Wall St Journal looks at Houston Doc who treats Rupp, other thyroid users

Pittance wrote:

Yep, Rupp is so transparent that he declined to comment for the WSJ article.

The International Standard for TUEs

http://www.wada-ama.org/Documents/World_Anti-Doping_Program/WADP-IS-TUE/2011/WADA_ISTUE_2011_revJanuary-2012_EN.pdf

From the standard:

"Athletes with documented medical conditions requiring the Use of a Prohibited Substance or a Prohibited Method may request a therapeutic use exemption."

"WADA, on its own initiative, may review at any time the granting of a therapeutic use exemption to any International-Level Athlete or national-level Athlete..."

Q&As about TUEs:

http://www.wada-ama.org/en/Science-Medicine/TUE/QA-on-Therapeutic-Use-Exemptions/

"What are the criteria for granting a TUE?

"The criteria are:

-- The athlete would experience significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance or method

-- The therapeutic use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance, and

-- There is no reasonable therapeutic alternative to the use of the otherwise prohibited substance or method."

Part 1 and 3 of the criteria is where the TUE world will fall apart.

Stop over-training then the "significant" health problem goes away.

The "reasonable" therapeutic alternative is to stop over-training.

The link between HGH and abnormal thyroid hormone levels was made nearly 30 years ago by medical researchers at the University of California/San Francisco. The results of their study, entitled "The Acute Effects of Human Growth Hormone Administration on Thyroid Function in Normal Men," were published in 1988 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

WADA, meanwhile, is also interested in finding out if athletes are using synthetic thyroid hormones in an attempt to enhance performance, according to Wadler. Synthetic T3 and T4 are easily purchased over the counter in Latin America, and Internet sites such as buycytomel.com offer 25-microgram T3 pills to anyone with a credit card.

Shaun Kelley, a weight-loss consultant in Houston with close ties to the bodybuilding community, said bodybuilders swear by such products, using such drugs to get the "cut" look that defines their muscles.

The "insanity" of PED use? That's a bit rich. What's insane about it?Someone should post Bruce Kidd's story about the first time he mused about running 2x per day and his teammate's reaction. (i.e. one athlete's not wanting to take drugs to stay competitive is another athlete's not wanting to run twice/day to stay competitive).Try looking at it this way: people who make use of PEDs want it more than other athletes.

TLW wrote:

george oscar bluth wrote:

Seriously though, Smyth was what...2nd at US cross in 2009 behind Ritz, 3rd at the US Half Marathon Champs in 2011 behind Hall and Trafeh, and he's done?

Retired because he found out what you have to do to stay competitive aka he wasn't comfortable using PEDs like the majority of active US runners.

This article needs to be posted on the front page.

Why aren't more people posting in this thread? This article shows the insanity of PED use right now.

Thyroid gland may be good indicator for human growth hormone use

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/thyroid-gland-good-indicator-human-growth-hormone-article-1.174940

Talk to anyone who sufferes from asthma or thyroid disease (hypothyroidism) and I think the general consensus will be that those two conditions severely impede running, even when well managed. I suffer from both - asthma all my life (diagnosed when I was a toddler, now controlled to the point where it only bothers me when I run hard) and hypothyroidism diagnosed when I was 20. The asthma is frustrating because my lungs give out before my legs do, usually around 5k pace, or sustained 5:30s-5:40s, and I am hesitant to heavily use inhalers. I use a general proventil rescue inhaler and long-acting Advair, but only during the peak of spring and fall seasons. The thyroid is the greater frustration. It is a constant struggle to wake up in the morning, not gain weight and have enough energy to work out, even though my TSH numbers are within range. Anecdotally, I've heard of many hypothyroid sufferers, especially women, complain that no matter what their medication regimen is, they never feel quite right. I take Cytomel (liothyronine) and Synthroid (levothyroxine), which both technically boost metabolism, but even a slight overdose of Synthroid carries cardiovascular risks, notably palpitations and hypertension. Based on my own experiences, I find it very, very hard to believe that so many elite athletes coincidentally suffer from thyroid problems...

I told you guys that there were 2 "new" frontiers:

1) keeping doped athletes ineligible until they are "ready", and

2) hiding behind medical confidentiality and TUE's.

(1) is relatively new, (2) not so much.

The combination of the two is devastating.

someone had to do it wrote:

"Rupp declined to comment, but said publicly in 2006 that Brown diagnosed him as hypothyroid. Hall and Lewis didn't respond to requests for comment. Begley said she remains a patient of Brown's because "he's the most thorough endocrinologist I've ever seen." Kennedy, now retired, said he never received performance benefits from hypothyroid medication."

This article is fantastic as it gets the discussion that we've been trying to have out there in the mainstream media. Now when I ask a question about it - i won't be treated as a pariah.

What I learned? With all of the Internet speculation seemingly being on the Rupp/Farah Salazar group whether on the messaegboard or out of Jos Hermens' mouth, I was reminded that Hall has been treated for the same condition which due to my awful memory I'd forgotten but shouldn't have as we'd had coverage of this on our site:

.

I learned Carl Lewis was treated for it.

What disappointed me? The no comments from Hall, Rupp, and crew.

If you've got nothing to hide, then talk about it.

I know for a fact that with regards to anemia and low ferritin that the coaches are seemingly way ahead of the scientific studies - maybe that's possible here as well.

I've even talked to Alberto Salazar about ferritin in the past. Most doctors will say if your ferritin level is low but you're blood levels are fine that you don't have an iron problem. I saw first hand at Cornell that wasn't the case. Alberto agreed with me.

In the fall of 2011, I had a recent Columbia med school grad told me i didn't know what i was talking about and that a low ferritin number even like 15 (range for normal is 20 to like 200) was good absent blood values for anemia as ferritin is a sign of inflammation.

I asked the Sport Scientist guys if I was wrong. They said there were no studies to support me but knew that most distant coaches felt the same as me.

Finally, I found a professor at Cornell who was doing research on it, Jere Hass. The only published study of his on the subject that I'm aware of involved rowers:

Dellavalle DM, Haas JD. Impact of iron depletion without anemia on performance in trained endurance athletes at the beginning of a training season: a study of female collegiate rowers. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2011 Dec;21(6):501-6.

Dellavalle DM, Haas JD. Iron status is associated with endurance performance and training in female rowers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Aug;44(8):1552-9.

The biggest red flag that something is going on is this:

When a physician near his California home found no evidence of thyroid dysfunction, Smyth flew to Houston to see Brown, who conducted some blood tests and diagnosed him with the condition.

In other words, the athletes are looking for doctors to give the thyroid medication. They are shopping around for meds instead of looking for actual medical help.

where's Aduck since the story broke?

NOP bunker?

crisis meeting with salazar?

Let's Contemplate wrote:

The biggest red flag that something is going on is this:

When a physician near his California home found no evidence of thyroid dysfunction, Smyth flew to Houston to see Brown, who conducted some blood tests and diagnosed him with the condition.

In other words, the athletes are looking for doctors to give the thyroid medication. They are shopping around for meds instead of looking for actual medical help.

People with hypothyroidism who aren't elite athletes also get screwed by ignorant local GPs who think that as long as your TSH is 4.99, you're fine and you're just lazy/depressed/whatever else. They, too, benefit hugely from finding experts who know what they're doing in this field.

When your career could depend on this, there's nothing wrong with going to famous doctors who are the best at what they do. You think NFL, NBA, MLB, etc., players don't do that for serious injuries?

These enabling doctors are really sickening. They get high off of chumming it up with athletes so in return they ignore all of their common sense and medical training.

Good points as always sprintgeezer!

It is clear that wada needs to take some action on this, in addition to adopting a zero tolerance policy.

But they didn't go to GPs, they went to endocrinologists who found nothing wrong with them.

I think his point is that "nothing wrong" levels is not the same as optimal.

Zero Tolerance?

Then we need to ban altitude tents, orthotics, coffee, beet juice, ice baths, and other things that have shown to help.

If we are in the game of competing against each other on a completly equal playing field to see what we can do why don't we just put all the athletes on the same diet, living household, and altitude. Make them do the same workouts an lifting routines.

Race after 1 year and we will see who is the best on a level playing field.

If you are an athlete making your living off of running and a doctor tells you that if you get your thyroid fixed you can go back to training you are going to treat it. You guys that sit here act like you are someone special but until you are basing you income off of running only you can't speak for the athletes.

All of the doctors saying unless you have a problem its not going to help you. So why all of the drama and backlash? You guys just love creating lots of drama so you people can get off on your witch hunts. Why don't we spend more time talking about how amazing the 18 hs kid breaking 9 mins at arcadia, the 1:47 kid in FL, Chris Derricks potential, Galen Rupps future as a marathoner, and the bright side of things.

Instead of getting involved in things that you aren't capable of talking about based off of a few paragraphs in an article. Lets allow the doctors put forth the evidence to over turn medical studies done by research labs and peer reviewed.

You all are pathetic.

Hypothyroidism is not fun. I was diagnosed when I was 12, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother all had it. Growing up I was extremely active and ate better than most kids. I was consistently 15-20 pounds overweight. Through high school I had TSH labs every 3 months to adjust my dosage of levothyroxine or syntroid. If it was off just slightly I had a lot of trouble waking up in the morning and staying awake through morning classes. My energy levels were up and down, even within a 5k XC race. In college, I found it nearly impossible to keep my weight down while running twice as much and eating less than other teammates. One track season, my levels were off again and I ran 45 seconds slower in the 5k than I had the previous season.

Sparknotes: Hypothyroidism sucks. However, I find it hard to believe that any elite runners have the condition to the extent that I do. WADA and USADA have shown that levothyroxine has negative effects if not needed. Does this mean that athletes that take this without need will suffer negative effects? (In other words, do Rupp, etc actually need this, to some extent?)

To summarize:

We have a doctor who is barely a doctor at all having gone to a degree mill called Rosalind Franklin University School of Medicine. This school was put on probation by the accrediting agencies and changed its name (formerly called Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School).

This endocrinologists has views that are way out of the main stream. Who has no evidence to back what he is saying. Who is viewed skeptically and/or derisively by all of his peers.

This same doctor is lauded by athletes because he is the only one who will give them the medication which they want a priori.

In return for his shady actions this quack doctor gets large consulting contracts with Nike, he gets to hob nob with famous athletes and he gets national exposure.

re; no.1 that sprintgeezer referred to

is that athletes getting their levels up before they start on the blood passport?

i'm thinking of these super fast marathon debuts now