superdrol mentioned in newspaper article

[Patrick Arnold]

Cheating athletes know the tricks


In white coats, over bubbling beakers, they would toil in obscure laboratories, creating ever more complex molecules to mimic the muscle-building hormone testosterone.

Some nefarious boy geniuses cooking up the latest designer drug to enhance athletic performances?

Nope.

They were pioneering chemists, working in the first fervour pitch of anabolic steroid science more than four decades ago.

Caught up in the initial thrall of the new steroid field, they created dozens of variations of the artificial male hormone. Unwittingly, they left an extensive menu for modern-day cheaters who are rummaging through their dusty, forgotten papers to find substances to beat an increasingly rigorous drug-testing system.

With accusations cropping up again last week that Tour de France king Lance Armstrong was using a banned blood booster, the ongoing race between cheaters and those trying to catch them has again come into focus. And today, 17 years after sprinter Ben Johnson brought a compendium of anabolic steroid references into the Canadian consciousness, the race is still afoot and the winner far from certain.

"But they are not that clever, " Christiane Ayotte, head of the International Olympic Committee's accredited testing lab in Montreal, says of the modern steroid makers. "It was easy if you think about it."

Ayotte says pharmaceutical researchers working in the 1950s and '60s "just made a race" to synthesize as many testosterone-mimicking molecules as possible.

"What we're observing right now is these (cheating) guys today just looking in that literature," she says, "and they're picking the interesting molecules that were not put on the market by the pharmaceutical industry and having them synthesized somewhere."

Just who these modern chemists are is far from clear. They inhabit a murky underground that largely serves the sweaty gyms and fitness boutiques that have proliferated across the continent. But Ayotte says it's pretty clear the drugs are being sent to China to manufacture in bulk.

While those on the policing side have the same, or better, access to the old steroid literature, Ayotte says they lack the time or funding to construct the drugs themselves and therefore come up with a test for them.

"If I had only that to do, voila," she says, "but there are hearings, testing, arbitrations. There's too many of them and not enough of us."

The modified steroids are often found in so-called nutritional supplements, sold at gyms and health food stores as part of the multibillion-dollar bodybuilding and strength-training businesses. Among the most famous of these goosed supplements is androstenedione, a natural testosterone builder that helped baseball hulk Mark McGwire shatter the single-season home run record in 1998.

Another designer "supplement" known as THG was discovered during last year's infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) investigation. The probe into the California steroid scandal has ensnared several prominent athletes, including baseball superstars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, in its widening net.

While androstenedione and THG are now detectable and banned from most sports, the supplement game is ongoing, says Ayotte, who is now hot on the trail of another "secret" steroid herself.

"They're playing cat-and-mouse games," she says. "They change the structure of a (steroid) molecule and put it on the market in a supplement until the (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration says this is not permitted and then they change the molecule again."

One such supplement on the market is Superdrol, which Ayotte describes as "a potent steroid that should never have been allowed to be distributed for human beings." Until such products are shown to contain steroids, however, they can be legally purchased.

What's more important to elite athletes, however, is that these throwback molecules are undetectable during frequent, mandatory urine tests.

To a large extent, drug tests can only see what they're looking for, and every new steroid Ñ often created simply by twisting inert molecules into different shapes Ñ requires a new test and its own place on a banned substance list. (The IOC's list is the banned substance Bible for most international sports.)

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suggested freezing relevant portions of blood or urine samples until new tests come on line. The threat that athletes will be retroactively disqualified or shamed may act as a deterrent to taking designer drugs now, the agency argues.

Armstrong's purported positive test, reported last week in a French sports journal, suggested the seven-time Tour de France winner had elevated levels of the blood-building agent EPO (erythropoietin) in a urine sample he gave during his 1999 victory. That was before EPO could be properly detected in urine samples. Armstrong's urine Ñ the B sample from that originally negative test Ñ had been frozen until last year, when scientists outside Paris used it for EPO "research."

Dr. Andrew Pipe, former head of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and an acknowledged doping expert, says cycling has been an "incubator" for almost all of the banned substances now used in sports. But the new "designer drugs" are far from the most popular among athletes, no matter what their calibre, most experts say.

Pipe says athletes, whether elite or average, still gravitate most to the "tried and true" drugs that have shown results Ñ and are readily available. He says stanozolol, for which baseball star Rafael Palmeiro recently tested positive almost two decades after Johnson did the same, and blood builders such as EPO are still the substances of choice for those in the know. They just try to hide them better, Pipe says, and the methods used to hide these drugs rely both on masking ingenuity and a precision knowledge of testing schedules, experts say.

Created in the kidneys to boost red blood cell production, EPO is found at predictable levels in healthy men and women. But for testing purposes, these normal levels have been jacked up to cover the elevated concentrations that may well occur naturally in some people.

Cyclists may also inject themselves with saline solution in the time between racing and testing to lower EPO concentrations even further, testimony from several Tour riders has revealed.

Meanwhile, Ayotte says testers are growing more sophisticated in their detection methods.

The problem is, athletes and their handlers are becoming commensurately cagey. For example, it's been found that protease enzymes, which can be easily purchased in powder form from laboratory suppliers, can break down EPO rapidly.

"So they have a powder of protease on their hand and put it in the urine sample, then it can start to digest the EPO," she says.

Some sunscreen and hair-growth creams, smeared on the inside of a sample beaker, can also mask certain substances, Ayotte says. As well, while testing today is supposed to be random and unannounced, and while an athlete's whereabouts is supposed to be known year-round, many elite competitors can predict when they'll be asked to give samples, or hide from any testers who may be looking for them. She says athletes can and often train in far-flung locales, where they know their national testers will not follow.

And cyclists often hide in plain sight, Ayotte says, honing their skills, both athletic and pharmaceutical, at smaller, less affluent events where EPO tests at $300 (all figures U.S.) a shot are not performed. (Comprehensive steroid tests go for $130.)

As for that troubled sport itself, both Ayotte and Pipe say cycling officials should implement pre-race blood-screening procedures, looking for elevated levels of hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying component of blood.

So serious is the EPO crisis in cycling and other endurance sports that Pipe says international testing officials should largely forgo the policing of lesser offences, such as cold remedy use, and use their resources to fight the larger problem.

Indeed, Pipe says Olympic officials should consider dropping cycling from the Games until the sport has shown it can clean up its act.

--Toronto Star

[nni]

ruh-roh.






(countdown to ban begins........... now....)

[D-Termine]

****ty

[pu12en12g]

I bet superdrol sales skyrocket....

[nni]

I bet superdrol sales skyrocket....

and doctor's bills.

[Cogar]

Great posting, Pat. The media keeps spinning and the public will agree, since they have no other information. The article's claim that androstenedione helped Mark McGwire is proof that the article contains generalizations and junk science.

[dangetinthere]

it will be on the **** list; something better will come out!!
ya

[BringnIt]

"it will be on the **** list; something better will come out!!
ya"

Actually, what it does is just push the government one step closer to increasing legislation on supplementation as a whole. In my opinion, of course.

[Cogar]

"it will be on the **** list; something better will come out!!
ya"

Actually, what it does is just push the government one step closer to increasing legislation on supplementation as a whole. In my opinion, of course.

That's a good point. I also see this "movement for fairness in sports and the public safety" as part of a larger agenda. After all, the administration seems to be ignoring more pressing problems like the economy, etc. yet they spend time worrying about sports figures.

[freakie]

"a potent steroid that should never have been allowed to be distributed for human beings."

This from the same people that said DMT is a "dirty", ineffective steroid.

WADA will pretty much do and say anything to get more taxpayer money.

[cookdog]

sound like it's time to stock up on superdrol

[Patrick Arnold]

"it will be on the **** list; something better will come out!!
ya"

Actually, what it does is just push the government one step closer to increasing legislation on supplementation as a whole. In my opinion, of course.

this was a small article in a toronto newspaper. IN reality, Few will take notice or care. However, it may spark the curiousity of other news writers in the US and they may do their own research and more articles about this stuff may come out. Then important people may start taking notice

[freakie]

this was a small article in a toronto newspaper. IN reality, Few will take notice or care. However, it may spark the curiousity of other news writers in the US and they may do their own research and more articles about this stuff may come out. Then important people may start taking notice

Hey, as long as your name doesn't come up in one we should be alright.

[Bobby Nevada]

sound like it's time to stock up on superdrol

Werd

[Patrick Arnold]

"a potent steroid that should never have been allowed to be distributed for human beings."

This from the same people that said DMT is a "dirty", ineffective steroid.

WADA will pretty much do and say anything to get more taxpayer money.

There is a little bit of truth in what they said here. The toxicity profile of superdrol was probably too poor to make the cut as a pharmaceutical. Just like with methy-1-test. These may be things that the pharm companies discovered decades ago and may explain why these compounds never made it to market.

Of course this does not mean these compounds are deadly, they just don't have as good a risk/benefit ratio as approved pharmaceutical anabolics (winstrol, anavar, anadrol, dianabol etc)

[TNCEKM]

Thx for the heads up....bummer

[BringnIt]

"this was a small article in a toronto newspaper. IN reality, Few will take notice or care. However, it may spark the curiousity of other news writers in the US and they may do their own research and more articles about this stuff may come out. Then important people may start taking notice"

Actually, I was referring to both the cause-and-effect that you mentioned there (increased exposure leading to more stories, etc.) but more-so the cat-and-mouse situation as a whole. The government is obviously aware of the situation at least to a degree, and if companies keep circumventing the ban by altering compounds, the government may be forced to take further action.

[collegeHULK]

Hey, as long as your name doesn't come up in one we should be alright.

why you gotta go and say somthing like that?

[TNCEKM]

There is a little bit of truth in what they said here. The toxicity profile of superdrol was probably too poor to make the cut as a pharmaceutical. Just like with methy-1-test. These may be things that the pharm companies discovered decades ago and may explain why these compounds never made it to market.

Of course this does not mean these compounds are deadly, they just don't have as good a risk/benefit ratio as approved pharmaceutical anabolics (winstrol, anavar, anadrol, dianabol etc)

Drol over SD for a good risk/benifit ratio?????

[cookdog]

lets all hope that the word doesn't spread too much on superdrol. i just started getting into ph's right before the ban, so i only got in 2 cycles in. i am hoping to get more with superdrol.

[nni]

The article's claim that androstenedione helped Mark McGwire is proof that the article contains generalizations and junk science.

you mean the fact that cited documented fact?

[UberBerzerker]

Just who these modern chemists are is far from clear. They inhabit a murky underground that largely serves the sweaty gyms and fitness boutiques that have proliferated across the continent. But Ayotte says it's pretty clear the drugs are being sent to China to manufacture in bulk.
--Toronto Star

*UberBerzerker packs up his murky, underground basement laboratory and makes a few calls to 'clients' in China*

Time to move the operation!!

[PSKlifter]

theres always gotta be somethin...

[Cogar]

you mean the fact that cited documented fact?

I don't get your question. If you are assuming that McGwire used andro to accomplish what he did, that is wrong. When caught, he did "admit" to using andro, although everyone knows (or should know) that andro aromatizes too much to be effective. In other words, if he did use something, it was not andro. He just admitted to andro because it was legal and appeared more "innocent."

[nni]

I don't get your question. If you are assuming that McGwire used andro to accomplish what he did, that is wrong. When caught, he did "admit" to using andro, although everyone knows (or should know) that andro aromatizes too much to be effective. In other words, if he did use something, it was not andro. He just admitted to andro because it was legal and appeared more "innocent."

he admitted to using andro, whether you think that is right, wrong or accurate is inconsequential, you can't say an article is bunk because they site an admission. thats all i was saying.

[cookdog]

i'm not here to talk about the past

[freakie]

you mean the fact that cited documented fact?

I think he means that there is no way to prove that using andro contributed to him hitting the home runs.

[freakie]

*UberBerzerker packs up his murky, underground basement laboratory and makes a few calls to 'clients' in China*

Time to move the operation!!

<a <img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_6.gif' border=0></a>

[nni]

I think he means that there is no way to prove that using andro contributed to him hitting the home runs.

listen, i could start shooting up today, with a medley of every known roid/ph known to man, and it still wont help me hit 70+, maybe 1 or 2. my reason was stated in my post above .

[Cogar]

he admitted to using andro, whether you think that is right, wrong or accurate is inconsequential, you can't say an article is bunk because they site an admission. thats all i was saying.

Not quite.

What the article states:

Among the most famous of these goosed supplements is androstenedione, a natural testosterone builder that helped baseball hulk Mark McGwire shatter the single-season home run record in 1998.

What I stated:

The article's claim that androstenedione helped Mark McGwire is proof that the article contains generalizations and junk science.