Thyroid drugs keep coming up in connection with doping cases, most recently in the scandal surrounding the Nike Oregon Project, the controversial training group in the USA to which runner Kara Goucher belonged. “My coach wanted me to take Cytomel, which is a prescription drug for the thyroid. One side effect is weight loss. That crossed a red line for me.”
Improving performance through thyroid medication is conceivable
Your former coach, the running coach Alberto Salazar, is now banned for doping, the Nike Oregon Project ended. Why top athletes expect an increase in performance from thyroid medication – understandable for the Munich sports physician and cardiologist Professor Axel Pressler. “You have to think of the thyroid gland as a kind of power plant in the body, basically. It is required either to accelerate or to control metabolic processes, so to speak. That means it would of course be conceivable that you could use thyroid hormones Processes can be accelerated, energy production can be supported in some way, muscle power can be strengthened.”
Or burn more fat and lose weight. Only for the experts of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA the proof is missing. That’s why thyroid drugs are not on the doping list. Anti-doping agencies from several nations have been demanding a ban for a long time because they are convinced that thyroid hormones are being abused in top-class sport. And what the doping investigators in Italy have now found sounds unbelievable: “Thyroid drugs are much more widespread among Italian top athletes than in the general population. The number is increasing among cyclists in particular, almost every third football professional reported taking it.”
Italy: Medications 20 times more prevalent among top athletes than among the rest of the population
According to experts, hypothyroidism, which means that medication actually has to be taken, only occurs in around one percent or even less of the comparable normal population. In the case of top Italian athletes, the percentage is even more than 20 times higher. What’s behind it? Doping researcher Xavier de la Torre and his colleagues from the anti-doping laboratory in Rome are also investigating the suspicion of an attempted increase in performance.
“I don’t think athletes are stupid enough to take something that doesn’t work. We’ve found that use is greater than it should be. And now we need to figure out what’s really causing it,” says de la Torre. Experts consider it unlikely that the athletes developed thyroid disease as a result of their sport and therefore need the medication. Endocrinologist Professor Joachim Feldkamp from the Bielefeld Clinic says very clearly: “No, I certainly won’t get that anymore. So the high performance doesn’t require it.”
Experts warn of health risks from the drugs
The experts even warn of the health hazard. Those who take thyroid hormones without an actual medical need run the risk of over-exciting their heart and dropping dead on the field or track. “Of course, we don’t always know why one or the other has now suffered cardiac death,” says Professor Axel Pressler. “Of course, we cardiologists say that these are mostly heart problems, but often they are arrhythmias. And if you think about this scenario, why shouldn’t it also be conceivable with an overdose of thyroid hormones? So I wouldn’t rule it out.”
The Italian doping researchers hope to be able to provide explanations for the extremely high number of thyroid drugs by the end of the year. And whether the attempt to increase performance is actually behind it. For Germany, figures on the intake of thyroid medication are completely missing. Neither DOSB nor DFB and anti-doping agency can provide information. However, NADA is in favor of putting thyroid hormones on the watch list.