Recently, in the just-concluded final of the women's figure skating free skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Russian figure skater K Bauvalieva, who was given high hopes by the majority of fans, was controversial. Because she was found to be using stimulants, it is said to be "trimetazidine hydrochloride", and the mainland swimming star Sun Yang was found to be a drug.
K Treasure. Vallieva
Because of this drug, Vallieva was punished by the International Olympic Committee, and even if she won the championship, there was no award ceremony. In the end, Valieva lost her medal in the final due to multiple mistakes. Most Chinese fans sighed. Many people even issued such comments: "Figure skating needs to be calm, there is no need to take stimulants, it must be the IOC is mistaken!" In fact, the reason for this kind of comment may be that you misunderstood "doping".
Speaking of doping, it is called "Dope" in English, which means "an opiate anesthetic mixture for horse racing". In the early days of sports competitions, athletes would use this stimulant drug in order to improve their performance, but in recent years, the scope of doping has also been expanded, as long as it can improve sports performance is likely to be a stimulant. For example, diuretics (hydrochlorothiazide), β receptor blockers (betalox), and trimetazil, a drug that improves myocardial metabolism, which was found to be in the field of stimulants, are all in the category of stimulants. In this way, many patients with hypertension and coronary heart disease are certainly not happy, how can our common drugs for hypertension and coronary heart disease be defined as "stimulants" by the International Olympic Committee? In fact, the key problem here is that these drugs can improve the athletic performance of athletes, and it is by no means the IOC that discriminates against patients with hypertension and coronary heart disease.
So, how does trimetazide improve athletes' athletic performance? This starts with the heart's basic energy metabolism. The normal heart energy supply is 60% to 70% from free fatty acid β oxidation, 20% to 25% glucose oxidation, and 5% to 10% glycolysis. When a heart disease occurs, such as ischemia and hypoxia, the oxidation of free fatty acids in the energy supply of the heart muscle increases to 80% to 90%; The ratio of glucose fermentation and glucose oxidation is subsequently reduced. This change reduces the efficiency of the heart's work and increases energy consumption. To put it more in layman's terms, the heart engine broke down and began to burn oil.
It's like a car engine
And trimetazim can improve all this, because it can inhibit the metabolism of free fatty acids, so that the metabolism of free fatty acids is reduced, so that the myocardium's glucose metabolism returns to normal. Trimetazim can improve the utilization of oxygen, produce more high-energy phosphate bonds to relieve myocardial ischemia symptoms, and used in athletes can also improve athletic performance. In addition, trimetazim can also further reduce the acetyl-CoA produced by free fatty acid metabolism, thereby stimulating the production of pyruvate dehydrogenase, indirectly enhancing glucose oxidation. This is the reason why so many athletes now choose to use trimetazide, saying that it has changed, taking this medicine, can improve athletic performance, rather than simply making people excited.
Speaking of which, you may be able to understand why athletes eating trimethazine is considered a "stimulant". To put it bluntly, it is because this drug can improve athletic performance, so it is classified as a "stimulant", rather than a simple excitement. Do you understand this time?