Designer Steroids: Balco Scandal and More!
( Current Opinion Endocrinology Olabetes, 13:306 309, 2006 )
In the BALCO scandal, the owner of a California supplement company and several coaches and personal trainers were accused of distributing an undetectable anabolic steroid called THC to elite athletes. The BALCO scandal was the tip of the iceberg. Canadian customs authorities
confiscated an oily substance from an Olympian sprinter that turned out to be a "designer" steroid identified as desoxymethyltestosterone (DMT).There was no link between DMT and BALCO. The finding confirmed what insiders already knew: many labs around the world synthesize effective,
but currently undetectable, performance-enhancing drugs for athletes.
The next generation of designer steroids will be drugs called selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) that target androgen receptors in specific tissues such as muscle or bone. SARMs are the Holy Grail of steroids because they'll build muscles without affecting other organs
or tissues. Five different companies are conducting clinical trials on SARMs, but it will be at least four years before the Food and Drug Administration approves them.The drugs exist, so it's likely that athletes somewhere in the world will use them in the next Olympic games.
|
