The Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing, and you may have noticed that there is no Russia in the participating countries, but the Russian Olympic team. Why? It turned out to be a penalty for doping by the World Anti-Doping Organization for Russian athletes: athletes were prohibited from representing their country in international competitions, but only as neutral athletes and the Russian Olympic Committee.
So what exactly is a stimulant? Why anti-doping? Let's talk about this topic.
Doping is "Dope" in English and means "an opiate anesthetic mixture for horse racing". Today's doping usually refers to doping in sports, refers to drugs that can act on human functions and help athletes improve their performance. It is not a drug that single-points to excitement, but a general term for banned drugs. Because some banned drugs have inhibitory effects on the human body, such as anthropocene, it can reduce the heart rate and relieve the nervousness of athletes on the field.
The doping catalogue released by the mainland in 2022 contains a total of 367 varieties, which can be divided into the following seven categories:
1. Varieties of anabolic agents
Commonly known as steroids, it is the most widely used and the most frequent class of stimulants, mostly derivatives of male hormones. Anabolics can promote protein synthesis and reduce amino acid breakdown, promote muscle hyperplasia, lower body fat, and enhance strength and endurance. Studies have found that under professional exercise training, it can increase the muscle strength of adult men by 38%, and the effect of injections in women is more obvious. So skiing, running, weightlifting, athletes who rely on muscle explosiveness especially like to use it. However, the misuse of anabolics can cause endocrine disorders, liver damage, cardiovascular system diseases, etc., and even malignant tumors and immune dysfunction. In terms of psychology, it can also cause personality changes, resulting in depression, mania and even aggressive behavior.
Second, peptide hormone varieties
Peptide hormones promote the growth and development of the human body by stimulating the growth of the adrenal cortex and the production of erythrocytes. For example, the common erythropoietin, which stimulates the body to produce more red blood cells to increase the amount of oxygen delivered by the muscles, which can improve endurance and delay fatigue. Marathon, bicycle and other long-distance athletes like this kind of medicine. However, a large amount of peptide hormones will reduce the body's own endocrine level, damage the health of the body, may also cause cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc., abuse will also form a strong psychological dependence.
3. Varieties of narcotic drugs
Includes piperidine and opioids. These drugs can play a powerful analgesic effect, athletes will produce pleasure and hyperactivity after use, accompanied by hallucinations beyond physical fitness, helping athletes endure muscle pain for a long time. The side effects of such drugs are also obvious, it will make athletes feel no pain, may cause further deterioration of the wound, but also cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and even respiratory depression and death, while also a strong addiction.
4. Varieties of stimulants (including psychotropic drugs).
This is the earliest type of stimulant used and the earliest banned, and it is also a stimulant in the most primitive sense, which can excitate neuromuscular. However, it can cause problems such as rapid and shallow breathing, significant increase in blood pressure, and death due to respiratory paralysis in severe cases. Long-term use is prone to adverse reactions such as headache, panic and insomnia, and severe heart failure will cause death.
5. Varieties of precursor chemicals in the pharmaceutical category
Including ephedrine, methyl ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, these drugs have an excitatory effect on the central nervous system and the heart, can also increase red blood cells, have an anti-fatigue effect on skeletal muscle, and can make the fatigue of skeletal muscle tone significantly and persistently increased. However, when used in large quantities for a long time, symptoms such as tremor, anxiety, insomnia, headache, palpitations, tachycardia, and sweating will occur.
6. Varieties of toxic drugs for medical use
Including strychnine, also known as skeletaline, it is an alkaloid extracted from strychnine, which can selectively excite the spinal cord and enhance the tone of skeletal muscle. It is worth noting that strychnine is toxic, the safety range is narrow, 10mg can be fatal, and at the same time it is slow to excrete, easy to accumulate in excess in the body, and is rarely used in clinical practice. Its poisoning is manifested by muscle stiffness in the face and neck, rigidity of the limbs, regurgitation of the horn arch, etc., and can also die due to stiffness of the laryngeal, diaphragm, intercostal and abdominal muscles, resulting in respiratory arrest and bulbar paralysis.
This category mainly includes diuretics (such as furosemide, spironolactone), β-blockers (such as propranolol, metoprolol), metabolic regulators (such as trimetazide), anti-estrogen drugs (such as clomiphene, tamoxifen), drugs for the treatment of asthma (such as budesonide, salbutamol) and glucocorticoid drugs (such as dexamethasone, prednisone), etc., which can regulate human body functions through various mechanisms, so that athletes can achieve a more stable and extraordinary state. But at the same time, it will also cause various kinds of damage to the normal human body.
Competitive activity is the manifestation of human primitive ability, a description of human ability in the state of nature. The most direct victims of doping are athletes, which not only causes them irreversible physical damage, but also mental decadence and loss of sanity. I hope that doping will never be used on the field, so that athletes have a healthy body and mind, so that the field has a level playing field.
Contributed by: Huang Jin, Department of Pharmacy, Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Hunan Brain Hospital).
Editor: Liu Yuchen
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion