Pushtoday
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has announced it will not add thyroid drugs to the 2016 WADA Prohibited Substances List.
WADA has decided thyroid medications such as, Cytomel (T3) and Synthroid (T4) do not meet the current criteria for inclusion on the banned substances list, not meeting scientific requirements.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) have both attempted to persuade WADA to include these drugs, but to no avail. They argue they enhance performance by accelerating fat loss.
Bodybuilders have long used thyroid drugs during fat loss phases and pre-competition periods to enhance fat burning. Athletes have also widely used T3 and T4 when weight categories exist, by boxers, MMA fighters and wrestlers hoping to meet weight limits. However, thyroid medications don’t actually enhance performance like other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), by increasing speed, power, strength or muscle growth. Though some endocrinologist agree it does enhance performance.
Doctors can prescribe thyroid drugs T3 and T4 for athletes with hypothyroidism. This is a condition where the body fails to emit its own endogenous thyroid hormones, or emits them at a reduced level. Many athletes have benefited from thyroid medications due to this condition.
Floyd Landis, who was caught cheating by using anabolic steroids at the time of his win of the Tour de France in 2006, admitted he was using thyroid drugs.
The BALCO mastermind, Victor Conte, claimed that Cytomel was a performance-enhancing drug and gave the medication to some of his elite level clients caught cheating around the year 2000.
Endurance athletes are a group most widely known to use thyroid compounds. As many as 5 runners training under Alberto Salazar for the Nike-sponsored Oregon Project, are said to suffer from hypothyroidism and use T3 and/or T4.
Dr. Jeffrey Brown is a well-known advocate of using Cytomel in athletes and claims to have prescribed T3 to as many as 15 Olympic gold medalists. One of which was Carl Lewis in 1966. Brown boasts his prescription of thyroid drugs helps his clients win medals.
USADA and many endocrinologists disagree with Brown on a scientific basis. Many feel Brown diagnosis’s hypothyroidism far too easily, thinking that T3 and T4 enhance performance. Brown argues it returns his clients to optimal health, therefore making them perform better.
The chief operating officer for WADA, Olivier Niggli, agrees with Brown and states it helps return deficient athletes in natural thyroid hormones to normal health. Dismissing concerns raised by UKAD and USADA he said:
”I tend to be prudent because science tends to evolve,” said Niggli. ”I’m always suspicious when so many of them are using it. So, if they do use it, what benefit do they find? But we have to rely on science. Today, science is telling us, `No, we don’t think it works.’ But I think we’re going to stay awake on this subject.”
With the most recent ruling, we’re going to go another year before WADA again comes back to the science on whether or not thyroid drugs truly boost performance in athletes or not.
WADA has decided thyroid medications such as, Cytomel (T3) and Synthroid (T4) do not meet the current criteria for inclusion on the banned substances list, not meeting scientific requirements.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) have both attempted to persuade WADA to include these drugs, but to no avail. They argue they enhance performance by accelerating fat loss.
Bodybuilders have long used thyroid drugs during fat loss phases and pre-competition periods to enhance fat burning. Athletes have also widely used T3 and T4 when weight categories exist, by boxers, MMA fighters and wrestlers hoping to meet weight limits. However, thyroid medications don’t actually enhance performance like other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), by increasing speed, power, strength or muscle growth. Though some endocrinologist agree it does enhance performance.
Doctors can prescribe thyroid drugs T3 and T4 for athletes with hypothyroidism. This is a condition where the body fails to emit its own endogenous thyroid hormones, or emits them at a reduced level. Many athletes have benefited from thyroid medications due to this condition.
Floyd Landis, who was caught cheating by using anabolic steroids at the time of his win of the Tour de France in 2006, admitted he was using thyroid drugs.
The BALCO mastermind, Victor Conte, claimed that Cytomel was a performance-enhancing drug and gave the medication to some of his elite level clients caught cheating around the year 2000.
Endurance athletes are a group most widely known to use thyroid compounds. As many as 5 runners training under Alberto Salazar for the Nike-sponsored Oregon Project, are said to suffer from hypothyroidism and use T3 and/or T4.
Dr. Jeffrey Brown is a well-known advocate of using Cytomel in athletes and claims to have prescribed T3 to as many as 15 Olympic gold medalists. One of which was Carl Lewis in 1966. Brown boasts his prescription of thyroid drugs helps his clients win medals.
USADA and many endocrinologists disagree with Brown on a scientific basis. Many feel Brown diagnosis’s hypothyroidism far too easily, thinking that T3 and T4 enhance performance. Brown argues it returns his clients to optimal health, therefore making them perform better.
The chief operating officer for WADA, Olivier Niggli, agrees with Brown and states it helps return deficient athletes in natural thyroid hormones to normal health. Dismissing concerns raised by UKAD and USADA he said:
”I tend to be prudent because science tends to evolve,” said Niggli. ”I’m always suspicious when so many of them are using it. So, if they do use it, what benefit do they find? But we have to rely on science. Today, science is telling us, `No, we don’t think it works.’ But I think we’re going to stay awake on this subject.”
With the most recent ruling, we’re going to go another year before WADA again comes back to the science on whether or not thyroid drugs truly boost performance in athletes or not.
