Rupp certified: Rupp could medal in 2016 as WADA refuses to ban thyroid meds despite lobbying!!

not a NOPer wrote:

So how much did Nike pay WADA?

The WADA is in a sort of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation here. Assuming synthetic thyroid medication can't enhance performance (and Magness said as much himself before he was ever working for the NOP) then if WADA doesn't ban it then they look like they got paid off by Nike, but if they do ban it and it's later shown that they were just trying to avoid a potential scandal and make an example of someone, they'll have a Roger Goodell situation on their hands.

Over 30,000 Americans have died from asthma attacks over the last decade, 20 million have been hospitalized. Would you take the risk?

head in sand wrote:

As for the uninformed poster asking about performance benefits, actual dopers like Chambers and coach Conte have been clear it lowers body fat and raises energy levels (aka "the lightness"). Why do you think Farah and Rupp show zero body fat, when even Bekele and Geb always had some?

Lowers body fat and raises energy levels? It affects the body's metabolism. A result of which may be weight loss and increased energy levels. If you suffer from hypothyroidism, the main symptoms are a low energy level which may result in weight gain. Synthroid and the like are not magic drugs. You guys read too much into it. They don't make you stronger, faster, or increase your endurance. They don't specifically target stored fat either.

I don't think that Farah and Rupp are actually at zero body fat just as I don't believe that Bekele and Geb were porkers. This is just a made up comparison that is not based in fact and proves nothing.

I'm sure there is a placebo affect that some athletes believe increase their performance, especially when they have been told this by such reputable individuals like Victor Conte. That doesn't make it true.

No one should have to suffer from being tired when being tired is a result of a medical condition. If that allows you to train more consistently than you would have been able to if your condition went untreated, I fail to see the advantage over an opponent without the condition. It actually makes them equal. If you need it, it will help you. That is not the same as giving you a performance enhancing advantage.

LRC just goes overboard on this stuff. The issue has been settled. There is no more grey area.

So Rojo, did raising his ferritin help the recruit? Was the doctor proven wrong by raising his ferritin level resulting in better performance on the course?

Thank you

Kind of a slam dunk win for NOP.

I think Rupp could medal because

A) He's a world class runner, strong as an ox, and an Olympic medalist and

B) He won't have the media and the overzealous hounding him in the months prior to the games.

Dude still has to get that 2011 - 2012 kick back in his pocket, however.

(Why do I mention 2011, remember the 5000 in Birmingham where Mo and Rupp outkicked Merga?)

Everytime Thyroidism comes up, I post the same thing:

Thyroid medication by itself does not increase performance. That's just not the way it works. The side effects that look performance enhancing are not: increased metabolism, for example is really an alertness/jitteriness that can effect recovery and relaxation.

But athletes do take thyroid medication in a doping program.

They take thyroid medication in a doping program because other doping products effect their thyroid system, just like it effects other systems.

EPO, Testosterone, HGH, all effect thyroid. A doping athlete doesn't take thyroid medication to add to those boosters, but to balance out their negative side effects.

It should still be banned.

Masking agents are banned. Masking agents are not performance enhancing. They are not acutely dangerous to the individual. They are banned because of their use in the context of a doping program.

Ban thyroid medication then give out TUEs. Easy solution.

The U.S., UK and Dutch entities want it banned because it's a PED. They even lobbied WADA to have it banned. This is the most damning evidence that drug enforcement agencies do consider it a PED.

WADA simply shelved the ban for the year because they'd be responsible for testing for it. With the Olympics fast approaching that's not something they can take on properly.

Not everyone at WADA came to a complete consensus on the issue (read the article). Hormone therapy is legal for another year. However, it will eventually be banned, and in the future results recorded during this period will be tainted.

Exactly! This is a giant step towards getting it banned.

US and UK agencies have concluded that hormone therapy is cheating. Once a few more nations come to the same conclusion, it will be banned.

USADA and UKADA Consider Hormone Therapy a PED!

Thanks for the enlightenment. I didn't know that.

Just join the crowd wrote:

Everyone, stop whining, go to your doc and ask for your TSH checked- if higher than 5-10 get on thyroid meds - just like you would get on iron if your ferritin was below 40. It's quite simple- insurance would pay as its called subclinical hypothyroidism. All you whiners lost so join the crowd or suffer having low thyroid. But you should be consistent and not take iron as well

Iron is a normal component of food. Thyroid hormone is not.

skdvgbuk wrote:

Iron is a normal component of food. Thyroid hormone is not.

Yes it is.

One prominent example he cited is a practice seen with some regularity in German athletes, in which they infuse ozone into the rectum for the perceived benefit of improving their oxygen intake

Are you really that stupid? Thyroid hormone is not derived from our food.

Can USADA ban it at the national level?

skdvgbuk wrote:

Iron is a normal component of food. Thyroid hormone is not.

Not when your dead. But as long as you are alive you can't live without it.

Clerk wrote:

Masking agents are banned. Masking agents are not performance enhancing. They are not acutely dangerous to the individual. They are banned because of their use in the context of a doping program.

Ban thyroid medication then give out TUEs. Easy solution.

Masking agents, to the best of my knowledge, have no reasonable medical use. Thyroid medication, on the other hand, does.

Thyroid hormone is not a masking agent. It's recognized as a PED by USADA and UKADA. The WADA just need more time to research its long term effects and figure out how to test for it. They essentially bought an extra year to do this.

been around 'ya know wrote:

Lowers body fat and raises energy levels? It affects the body's metabolism. A result of which may be weight loss and increased energy levels. If you suffer from hypothyroidism, the main symptoms are a low energy level which may result in weight gain.

How can you be so blind? You state yourself the exact reason why thyroid meds are a perfect PED for elite distance runners - they allow you to train at extreme low weight and bodyfat levels without the consequence of low metabolism. Your causality is backwards - hypothyroidism in a distance athlete is likely a symptom of overtraining. When the body finds itself starving, it tries to shut down and save energy to gain weight.

When I was a teenager - skinny, but not famished, about 145 pounds IIRC - I met my first world-class elite distance runner. One of the things he told me was I was too skinny. He was right - I was injured not long afterward. He was skinny too, but not like many of the top elites today who, if you see them in person, look RIPPED and SHREDDED despite their TINY muscles. Top distance elites are skinnier today than in the past.

The thyroid issue is moot, though, because most of them are verifiably not on thyroid meds. There are many other ways to boost metabolism and if WADA isn't interested in thyroids, they won't be interested in the other ways either.