Testing For Anabolic Steroids (part 1)
Drug testing in modern day sporting events is quite common practise nowadays. We are normally lead to believe that a very small percentage of competitors use performance enhancing drugs, but the truth is that is very common place amongst modern day competitors. There really isn't anything wrong in wanting to have a competitive edge over your main rivals, and that would normally amount to some form of anabolic steroids backed up by a plan to beat the test.
Many competitions in powerlifting and bodybuilding are now drug tested at events. The idea is, of course, that everybody competes on a 'level field', aside from personal talent for sport. However, what frequently happens is that the guy who is on 'juice' and has found a way to get round the drug test comes out the winner. It isn't fair by any means, but that's life.
Yes, there are many sporting names out there that find this practise an unfair advantage, but at the end of the day it's down to the individual, who knows what the consequences are if he gets found to be positive during a competition. Another interesting part of drug testing is how people avoid the test, but for the moment we are going to concentrate on methods that can be employed to beat the test.
Types of Testing Procedure: During athletics meetings the more common body fluid that is tested for the presence of drugs is normally urine. We will be concentrating on dealing with the different procedures that are carried out to test this body fluid, although such procedures carried out to assess blood for the presence of illegal substances are practically the same.
Different laboratory testing processes are employed in the testing for performance enhancers so we are going to focus on just how they work in order to be able to beat them. Step 1 will be well prior to your event, that you find out which type of sample analysis is to be employed so that an effective planning to beat the test can begin as soon as possible.
Gas Chromatography(GC): This methodology uses a separation technique to separate a urine sample into its basic component chemical parts. The substances are passed through chromatographic columns by a gas. chromatography is how we separate mixtures of compounds from each other, and this will lead to identification in the most cases. The chemical compounds found present in the urine sample can be identified by their 'retention time' on the chromatographic column - this retention time is unique for each individual drug, allowing them to be identified.
Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry(GC/MS): This specific test will use a mixture of gas chromatography, followed up by mass spectrometry on the chemicals that have been separated from the urine on the chromatographic column. The mass spectrometry will reveal the exact identification of any drugs which are found present in the urine by actually producing an perfect 'molecular fingerprint' match of any chemicals that are found present. Meaning that the chemical structure of the drugs that are present (the atoms present within the drug, and in the order they are actually bonded together) results by putting this method to use. "Unfortunately" this test is just too expensive to use and just the well off sporting associations can afford to use it. The test of this cost is on average about one hundred pounds per sample (almost $200 US).
Although the above two tests are very accurate, there is always room for human error. For example, if the machines were not cleaned perfectly from the last sample, and that last sample was contaminated with illicit drugs, then the next sample through (maybe yours!!) could pick up some of the contaminant, and test positive. Therefore, if you test positive, no matter what, then protest. Especially if you know you were 'clean' (or should have been clean by the time of the test)
High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC): This technique is of particular interest because it is often used on test samples suspected of containing anabolic steroids. It's basically similar to GC, except that a liquid is used as a carrier for the sample through a chromatographic column, rather than a gas. HPLC is both sensitive and simpler to do than GC. It is often used to check results from other, less sensitive tests.
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