鈥淚NSANE.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 just irresponsible. What message does that send to young athletes?鈥� These were typical comments voiced by opponents of a television programme to be broadcast internationally this week. Initiated and co-developed by 快猫短视频, the programme follows a study into the effects of testosterone on the performance of amateur athletes.
Critics say that this kind of study is pointless, because high-profile cases of top athletes being caught cheating already show that drugs work. Not so. Elite athletes undergo more tests and are therefore more likely to be caught out. We do not know how many aspiring athletes fail to make the grade despite trying various untested drugs, or perhaps even see their health and performance decline as a result.
The only real way to find out if any drug works is to carry out a properly designed trial, where neither volunteers nor scientists know who got the drug or who got a placebo. That was how the testosterone study was conducted in Australia and the results will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals.
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Studies also have to be relevant. Even with medical drugs, which have been through clinical trials, the effects on athletes鈥� performances are not always clear. We know human growth hormone boosts the growth of children with a deficiency of it, for instance. But some experts doubt it has any effect when taken by healthy adults with normal levels. And despite what many athletes, chemists and sports officials would have you believe, even less is known about most of the drugs downed by sportsmen and women. Nobody knows how much of an effect they have, if any, whether they work for everyone or just a few, or what the side effects are.
It is true that there was good reason to think testosterone would work, because it is one of the very few drugs where scientific trials have tested its effect on performance in young men. But the results of the latest study reveal just how little we know. Even though the study was very small and lasted only six weeks, it threw up a surprise: testosterone works even faster than thought. The biggest increase in performance occurred after just three weeks (see 鈥淐heating is easier than you think鈥�).
The side effects observed were minimal, but the study would not have got ethical approval had there been any serious risk to the athletes involved. This form of testosterone has already been tested on thousands of men as a potential male contraceptive, so the safety of low doses was clear.
Much more remains to be discovered. We still do not know exactly how testosterone boosts muscle size, or how long its effects last. Does an athlete who takes testosterone or other anabolic steroids for a few weeks still have some residual advantage years later?
The other main criticism of the study is that it will encourage athletes to take testosterone. It would be naive to think this may not happen. But it could also help drug testers catch the cheats. And the fact is that many people are taking testosterone already 鈥� and not just Olympic athletes. A recent survey by the University of Michigan estimated that last year 3.5 per cent of teenagers in the US used anabolic steroids on a regular basis. Surely proper studies on the effects of all the various concoctions are urgently required?
This magazine believes that people should be given credible and accurate information about drugs, not propaganda fostered by drug peddlers or people who oppose their use. That applies to supposed performance-enhancing drugs as much as it does to Prozac and ecstasy. Ignorance is no answer.