Doping in other sports

[AndyRM]

You are correct.

Mrs D is on Kilimanjaro, GP presdribed, not for weight loss (shes 11 stone and size 12) but because its been found to have an effect on some diabetes patients that is nothing short of miraculous.

Will she be hoisting a pair of y-fronts at the summit?

 

[mjr]

My understanding of them may be wrong but I thought they worked by suppressing appetite so the drug itself isn’t ’burning fat’ as the tabloids like to claim. The person taking them is therefore losing the weight by eating less, they’re just getting some help in doing that. If that understanding is right then I really don’t see an issue.

I suspect the concern is that athletes may be pressured into suppressing their appetite to lose weight to a dangerous extent. Diuretics are banned and I don't think they're directly performance enhancing.

 

[MadMalx]

I suspect the concern is that athletes may be pressured into suppressing their appetite to lose weight to a dangerous extent. Diuretics are banned and I don't think they're directly performance enhancing.

Diuretic weight loss is immediate and involves losing body water. Main use is to excrete a PED faster to avoid detection, or to meet a weight limit in a fighting sport or horseracing. The weight goes back on with rehydration.
This is a bit different, in my mind, to drug-assisted dieting. You can’t legislate for self-starvation either.

 

[Pross]

I suspect the concern is that athletes may be pressured into suppressing their appetite to lose weight to a dangerous extent. Diuretics are banned and I don't think they're directly performance enhancing.

It's very different as MM says. There are also not many sports I can think of where being hungry and therefore lacking fuel would be a good thing.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

It's very different as MM says. There are also not many sports I can think of where being hungry and therefore lacking fuel would be a good thing.

However, many sports performances rely on strong power to weight ratios. Reducing weight below a healthy sporting weight, (or simply eliminating excess calories) and then loading calories, might get power to weight ratios back to competitive levels. If weight-loss drugs were used in this kind of way, they would almost by definition be performance enhancing, wouldn't they? The question then is whether they harm the user.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Diuretic weight loss is immediate and involves losing body water. Main use is to excrete a PED faster to avoid detection, or to meet a weight limit in a fighting sport or horseracing. The weight goes back on with rehydration.
This is a bit different, in my mind, to drug-assisted dieting. You can’t legislate for self-starvation either.

Perhaps a better comparison is with the ban on altitude tens and carbon monoxide inhalation. Both are ways to stimulate production of red blood cells and hence O2 carrying capacity. Is one doping and the other not? I don't see how using drugs to suppress appetite so you eat less and lose weight is much different to sleeping in a tent at low O2 so your body produces more blood cells.

 

[Pross]

Perhaps a better comparison is with the ban on altitude tens and carbon monoxide inhalation. Both are ways to stimulate production of red blood cells and hence O2 carrying capacity. Is one doping and the other not? I don't see how using drugs to suppress appetite so you eat less and lose weight is much different to sleeping in a tent at low O2 so your body produces more blood cells.

The ban on altitude tents seems stupid to me though.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The ban on altitude tents seems stupid to me though.

AFAIK they (tents/chambers) aren't banned universally - not by WADA at least. I suppose the thinking goes that it's a passive way to gain advantage and training should be active, and miserable. If that is indeed the argument (I'm guessing) it does seem a bit reminiscent of some of the restrictions from the days of amateurism when just taking things seriously was seen as a potential form of cheating.

As to weight loss drugs, it's interesting. They may not be directly performance enhancing, but they are prescription drugs with specific therapeutic uses. Taking them purely for the purposes of sport does seem iffy and raises the possibility of competitors being pressured to toke them outside of their proper medical context which could be dangerous and/or unethical.

Mind you, BITD when I first heard of autologous blood doping it seemed to me to be a natural, if somewhat extreme, thing to do. But then I hadn't really given it much thought.