latest version 2.0 of the National Library of Medicine XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for journal publishing.

While taking the advantage of an irreversible Internet and desktop publishing technology development and their end user availability at almost no cost, Neurobiology of Lipids is also originating the research project aiming to develop the software tool that will make direct publishing (to an appropriate XML file compliant with NIH DTD) as simple, as web form submission (that any of you use while performing on-line bank transaction, interlibrary loan request, an Institution internal services operation or thousand other purposes). Such tool will be essential for independent journals (encouraged by Neurobiology of Lipids and similarly built on a concept of a non-profit model for cost-effective independent scholar journals), their authors, Academic Institutions setting their own archives, and individual scientists, willing to deposit their articles in a modern XML file format. NoL is open for partnership by any interested party and has open opportunities for Graduate students to participate in this and other projects.

Therefore, when Neurobiology of Lipids archiving in PMC is implemented, any article published in the journal will meet the NIH new Policy, immediately and without any need for additional archiving works by authors.

Starting this week XML files for NoL articles will be also available at NoL (as an additional link at articles' web pages) and offered for syndication (as it was earlier implemented for NoL Global Newsstand, indexing NoL articles' abstracts and NoL noteworthy articles published in other journals). Our authors will thus save the time and effort of going through the deposition process themselves. They can also freely use their articles in XML format for Institutional archives or other purposes. The other benefits of publishing in NoL include the rapid, fair and quality peer review, fast publication and high visibility of Neurobiology of Lipids among those working in the filed (as verified by NoL readership of about 1/3-1/4 of the readership of the major Journal of Lipid Research published since 1959) and wide geographical distribution of NoL readers (Neurobiol Lipids World Reader's Map can be viewed by clicking on a map logo at the bottom of the journal home page).

Another opportunity offered by NIH PMC archiving is to link an article to any other publication via related article feature of the DTD. This feature creates an important technical background for NoL call for commentaries and letters to the editor on related/noteworthy articles appeared in other journals. The NIH DTD feature will make sure such communication arising matters when published in NoL are linked in NIH databases to original publications in other journals.

Surely, Neurobiology of Lipids welcomes researchers in the field of neuroscience of fats to consider publishing in the Neurobiology of Lipids all types of articles, and to consider for publication other journals depositing full text articles (not just abstracts!) in PubMed Central. NoL also welcomes industry members to consider establishing funds to support authors publishing in NoL.

Neurobiology of Lipids urges funding bodies worldwide to follow the pioneering NIH policy, and calls for other scholar scientific technical and medical (STM) journals to comply with the NIH request on behalf of their authors.

Further info/contact:
Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD
Editor
Neurobiology of Lipids
P.O.Box 1665
Rehovot 76100
Israel"

Source: Neurobiology of Lipids welcomes the new National Institutes of Health Public Access policy Neurobiology of Lipids Newsstand (7 February 2005) [Full Text].

BALCO drugs shopping list revealed

2004-11-16T11:48:00.000+02:00

Citation: Magnay J. BALCO drugs shopping list revealed. Doping J. Vol. 1, 2 (24 Sep 2004). Available at: http://dopingjournal.org/content/1/2/

Abstract: High-profile US athletes being chased by the US Anti-Doping Agency in the BALCO affair have been shown some of the evidence against them, including a shopping list of illegal drugs and a price list. The documents show being a drug cheat is not cheap. A five-month BALCO program believed to include banned drugs erythropoietin, designer steroids, growth hormone and a testosterone cream costs $US6355 ($9221). In addition there is a mandatory medical program including blood testing at $400 a month, medical consultations costing over $US10,000 and biweekly urine testing - essential for monitoring when an athlete may fail a drugs test. And if an athlete tasted success, the cheques for the company were to keep rolling in. If a client set a personal best time they were to pay BALCO $10,000. For a world record the price is $20,000. World Anti-Doping Agency chief executive David Howman told The Sydney Morning Herald his agency was confident in the USADA processes and revealed "some athletes are talking". He said the USADA was gathering first-hand evidence before charging athletes.

Author: Jacquelin Magnay
Authors Institution: C/o The Sydney Morning Herald, P.O. Box 506 Sydney NSW 2001l Australia e.mail: djnewsauthor[at]dopingjournal.org

Key words: doping; blood-doping; anti-doping; WADA; doping cheat; sports; athlete health; nutritional supplement; International Olympic committee IOC medical commission

Doping by the pool?

2004-11-16T11:40:00.000+02:00

Citation: Koudinov AR. Doping by the pool? Doping J Vol. 1, 1 (27 Aug 2004). Available at: http://dopingjournal.org/content/1/1/

Abstract: Do you watch Olympic Games in Athens? I was forced to when my national swimming team did not get any medal contrasting with the success of the US and Australian athletes. Just before competition all seemed ready to compete and win, but only few were wearing headphones and listening music. Why not all are in equal condition, is it fair, my daughter noted? Research published previously (J Nurs Res. 2003 Sep; 11(3): 209-16) showed that in humans music makes saturation of oxyhemoglobin (SPO(2)) significantly higher (compared with controls not receiving music therapy, p<0.01), and that under music therapy the level of oxygen saturation returns to the baseline faster compared to controls receiving no music, p<0.01), making it hard to detect the transient oxygen saturation shortly thereafter. The statistically significant higher SPO(2) level indicates the "enhancement of oxygen transfer", and implies that "music by the pool" is a prohibited by The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in-competition blood-doping method of "the use of products that enhance the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen," apparently conflicting with the essense of olympism, and WADA call for "ethics, fair play and honesty." If so, should the Athens Olympic games 2004 swimming results be corrected?

Author: Alexei R. Koudinov
Authors Institution: Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation, c/o P.O.Box 1665, Rehovot 76100 Israel. e.mail: alexei[at]koudinov.info

Key words: Anti-Doping; Doping; Blood-doping; enhancement of oxygen transfer; Medical; Sports Medicine; Research; Open Access Peer-Reviewed Journal; Athens 2004 Olympic games; Swimming; Olymic movement; IOC; International Olympic Committee; WADA; FINA; Michael Phelps; Ian Thorpe; IOC medical commission