Last week, FIFA announced that the Netherlands’ Edgar Davids and
Portuguese national team captain Fernando Couto were among eight players
in the Italian Serie A league who tested positive for the steroid
nandrolone and have been suspended from international play.Nandrolone powder
Davids’ Dutch teammate Frank De Boer is also under investigation.
Positive tests for nandrolone in sports have become almost epidemic and
routinely make front-page news.
The typical routine is first Im innocent because some diet guru gave
them some tainted supplement. Then there is some suspension that the
athlete protests, asks for an appeal, then ends up serving. There is no
sport governing body that accepts ignorance as an excuse: You took it,
you tested positive, you shouldve known, you are suspended.
So why do athletes test positive for nandrolone? Dietary supplements are
being blamed, and many athletes have said the drug or precursors of the
drug found in urine samples may have been present in food supplements,
as they have “never” taken an anabolic steroid.
So what is nandrolone? Its a prescription anabolic-androgenic steroid that was popular among strength athletes as far back as the 1970s due to its effectiveness in producing muscle growth and speeding recovery with minimal side effects. Unlike testosterone, this synthetic steroid has strong anabolic properties (muscle building), but only moderate androgenic properties (secondary male sex characteristics).
Medically, nandrolone is used in anemia or selected kidney disorders. Nandrolone also can increase hemoglobin and red blood cell mass, making it popular with endurance athletes.
Nandrolone use declined quickly when it was added to the drug-testing list in 1975. Even in incredibly small amounts, nandrolone is detectable in the body. Therefore, a urine sample may be positive for 60 days or more after the last dose. Thats why athletes get caught on random drug tests.
While nandrolone is produced in small amounts by the body itself, laboratories accredited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reported over 300 positive tests for nandrolone in a variety of sports. The labs say the amounts detected far exceed that produced naturally. Nandrolone and its metabolites are tested in the laboratory by a method called gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy and is accurate over 99 percent of the time. The false positive rate is less than 1 in 10,000 tests.
If nandrolone is on the banned list and being so easily detected, isnt it odd that athletes suddenly are testing positive for nandrolone? Do you really believe that they are consciously testing their fates with this drug in the name of greater glory? Something else must be going on, leading to all these positive tests.
