From: huangzh@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Andy Huang)
Subject: Steroid (and more)
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 10:34:11 GMT

There are many discussions about steroid (or other drugs) use lately and it
seems many people are enjoying talking about this. Great.  But please keep
in mind the following (and other) facts:
	--there are many "substances" that can "enhance" one's performance
one way or another (is coffee one of them?);
	--in the sports world, the "test" is only targeted to SOME of them;
	--As for some substances (including steroid in many cases), after
stopping using them for a certain peroid of time, the "test" will show
"negative" while the strengthened muscles (effect) are still there, ie.
there is a time gap;
	--it is possible to adjust the gap to overlap the game/meet so you
would have strong muscles and greater endurance but the test shows nothing;
	--one common way (and the East Germen thought it was a good way) to
help keeping the strengthened muscles from fading back to normal after 
stopping using the drug, is to move the athletes to high latittude areas
before the games. Of course, there are many innovative ways to keep the 
drug trace out of the urine test samples while still keep the muscles.
	--there are many "scientists" working their butt off to find out the
right substance, and the dosage and schedule for using (and stopping using
it) before the games, and find out the way to make the drug trace minimum
in the test sample while the effect (muscles) can still be there for the 
games.  It would be save to say the number of such "scientists" is LARGE
than the number of those who work their butt off to find out the better
way to test the athletes;
	--some athletes used banned drugs without their knowledge (for
example some former E. Germen) while some agreed to use the drug;
	--the danger of those "performance enhance substance" vary, depends
on the substance, dosage, the condition of the athlete, etc.;
	--some reports say that most athletes from those sports powerhouse
countries use one thing or another to "enhance" their performance, some used
banned substance but many used substances that were not clearly banned but 
have the same (or even stronger) effects;
	--drug test can only detect a few known substances;
	--many people (and athletes alike) belive that in the 90's using
performance enhance substances is part of the game. Especially for those
sports that require muscle strength, "if you want to be better than others,
you have to use it, and use it in a smarter way than others";
	  


I don't want to say another about Chinese athletes. Those who really want
to know the truth should make some friends from the national women's
teams whose sports require strong muscle (not famous ping-peng team please!)
then start by asking the question like "how do you postpone a women athlete's
period if it happens to be during the game?" ...then you would know what to 
ask next.

--Andy

  

-- 
=============================== Andy Huang <huangzh@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
P.S. Thank you for reading my article. We may not share the same idea but I 
respect whatever thoughts you may have. Please feel free to agree/disagree, 
to laugh/criticize/protest. Or to use "kill", s'il vous plait.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china