"yirg" <[email hidden]> solemnly wrote in
news:[email hidden]:
Quoted message said:Testosterone can have powerful effects on the body, directing it to
make muscle instead of fat. And it can increase the red-blood cell
count, which may allow more oxygen to reach laboring muscles. But when
researchers have studied the hormone's effects on endurance, they
have come up empty-handed.Dr. Shalender Bhasin, a leading testosterone researcher at Boston
University Medical Center, said he was puzzled by his and others'
inability to determine if the hormone affected endurance. In several
experiments, scientists treated men with testosterone or placebos and
then asked them to do such things as run on a treadmill until they
were
Quoted message said:exhausted. The scientists saw no difference between the men who took
testosterone and those who did not."No one has been able to show clearly that testosterone improves
endurance," Bhasin said.Some athletes have said that the hormone helped in events like the
Tour
Quoted message said:de France because it increased aggressiveness or allowed them to train
harder. But that, too, has not been demonstrated, Bhasin said."It's folklore," he added.
As wrote in other newspapers, the use of testosterone for doping is a
long-term procedure, combined with the use of other doping substance,
one countering the effects of the others.
Landis may have taken too much corticoids, which made him "implose"
during Stage 16. Then knowing that testosterone counters the effect of
corticoids and has a recovery effect on muscles, Landis took
testosterone as well. But he took too much.
On Stage 17, the effects of corticoids were released and Landis was in a
"negative split", i.e. he rode like a superman. Finally ethics is safe,
he got caught.
Quoted message said:The problem, though, is determining a normal
testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. The World Anti-Doping Agency
used to say that a ratio of more than six to one was evidence of
testosterone abuse. Now it is using a ratio of four to one.Dr. Timothy Foster, an endocrinologist and sports-medicine specialist
at Boston University Medical Center, said even the six-to-one ratio is
within a range that could be found naturally in many men. "If the
ratio was five to one or six to one, I would be very concerned that
this represents a normal variant," Foster said.Bhasin agreed. "People can have high ratios without abuse," he
said. He added that one way to know if the ratio found in the test was
normal was to continue testing the athlete. If the ratio is normal for
that man, it will not change.
The French lab made 2 tests: the T/E ratio and the isotrop test, the
latter leaves no doubt on whether the testosterone is exogenous.
Quoted message said:Endocrinologists also said it was important to know how the test was
conducted and how carefully the samples were protected from tampering.The actual testing method "is a real bugaboo," said Dr. John
McKinlay, the senior vice president and chief scientist at the New
England Research Institute who directs the Massachusetts Male Aging
Study, which follows men and measures testosterone levels, among other
things, as they age. Some methods are fraught with errors.Amory, who reviews doping cases for the United States Anti-Doping
Agency, said tampering was a concern."When we get cases to review, the chain of custody is really
paramount," he said. "If it gets out of sight for two seconds,
someone can squirt testosterone into it. And there are people like
that
Quoted message said:who would like to see an American, the winner of the Tour de France,
disgraced. That's why the chain of custody has to be codified."
The chain of custody IS strictly codified.
Remember Canadian Ben Johonson. Nobody in the US put the test, the test
procedure and the testing lab into question since Ben Jonhson is a
Canadian. Why a special treatment for American Landis?