Doping in competitive sports

By C.K.Muralidharan

In competitive sports, doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors. The term doping is widely used by organizations that regulate sporting competitions.

Types of doping in sports

Following are some of the substances and methods used for doping in sport.1. Erythropoietin (EPO)- EPO is a peptide hormone that is produced naturally by the human body.

2. CERA 3. Anabolic steroids 4. Human growth hormone 5. Diuretics 6. Synthetic Oxygen carriers 7. Blood doping and Insulin.

How does doping help athletes

Blood doping. Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance. Because such blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, a higher concentration in the blood can improve an athlete's aerobic capacity (VO2 max) and endurance.

Doping ban in sports

This was common practice until heroin and cocaine became available only by prescription in the 1920s." The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), the governing body for the sport of track and field, become the first international sporting federation to prohibit doping by athletes.

Rules to prevent doping

Doping is cheating. Doping is cheating. ... Get informed. Find out about doping, so that you can have a long career. ...

Check WADA's prohibited list. Focus on good nutrition. Be very careful with supplements. Do not risk your career. Avoid social drugs. Anabolic steroids are harmful.

What is meant by doping?

Doping is the process of adding impurities to intrinsic semiconductors to alter their properties. ... The P stands for Positive, which means the semiconductor is rich in holes or Positive charged ions. When we dope intrinsic material with Pentavalent impurities we get N-Type semiconductor, where N stands for Negative.

Why doping is effective?

Because the band gap is so small for semiconductors, doping with small amounts of impurities can dramatically increase the conductivity of the material. Doping, therefore, allows scientists to exploit the properties of sets of elements referred to as “dopants” in order to modulate the conductivity of a semiconductor. Performance of an athlete is enhanced after taking drugs.

How do drug affect sports?

Depressant drugs such as cannabis, alcohol and opiates, slow down your breathing. Cannabis reduces your lung capacity, so it's harder to get the oxygen your muscles need during sport. Opiates, such as heroin and codeine, slow down your breathing and narrow your airways.

Why is it called doping?

Doping basically means athletes taking illegal substances to make their performance better. There are five types of banned drugs, called doping classes. The most common are stimulants and hormones.

What is a drug?

A drug is any chemical you take that affects the way your body works. Alcohol, caffeine, aspirin and nicotine are all drugs. A drug must be able to pass from your body into your brain. Once inside your brain, drugs can change the messages your brain cells are sending to each other, and to the rest of your body.

There are two types of dopants. Crystals of Silicon and Germanium are doped using two types of dopants:

Pentavalent (valency 5); like Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Phosphorous (P), etc. Trivalent (valency 3); like Indium (In), Boron (B), Aluminium (Al), etc.

The Effects of Drugs on Athletic Performance

Simply put, many of the drugs athletes take illegally are designed to increase their athletic performance. For example, steroids and related hormones (such as testosterone) are used to increase muscle mass and strength by promoting testosterone production.

Doping Tests

Doping testing is an activity that is strictly specified in the International Standard for Testing and Investigations. Urine, blood or both are collected as test samples. Doping testing takes place both at competitions and outside of them.

What happens when an athlete is caught for doping?

The sanctions for an anti-doping violation can include: disqualification of results at an event, including forfeiture of medals. a ban from all sport (competing, training or coaching) for up to four years or even life in repeat or the most serious cases. Publication of your anti-doping rule violation.

Drug test

How are student-athletes tested and how long does it take? Student-athletes are drug tested through urinalysis. Student-athletes are observed by a doping control crew member of the same gender. The length of the process depends on the student-athlete's ability to provide an adequate specimen.

How does drug testing work? When top-level athletes provide urine or blood samples, they are sent to an accredited lab and screened to see if they contain any of the substances on the World Anti-Doping Organization's (WADA's) list of prohibited substances.

When did doping become illegal?

Jensen's death exposed to the world how endemic drug use was among elite athletes. By the mid–1960s, sports federations were starting to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and the IOC followed suit in 1967.

Doping is now a global problem that follows international sporting events worldwide. International sports federations, led by the International Olympic Committee, have for the past half century attempted to stop the spread of this problem, with little effect. It was expected that, with educational programs, testing, and supportive medical treatment, this substance-abusing behavior would decrease.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In fact, new, more powerful and undetectable doping techniques and substances are now abused by professional athletes, while sophisticated networks of distribution have developed. Professional athletes are often the role models of adolescent and young adult populations, who often mimic their behaviors, including the abuse of drugs. This review of doping within international sports is to inform the international psychiatric community and addiction treatment professionals of the historical basis of doping in sport and its spread to vulnerable athletic and non-athletic populations.