Written by DR. GEORGE TOULIATOS, MD
25 February 2020

 

 

History-of-PEDs-Use

 

 

 

Dr. Testosterone
By George Touliatos, MD
 
The History of PEDs Use
 
Since the ancient time, humans have developed a competitive spirit in them, in order to be better against each other. The Olympic spirit with its motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” – meaning “faster, higher, stronger” – included the terms of fair play in games. During the Olympic Games held in ancient Olympia, wrestlers of the Pankration sport used to eat bull testicles to increase their power, through testosterone. During the first modern Olympics games in Athens, in 1896, performance-enhancing methods took their initial steps. A cyclist allegedly used the painkiller narcotic “strychnine” in order to avoid the feeling of pain and prolong his stamina.
 
In 1935, the Germans isolated testosterone in a lab and manufactured it in synthetic form (Nobel Prize, Chemistry 1939). Later, during World War II, Third Reich soldiers extensively abused injectable testosterone to sustain injuries and malnutrition, while aggressiveness and stamina were the major drawbacks.  
 
Right after the end of World War II, doping made its appearance in football and more specifically in the 1954 World Cup, held in Switzerland. West Germany was rumored to be doping – almost half of the team that won the final against Hungary. Surprisingly, at halftime score was 0-2 for the team of Ferenc Puskás. At the same year, American scientist Dr. John Ziegler originally developed the most widespread anabolic steroid, methandrostenolone (Dianabol).
 
In the following decade, several other testosterones derivatives were also synthesized, such as stanozolol (Winstrol), methenolone (Primobolan), mesterolone (Proviron), oxymetholone (Anadrol) and drostanolone (Masterone). All of them were serving medical purposes, fighting specific symptoms (anemia, hypogonadism, muscle wasting, osteopenia, breast cancer).
 
During the Cold War era (early ‘50s to late ‘80s) in the former Eastern Bloc (East Germany, Soviet Union, Bulgaria, China and North Korea later), the science of doping was consolidated in order to promote communism. The Cold War was a conflict between East and West in Olympic Games.
 
It was well known the alleged “breakfast of the champions” – the pharmaceutical oral 17-alkylated AAS Turinabol (DDR). This AAS was quite familiar with the Russian Dianabol (methandienone-methandrostenolone) or the Bulgarian Bionabol.
 
Although it was suspected that AAS were being used systematically by athletes, testing methods were insufficiently developed. In 1975, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the use of steroids in Olympic competition and in 1976 steroid testing was conducted for the first time at the Montreal Olympics. 
 
Some decades later, in the mid-‘90s, the extensive doping abuse of GDR was exposed in documents. Type of drugs, doses, programs and proper withdrawal timing prior to the games were revealed. Almost 70 percent of athletes who entered the 1972 Munich Olympics were chemically enhanced. 
 
When health problems appeared, former champions pressed charges against their trainers and physicians for non-reversible medical side effects.
 
After the fall of the Berlin Wall fall and the end of the Cold War era, gurus and coaches abandoned Europe to immigrate to the USA, asking for political asylum. Their “know-how” strategies, along with the advanced technology available from the Americans, developed new methods of doping and created the advanced gene doping with applications in the genetic material (DNA). Synthetic forms, recombinant human growth hormone (r-HGH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (r-IGF-1) and erythropoietin (r-EPO) were the new weapons of performance- enhancement drugs (PEDs). 
 
In 2000, it was speculated that r-EPO was widely abused by endurance athletes (distance running, cycling, race walking, cross-country skiing, triathlons) and sprinters occasionally in Sydney Olympics. 
 
Some elite cyclists in the Tour de France, including Lance Armstrong, admitted to using r-EPO. 
 
In 2003, the BALCO scandal was revealed in the USA. Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a17-alkylated AAS per os, was the first non-detected drug and was known as ‘‘The Clear.” It was manufactured as a performance enhancer, not for medical purposes. Victor Conte was the manager of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). Tetrahydrogestrinone was an anabolic steroid in liquid form, with progestational activity and high liver toxicity. Its origin comes from gestrinone (a progesterone’s derivative, a steroid prescribed against endometriosis (i.e., inner wall uterus thickening), being added four (4) hydrogen (H2) atoms. Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery were convicted and sent to prison as a result of perjury. 
 
It was the first time that athletes were suspended, without being tested positive, through numerous emails that ensured their use. 
 
There have been many outbreaks at the Olympic Games still standing, as well as haunted suspicious WR or OR that have been broken but later rescinded by the IOC (10.49 sec and 10.54 sec, 21.54 sec) by Florence Griffith Joyner (USA-RIP 1998). In 1988 at Seoul Olympics, there was an extensive abuse of AAS (stanozolol-Ben Johnson’s scandal, 100m final 9.79 sec). There were also suspicions that Joyner’s (Flo-Jo’s) records were the result of using steroids or other PEDs (HGH), since performance had improved dramatically over a short period of time. Besides, her retirement in 1989 followed Ben Johnson’s scandal over doping. When Flo-Jo died at the age of 38, her heart was enlarged, consistent with cardiomyopathy from HGH abuse.
 
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, creatine monohydrate was the miraculous new supplement.
 
The 2000 Sydney Olympics belonged to r-EPO, which was not yet able to get under control. Until the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, r-HGH was the undetected weapon of athletes. 
 
George Touliatos, MD is an author, lecturer, champion competitive bodybuilder and expert in medical prevention regarding PED use in sports. Dr. Touliatos specializes in medical biopathology and is the medical associate of Orthobiotiki.gr and Medihall.gr, Age Management and Preventive Clinics in Athens, Greece. He is the author of four Greek books on bodybuilding, has extensively developed articles for www.anabolic.org and is the medical associate for the book Anabolics, 11th Edition (2017). Dr. Touliatos has been a columnist for the Greek editions of MuscleMag and Muscular Development magazines, and has participated in several seminars across Greece and Cyprus, making numerous TV and radio appearances, doing interviews in print and online. His personal website is https://gtoul.com/
 

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