Athletes are constantly looking for new ways to hide their AAS intake from anti-doping authorities. Learn how to take steroids during a tournament and not get disqualified. The history of doping camouflage is similar in duration to that of doping use and definition. At first, the disguise was spontaneous, as was the examination. During this period, athletes relied more heavily on diuretics, which were soon banned as well. Then the methods of cover-up became more sophisticated, and the methods of detecting doping became more sophisticated.
What camouflage methods no longer work?
Of all the methods that we will now consider, perhaps only the use of short drugs can have an effect, but it is important to accurately calculate the time of the last doping intake.
Diuretic drugs
Many trainers and specialists are convinced that the use of diuretics can hide prohibited substances. There is an assumption that when a large amount of fluid is excreted from the body, doping metabolites are also excreted along with it. However, this does not give a good result for the reason that in practice it turns out differently and a large number of metabolites remain in the body. In addition, all diuretics are now prohibited by the anti-doping organization, and in addition, an athlete can lose a lot of mass, which will lead to a transition to another weight category.
Polycyclic compounds
Here scientists came to the aid of athletes and their coaches. They managed to find out that the combined use of polycyclic compounds and doping leads to a distortion of the picture of the mass spectrum analysis and chromatography. This group of drugs includes antibiotics that have a cyclic structure and are derived from bromantane. This is true, however, these substances are now also banned for use by athletes.
Masking agents
The most popular masking agent was Probenecid, but it is now banned by WADA. Up to this point, he could help athletes in hiding doping. At the same time, today, when undeclared drugs are found in a sample, they can be considered prohibited with all the consequences that follow from this decision.
Lemons and dry wine
It may seem funny, but it was believed that when you consume lemons or dry wine in large enough quantities, the body is quickly released from steroid metabolites. This assumption is completely unsubstantiated from a scientific point of view. This is primarily due to the fact that AAS are hydrophobic substances and can accumulate in adipose tissues. This significantly slows down their release and lemons are completely useless here.
Ways to conceal prohibited substances?
However, there are still ways to hide the traces of doping. In most cases, these methods are based on the use of drugs that are difficult to detect during a doping test.
So, say, an athlete can be accused of using testosterone-containing drugs if, during the study of the sample, a discrepancy in the ratio of the male hormone and epitestosterone is found. Most often, this figure is 1 to 1.
But this is not always true and WADA could not ignore this fact. Today, a ratio of 4 to 1 is acceptable. At the same time, during doping control, not only this indicator is checked, but also the full steroid profile of athletes. As you know, anabolic steroids affect the entire hormonal profile, and not only the level of the male hormone.
Thus, with careful testing, it is possible to detect steroids in the body. To avoid this, various ways have been invented to maintain the ratio of testosterone and epitestosterone at the same level. These can be, say, special testosterone patches that deliver the hormone to the body through the skin.
Today, many pharmaceutical companies are looking for better ways to conceal illicit substances. However, this is a very difficult task, which often requires large financial investments, which simply will not pay off later. Sometimes, such methods of concealing doping as sample swapping are also used. The most common instrument for this is a catheter, which is inserted into the bladder along with a container containing a clean sample. At the time of the analysis, it is enough to remove the plug from the catheter in order to pass clean urine.
But the WADA representatives present at the sampling are well aware of this. In large competitions, these methods do not work. If an athlete is caught swapping a sample, then he will face a very severe punishment.
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