WADA will study the effects of Tizanidine, the hot new (legal) drug that many Tour de France riders were taking last summer

I have no experience with it but the common side effects include drowsiness, dizziness and fatigue so it appears to be a recovery aid perhaps but not something you would utilize until after your exercise on any given day.

this site's search engine can recall numerous instances of my calling for hair testing as an appropriate anti-doping advance. Everything you consume ends up in your hair! Certain top athletes, even for years on end, have had no hair at all... perhaps aware of this? Anyhow told ya.

however, tarzanidine or whatever being a "muscle relaxant" and therefore a pain reliever? That's a big stretch. Reminds me of USADA banning the huffing of inert gases because other gases like hydrogen sulfide are toxic. It's just stupid.

Count on the world's dirtiest sport to innovate off-label-use for any given drug.

Distraction tactic to avert eyes and attention from next generation of PEDs

Rojo: there are not "many" riders using it, only 3 of the same team (Bahrain).

i wonder how one lives with himself spending his whole life looking for new drugs to bend the rules....

rojo wrote:

Tizanidine was found in a hotel during the Tour de France this year.

It's not a banned drug but they have tested a bunch of athletes and determined they were using it. Now WADA says they will investigate what impact the drug has.

Cycling news reports "there are suspicions athletes use the drug off-label to help ease muscle pain," DOes anyone have any experience with this drug? Would it be something runners might take?

I used to take tizanadine to help with pain from muscle spasms/rigidity related to nerve damage and dysfunction (neuropathy) caused by shingles (varicella zoster) in the nerves of my lower spine that affect the pelvis/groin as well as by childbirth injury to one of the affected nerves.

Tizanidine is an FDA-approved drug for managing spasticity. It is a centrally acting alpha-2 receptor agonist. Tizanidine effectively works spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, an acquired brain injury, or a spinal cord injury. It has also been shown to be clinically effective in managing patients suffering from chronic neck and lumbosacral neuralgia with a myofascial component to their pain and regional musculoskeletal pain syndromes. It is also prescribed off-label for migraine headaches, insomnia, and as an anticonvulsant. Tizanidine can also be applied as part of a detoxification therapy regimen in patients exhibiting analgesic rebound headaches to assist with analgesic withdrawal.

Common Adverse Drug Reactions

Drowsiness

Blurred vision

Asthenia

Constipation

Dyskinesia

Nervousness

Hallucination

Rhinitis

Xerostomia[13]

Dizziness[19]

Severe Adverse Drug Reactions

Anaphylaxis

Exfoliative dermatitis

Severe hypotension[20]

QT interval prolongation[21]

Severe bradycardia[22]

Stevens-Johnson syndrome[23]

Hepatotoxicity[24]

Tizanidine (Zanaflex) is a type of muscle relaxer called an alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist. It works by slowing down nerves in your spinal column that control muscle tone. When those nerves slow down, your muscles relax.

I've also taken flexeril for the same problem. The difference between the two:

While both of these medications are considered muscle relaxers, they are not used for the same conditions. Tizanidine (Zanaflex) is used for muscle spasticity, which can be thought of as stiff or rigid muscles that won't relax. It's helpful for conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). On the other hand, cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), is used only for a short period of time to treat acute muscle spasms that result from an injury, such as a sports injury or car accident.

I found that tizanadine made me drowsy and sluggish generally, and caused me to get extremely dizzy when going from sitting or reclining to standing. Sometimes when I had this dizziness, my gait and balance were both way off, almost as if I had temporary ataxia - which was very alarming and put me at risk of falling, particularly if I got up in the middle of the night to use the john.

Adri1 wrote:

Rojo: there are not "many" riders using it, only 3 of the same team (Bahrain).

The other line Rojo would use is that because there are no scientific studies definitively establishing its efficacy, no one would use it. Incredibly naive. I know from first-hand experience, if there's even a remote chance for a marginal gain, some team doctor will push it on his riders.

To address another point about cycling being the dirtiest sport, that may be true, but my guess is that cross country skiing is a close second. And I know folks love to judge drug cheaters, but imagine you're a blue-collar kid in rural Europe with a life of brick laying ahead of you when you're done riding. The line to improper becomes much more fuzzy. It's not like a kid that passed on doing the school route can just decide they want to go to university when they're 25.

This also proves the superiority of the USA system. Any athletically gifted kid with a 2.5 GPA or higher can get a free college education, buy inexpensive and pure supplements at strip malls, consume safe cuisine from food trucks, plus get finger massages and coaching from strange older men.

Silly Euros!

Drug InteractionsConcomitant use of tizanidine with fluvoxamine or ciprofloxacin is contraindicated due to significant hypotension and increased psychomotor impairment.[25][26]Because of potential drug interactions, using tizanidine with other CYP1A2 inhibitors such as oral contraceptives containing Ethinyl estradiol and gestodene, dronedarone, pimozide, saquinavir, cimetidine, famotidine, acyclovir, and ticlopidine should be avoided due to decreased clearance of tizanidine.[27]Adverse reactions such as hypotension, bradycardia, or excessive sedation require dose reduction or stopping therapy gradually.Tizanidine should be used cautiously in patients on other alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonists.Patients should avoid alcohol and benzodiazepines with tizanidine as it can lead to excessive sedation and myocardial toxicity in rare instances.[28]

I am a retired neurologist and have prescribed tizanidine as an anti-spasticity medication for patients with MS, ALS and spinal cord injury. Any athlete taking this without a prescription for a legitimate medical reason is playing a dangerous game. Please don't take it.

Zanaflex it’s been around for decades. I have a hard time thinking this is more than placebo effect. But seems like cyclist have been using it for a while. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524377/

This is probably based on the old spasm theory of delayed onset muscle soreness.

My guess is they're using it for the muscle relaxant properties for which it is prescribed. As a known a2 agonist it'd be pretty far from a direct performance enhancer. Some evidence seems to support both tizanidine and clonidine increase GH secretion, but the evidence around GH itself being a performance enhancer in athletes is pretty poor/inconclusive. Other possibility is that they're using it to negate some of the side effects of pure stimulants (eg. amphetamines) athletes are taking, but in the world of epo/testosterone I feel like most athletes in the tour-de France have moved beyond this.

Tizanidine is harmless. It's a "muscle relaxant". What's next, banning tylenol? Ibuprofen?

As a side note, the medical benefit of this class of drugs is questionable at best. There's a lot of evidence suggesting they don't work at all. They mostly just make people tired. Might as well just take benadryl.

Bad Wigins wrote:

this site's search engine can recall numerous instances of my calling for hair testing as an appropriate anti-doping advance. Everything you consume ends up in your hair! Certain top athletes, even for years on end, have had no hair at all... perhaps aware of this? Anyhow told ya.

however, tarzanidine or whatever being a "muscle relaxant" and therefore a pain reliever? That's a big stretch. Reminds me of USADA banning the huffing of inert gases because other gases like hydrogen sulfide are toxic. It's just stupid.

Inhaling inert gases can kill you. There are tons of safety systems in place at factories which use pure nitrogen, helium or argon. Nitrogen can render you unconscious in seconds.

Are they using it to slow them down? Or as a sleeping pill?

ex-runner wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

this site's search engine can recall numerous instances of my calling for hair testing as an appropriate anti-doping advance. Everything you consume ends up in your hair! Certain top athletes, even for years on end, have had no hair at all... perhaps aware of this? Anyhow told ya.

however, tarzanidine or whatever being a "muscle relaxant" and therefore a pain reliever? That's a big stretch. Reminds me of USADA banning the huffing of inert gases because other gases like hydrogen sulfide are toxic. It's just stupid.

Inhaling inert gases can kill you. There are tons of safety systems in place at factories which use pure nitrogen, helium or argon. Nitrogen can render you unconscious in seconds.

Get outta here. Athletes were not placing themselves into a pure nitrogen environment. They were huffing, and exhaling, noble gases heavier than air, from which a small amount remains in the lungs, allegedly producing an altitude-like effect.

USADA did not specifically claim this was dangerous. Instead they pointed out that hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide are gases too, and are highly toxic, and so therefore gases in general are dangerous. This kettle logic wasn't helped by any claim of performance enhancement. They had nothing.

I have not dug into the WADA code in a few years, but at one time there were banned categories of drugs so the list was not exhaustive. By banning a class of drugs, it removed the possibility that a new drug not listed but in the category would be banned.

It's a adrenergic agonist, aka stimulant, which are banned in competition except a few things found in nature/food like caffeine. If it's not tested for, maybe also explains some running records past few years beyond the shoes.

"Adrenergic agonists are drugs that work by mimicking the functioning of the sympathetic nervous system—the part of the nervous system that increases heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and eye pupil size. The sympathetic nervous system causes the release of chemical messengers, such as noradrenaline and adrenaline from the adrenal glands."

Everything you never wanted to know:

https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB00697