PEDs - One More Time

[darvon]

Bill Simmons has a good article on PEDs

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...k-ped-question


And a interesting Pod cast

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...k-klosterman-3

The last half is about PEDs.



Klosterman, asks some pretty interesting questions of Bill.


- "What is the main reason you are upset about PEDs"
Which Bill doesn't answer very well and, very uncharacteristically, doesn't see that he isn't answering it.

- "Antibiotics and HGH. If both help you heal faster, why is one medicine and the other cheating?"

They touch a bit on the future of PEDs and touch on Biological Passports.

They hit hard the dogs that haven't barked in the NBA.

[hobbes27]

The last half is about PEDs.



Klosterman, asks some pretty interesting questions of Bill.


- "What is the main reason you are upset about PEDs"
Which Bill doesn't answer very well and, very uncharacteristically, doesn't see that he isn't answering it.

- "Antibiotics and HGH. If both help you heal faster, why is one medicine and the other cheating?"
.

I've always thought the line between PEDs and other legal drugs have been blurred. I suspect in the future things like HGH will be legal and common practice anyway, because of the medicinal benefits.

[darvon]

There is something really weird about the Federal Law about HGH. HGH is currently ILLEGAL to be prescribed by a doctor in the US, EXCEPT for 5 very rare diseases. This is highly unusual. Every other pharmaceutical in the US can be used by a doctor for any disease (this is called off-label use), except the opioids like morphine, and the two drugs (HGH and anabolic steroids).

VERY unusual. Also this means that when you hear "I use HGH, but under a Doctor's prescription" the person is lying or their doctor is prescribing the drug illegally. The only diseases allowed to use HGH are so rare, you aren't talking to those people. And they certainly arent' Sly Stallone.


Also, the law making HGH illegal was written in 1992. The VERY first mention of ANY athletic benefit from HGH was in a 1991 paper of a small study of healthy men. It was published in July, 1991. If you know anything about federal laws, they take years and sometimes dozens of years to make happen. Yet here is this otherwise anonymous drug, where a benefit is found in July 1991 and by 1992 a law making it EXTREMELY illegal is on the books. HOW did it happen so fast? And WHO was pushing it through so fast? And why?


Until we know what reason that Federal Law got Fast Tracked into the books, we have no clue when it may become legal.

[darvon]

Corrections.

My memory is getting soggy. The HGH study came out in July 5, 1990.

The law making off label use of HGH illegal is the FD&CA, Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1980. It was amended in 1988 and 1990.

The 1990 amendment explicitly had HGH in the text and explicit mentioned off label use. It is hard to tell whether the 1988 amendment did.

So it is possible that the HGH hammer fell in 1988 or 1990.

But since the entire HGH as PED/cool drug originated with the July, 1990 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, then WHY was HGH stomped on so hard by Congress? Who was leading the stomping???

[wxwax]

- "Antibiotics and HGH. If both help you heal faster, why is one medicine and the other cheating?"

What is a PED curing in a completely healthy man?

[mikesteelnation1]

I read Simmons' article last week, and have to say I agree with him. Everytime we hear about a miraculous recovery or an extraordinary feat being achieved we all deep down think the guy may have used peds. The only one I haven't lately is AD, and simply because he's such a physical specimen and a hardcore gym rat, and always has been.

Too many sports heroes lately have done something incredible, only for us to find out later it was fueled by peds. The 2 latest guys being ray ray and lance Armstrong.

I'm with London Fletcher here. Every single NFL player who's above board should be screaming at the top of his lungs for a HGH blood testing regimen in the NFL. Those who have played clean should want everyone being tested to level the playing field..

[darvon]

What is a PED curing in a completely healthy man?

In sports, for the PED discussion, it usually is cited for faster healing/recovery from injury.

[darvon]

Simmons said a lot of PED points in his article and podcast.

Ed Reed said something interesting.

To fight Football Father Time, Reed said he has employed a physician who visits the Baltimore area weekly — at Reed’s own expense — to help his recovery process.

“I’ve been doing some great things with my doctor to combat the aging that we have,” Reed said. “We age faster than everybody because of what we do. The truth is that football takes a toll on your life and your body.”

Ravens safety Ed Reed was critical of the state of NFL medicine last week, and he made some good points. He thinks training staffs can do more.

"I work hand-in-hand with my doctor, so I know the things that he's helping me with, that help me to prevent the aging sort of things that you get in your body,'' Reed said. "Most of my teammates -- and I tell them all the time -- you think just eating healthy is going to be the thing. You eat vegetables and you're eating grilled chicken and grilled fish, and that's enough. It's not. It's not enough. For this sport, it's not. I don't think they do enough medical-wise in the NFL to help us, to get past not only the concussions, but the wear and tear that we go through. It's a long grind.''

Reed isn't pushing for PEDs to be part of the NFL, but he thinks the recovery process needs to improve. It's not just the injuries. It's the wear and tear on the body.

"I'm not doing anything different in the training room now that I did in high school,'' Reed said. "There's still the same 'stim' machines, there's still ice and hot tub, there's no difference. There's really no difference, honestly. You might have a couple other little machines, but it hasn't been too much of a difference. I know what my doctor does for me, that a lot of other guys don't do that can help, but it's on you as a player to spend that money on yourself, to invest in yourself.''

Reed thinks the league should take some of the fine money and invest it in the training room.

"I've stressed rehab and recovery because that's the biggest part of it,'' Reed said. "You have to rehab after this season. You have to go right into that, your recovery process. Most of those guys, I don't know if they do that or not. I'm not working out with everybody, but you have to have some type of recovery. That's more of what's in you. It's inside your body.

"We all look good on the outside, but if you go to the doctor, what's the doctor going to treat you for? He's going to treat you for your symptoms. He's not going to treat you for what the core problem is. That's probably the biggest thing. We don't have the medical support in our training rooms. You really need to go outside of your training rooms, your training staffs to get medical treatment. Or ask your trainers how can you get better treatment.''

[darvon]

What does his doctor do for Ed Reed, that other guys don't do?

Hyperbaric or HGH? PRP or Reginokine?

[darvon]

The basic issue is that some people, like Bill Simmons, have a fundamental problem with PEDs. They believe it cheapens their enjoyment from viewing a sport, and the corollary that wide-spread SUSPICION of PEDs lessen the enjoyment of a Herculean achievement.

The problem with Bills point is that he is fuzzily assuming that we can cleanly seperate PED from Medicine, in sports where injury is such a big part of the game. And Bill is also assuming that PEDs are like a normal drug that the benefit is only available for the short amount of time the drug is in your system. And he doesn't consider medical procedures, nor medical devices.

Bill is also struggling with "is the cure worse than the disease" syndrome. Is the constant arms race between new PEDs and testing authorities causing more stress and lack of enjoyment in the sports fan than trying to test is fixing?

Klosterman asked a lot of good questions. Simmons now has to follow thru and find some people who can fill in the details.