Everyone knows the current tests for anabolic steroids remain imperfect. The tests either key on the testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (positive if testosterone is the doping agent) or measurements of the actual anabolic steroid itself. Now European researchers report current metabolic/dope testing may be flawed along racial lines.
Testosterone and other hormones that increase testosterone levels are among the illegal performance-enhancing products most widely used in sports, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Evidence of this kind of cheating is determine by the testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (T:E ratio) in urine. The universal threshold is set above four and confirmed by gas chromatography, a type of chemical analysis.
But the current test is inadequate, according to the authors of a new study that tested soccer players of different ethnicities after they deliberately added steroids to their urine samples. The players, ages 18 to 36, included 57 blacks, 32 Asians, 32 Hispanics and 50 whites.
The researchers used gas chromatography to analyze the urine samples and took into account a variation in a gene known to account for different test results between white and Asian men. The gene, UGT2B17, affects metabolism, including the rate at which testosterone is passed out of the body into the urine.
The gene variation was found in 81 percent of the Asian players, 22 percent of the blacks, 10 percent of the whites and 7 percent of the Hispanic players. Based on the findings, the researcher recalibrated the thresholds for each ethnic group and suggested the following T:E ratios: 3.8 for Asian men, 5.6 for black men, 5.7 for white men and 5.8 for Hispanic men.
The study was released online and was expected to be published in a future print issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
I just noted, when I watch the "hair club for men" commercials the doctor's name is Gaffney as well.
A bit of an interesting coincidence.
Posted by: Jenky | 03/12/2009 at 21:18
I went and found a link confirming this: http://www.hairclub.com/inthenews_article1.php
Dr. John Gaffney, maybe it runs in the family.
It's a strange coincidence that I think, hair restoration drugs have been on banned lists because I believe they could be used to mask the use of other drugs. I think, that happened to a skier at the last Winter Olympics.
Posted by: Jenky | 03/12/2009 at 22:36
Hispanic is not an ethnicity. Hispanic is not a race. Hispanic can be white, Asian, Native, black, mixed,...
Posted by: Yes | 03/13/2009 at 00:22
I think that these types of "studies" are seriously flawed and will only serve to give someone who comes up positive a bogus excuse based on their ethnicity.
Posted by: tennis roids | 03/13/2009 at 20:13