Performance Enhancing Drugs

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I figured this fit best in the "long distance runners" group as it pertains to ultra-marathon runners.

I'm a Wilderness First Responder and a member of the Wilderness Medical Society. In this month's journal, I came across this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wem.2018.04.004

(Disclaimer: I'm not sure if non-WMS members can see the full text or not.)

It is self-reported, which usually means a lower than true result for something like PED's. The author acknowledges the lack of accuracy, but I'm still very surprised at the results. 8.4% said they had used PED's! That is surprising high.

Unfortunately, the data doesn't describe what kind of PED's, but only 26% of those who took PED's say they helped improve performance. So I'm guessing there are a lot of people taking PED's for other reasons... there were questions about social and medical uses as well, but it is tough to stack the data up based on how the questions are worded. Or, it could be that they took PED's and then did not see the results expected.

Still... 8.4%!

MNLittleFinn

I'm not surprised at the number really. As the sport grows, there will be more people who are in it for the competitive nature, not just out there to test themselves against the wild and the clock, and to enjoy nature. It would be interesting to see what kinds of PEDs were being used. Too bad the report doesn't say. Technically, Caffeine can be a PED, and LOTS of people are using that.... considering that Coke is found at a lot of AS's

T1DCarnivoreRunner

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

I'm not surprised at the number really. As the sport grows, there will be more people who are in it for the competitive nature, not just out there to test themselves against the wild and the clock, and to enjoy nature. It would be interesting to see what kinds of PEDs were being used. Too bad the report doesn't say. Technically, Caffeine can be a PED, and LOTS of people are using that.... considering that Coke is found at a lot of AS's

Yes, I agree it would be nice to know. I'm thinking the authors are talking about substances on the WADA list, but perhaps that was not clear. It doesn't seem clear in the questions, but I doubt too many would consider caffeine as a PED. Part of why I think it would be nice to know is because I would guess quite a bit of the 8.4% is cannabis, which would explain why 74% say it didn't improve performance.

MobyCarp

"Cannabinoids, narcotics, and stimulants were the PEDs that were most frequently reported."

IOW, some of the respondents considered their marijuana to be a performance-enhancing drug. Technically, caffeine is a stimulant; how much does it enhance performance?

I seem to recall reading some article a long time ago discussing how Babe Ruth arguably may have got a performance enhancing effect from his well documented use of alcohol; but alcohol is not generally considered a PED or banned by athletic organizations. (Maybe banned by NASCAR? LOL.)

I can't read the full article without paying, but off the top of my head I'd think NSAIDs would help me hold up through an ultra more than cannabinoids would. Not that I'm eager to go run 30 miles on NSAIDs; I'm not keen on making it even easier to injure myself.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Caffeine definitely enhances performance, but not a PED. I personally would not survive at all without caffeine, so it surely enhances my performance. I could see how cannabis would help with pain, fatigue, and maybe even just general mental weariness experienced during ultra-marathons.