Athletes using asthma to cheat

Excuse me for my apparent ignorance on this subject, but do asthma medications have an ergogenic effect? Can you direct me to the study that proves this? I think they took Sudafed off the banned list because no ergogenic effect was observed.

If this is so, how can it be cheating if no advantage occurs?

First off, a healthy person taking asthma meds may increase ventilation but it is highly doubtful that it will help performance. You can look these up on PubMed. No matter who exercises, you will see some drop off in ventilation with exercise specifically FEV1 (the amount of expired air in 1 minute). Asthmatics and EIA sufferers will have a greater than normal drop off in FEV1 (and other markers).

I believe that in the future WADA will adopt the stricter IOC regulations. As it stands now, one just needs a physicians approval for the meds and completion of a an abbreviated TUE.

If a person believes something helps then there is little one can do about it.

For specific posters:

Surprise!, anecdotal data is no data. You PR proves nothing.

Asthmatic (for real), the swimmer was Rick DeMont in 1972. It was a screw up by the USOC. More from Dan Patrick

http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2001/0202/1057642.html

Stealth, ventilation (moving air) is not the limiting factor in exercise in a healthy person. Therefore, "breathing easier" for a healthy person is not going to help. Again, you can search PubMed for studies where healthy folks were giving inhalers and showed no PERFORMANCE improvement (in other words they did not run faster or ski faster).

Hannsen, your example of being able to use rhEPO is just silly. Also, athletes can take Sudafed. Pseudoephedrine was removed from the prohibited list effective 2005. I guess you would not let diabetics compete either. Tell that to Gary Hall, Jr.

Mikewats, inhalers are not going to "bulk you up". If they are bulked up then you are likely to outrun them anyway!

Fruitbowl, if a person had a disease that required rhEPO, that athlete would not be allowed to compete as long as he/she was taking rhEPO. There is no exception to this rule. Anemia can be treated without rhEPO in an otherwise healthy person.

Asthmar, the only way to detect EIA is with an exercise challenge that you describe. I have EIA, but not asthma. My pulmonary function test is a classic example of EIA.

upandaway, the IOC standards are not subjective at all. It requires a 10 (or 12)% decrease in FEV1 using one of 4 protocols. Now, the level of drop off is subject to some argument (is it 10% or 15%). The check for asthma is not just looking at capacity. This is why those flowmeters are virtually useless. The measures require a measure of FEV1 and FEF50. The requirements for Athens seem to be off the IOC website and the last word I got was that the requirements for Beijing were not up yet.

The tests used to test urine samples can tell the difference between the inhaled steroids and anabolic steroids; they are different critters.

If people are really interested, I would recommend Rundell and Wilber's book, "Exercise-Induced Asthma".

I have always wondered about the large numbers of elite athletes who have or discover they have asthma (or start wearing braces at 25).

I believe inhalers use corticol steroids not anabolic steroids (I don't really know the difference between the two anyway) but I wonder if getting your name on this list allows you to take other things besides just inhalers which would help more.

the big aristotle wrote:

Excuse me for my apparent ignorance on this subject, but do asthma medications have an ergogenic effect? Can you direct me to the study that proves this? I think they took Sudafed off the banned list because no ergogenic effect was observed.

If this is so, how can it be cheating if no advantage occurs?

The meds used in common asthma medications such as salbutamol are generally thought to have no or neglible ergogenic effect when used in areosol form. As with everything there's debate on this. I'm sure you can do your own research...

Never mind.

Paula Radcliffe supposedly has "asthma".

now that was a comprehensive answer.

You are right - I meant to say the tests for asthma are NOT very subjective. Not to get too technical, but generally it's a very difficult condition to diagnose, and even more so with athletes.

I can't comment on Radcliffe and the validity of her asthma (though I'm sure that won't stop others), but I recall reading on these very boards that someone observed a large portion of a triathlon field whip out inhalers just prior to the swim.Yet another reason for a fresh round of tri bashing!

OTR wrote:

Paula Radcliffe supposedly has "asthma".

Do you REALLY believe that Radcliffe's WR performance is in any way related to her asthma medication? Come on, people! At best, you're looking at a psychological advantage (some people listen to death metal before a race, others take an inhaler...its all part of mental preparation). There's virtually no documented physiological gain to be had there. The difficult part of the breathing procedure for most athletes is the metabolism of oxygen into the bloodstream, not breathing it in and an inhaler does nothing but open or relax blocked airways. If you don't have a problem, you won't benefit from it...