MORE and more athletes may be taking insulin to boost their performance
illegally, 快猫短视频 has learned. Insulin is almost impossible to
detect using dope tests. Worse still, the hormone could kill if wrongly
administered.
Doctors in Britain are increasingly worried by anecdotal reports that
athletes are taking insulin, the life-saving drug used by many diabetics.
Bodybuilders pioneered the illegal use of insulin several years ago, but
evidence that the habit is spreading to other sports has remained sketchy.
Harder evidence that insulin is being abused in sport has now emerged from a
confidential needle exchange scheme for bodybuilders and other sports
enthusiasts, run in the north of England by family doctor Rob Dawson. He says
that at least 10 per cent of his 450 regular patients have admitted to using the
drug鈥攁n increasing number of them non-bodybuilders. 鈥淚t鈥檚 spreading
outside bodybuilding,鈥� he says. Most get it from friends who are diabetics.
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鈥淚ncorrectly administered, it could kill you stone-dead or leave you as a
vegetable,鈥� says Peter Sonksen, a specialist in the study of insulin at Guy鈥檚,
King鈥檚 and St Thomas鈥� School of Medicine in London.
His warnings come as the athletics world championships draw to a close in
Edmonton, Canada. Asked if insulin might have been used there illegally, Sonksen
said: 鈥淚f you believe the street talk, it鈥檚 inevitable.鈥�
鈥淚 would think it鈥檚 highly likely,鈥� agrees Dawson. 鈥淚鈥檇 be extremely
surprised if there are not elite athletes using insulin.鈥�
Insulin helps athletes in two ways. In bodybuilders, it works alongside
anabolic steroids such as testosterone or human growth hormone to consolidate
muscle tissue. Steroids spawn new muscle, and insulin prevents it from being
broken down.
Insulin also bolsters stamina in middle-distance runners and other track
performers by enabling them to load their muscles with glycogen 鈥渇uel鈥� before
and between events. To do this, athletes would need to take insulin and glucose
simultaneously for a couple of hours, infusing them using a technique called a
hyperinsulinaemic clamp.
In the long term, taking anabolic steroids for non-medical uses can damage
reproductive health. But an overdose of insulin can quickly trigger a fatal coma
by clearing so much sugar from the blood that the brain is starved of energy and
oxygen.
The temptation for sportsmen and women is obvious, however. Insulin vanishes
rapidly from the body, with half of it gone in as little as four minutes. Even
if it was detected, there鈥檇 be no way to distinguish it from a person鈥檚 own
insulin. 鈥淭he chance of catching it is just about zero,鈥� says Sonksen. 鈥淚nsulin
is a complete nightmare, and there鈥檚 no way I can dream of that you could pick
it up in a dope test.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 no documental proof that this technique is being used, but informed
鈥榮treet talk鈥� indicates that it is not uncommon,鈥� writes Sonksen in the current
issue of Journal of Endocrinology (vol 170, p 13).
Experiments by Sonksen and others have suggested that hyperinsulinaemic
clamps can increase the rate of glucose metabolism up to twelvefold. 鈥淵ou can
use it to pump up muscle glycogen,鈥� he says.
Sports and government authorities acknowledge that there鈥檚 a growing problem,
but are at a loss over how to deal with it. 鈥淥ne of the general concerns is that
it鈥檚 easily obtainable,鈥� says Michele Verroken, head of the anti-doping
programme at UK Sport, Britain鈥檚 sports governing body. 鈥淭hese things are
entirely feasible, and we鈥檙e trying to close as many loopholes as we can.鈥�
Since August 1998, partly because of fears that black-market insulin was
finding its way into bodybuilders, insulin has been a prohibited substance in
Britain, obtainable only on prescription. But Verroken admits that athletes can
and do get it.
Insulin was banned by the International Olympic Committee in 1998. But the
ban doesn鈥檛 apply to diabetic athletes, whose health depends on insulin.
Verroken says this is not a problem, however. 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 say that people who
are diabetic are gaining an advantage,鈥� she says.
Diabetes UK, which represents the country鈥檚 diabetics, acknowledges that
there might be a temptation for some diabetics to supply insulin to athletes who
are friends. But it sees no point advising diabetics not to do this. 鈥淲e鈥檝e
never warned people not to sell on their insulin because we feel there鈥檚 little
we can do if people want to do that,鈥� says a spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, the only possible solution in the locker room is to
catch people red-handed with the drugs. 鈥淥nly by using police tactics such as
searching and detaining could you stop it, but that鈥檚 a controversial area,鈥�
says Sonksen.