Don't Those Stupid Athletes Realize Their Drugs Don't Work?

by Lou Schuler on Mar 18, 2008 9:03 AM EDT in News Comment 0 comments

Once again, a study attempts to convince us of something that isn't likely to be true:

Athletes who take human growth hormone may not be getting the boost they expected.

While growth hormone adds some muscle, it doesn't appear to improve strength or exercise capacity, according to a review of studies that tested the hormone in mostly athletic young men.

"It doesn't look like it helps and there's a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance," said Dr. Hau Liu, of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., who was lead author of the review.

Here's the methodology that led to this assertion by Dr. Liu:

Liu and his colleagues at Stanford University sought to find out if growth hormone really could improve performance. They looked for the best published tests, those comparing participants who got the hormone to those who didn't get the treatment.

They analyzed 27 studies involving 440 participants. The results were released Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers found that those who got the hormone put on about 5 pounds more of muscle, and lost about 2 pounds more of fat, although the fat loss wasn't statistically different. The researchers said some of the extra body mass could just be fluid buildup.

There was no difference found in strength or exercise stamina between the two groups, but there were only two strength studies and eight that measured exercise. Those who got the hormone had more side effects including swelling and fatigue.

To its credit, the story by the Associated Press calls bullshit on itself, citing the litany of limitations to this kind of reasoning that I've noted on MPF here and on my original blog here:

Clinical studies aren't conducted on elite athletes, and don't measure "performance" in any way that would be meaningful to an athlete. For example, they don't consider whether it would help them recover faster in between workouts, or have less downtime because of minor injuries.
They don't use the doses elite athletes use, and they can't possibly take into account the combination of drugs an athlete might employ. Is growth hormone more effective when used simultaneously or in some sort of sequential pattern with anabolic steroids? You can't test that in a lab.
The studies can't possibly track long-term use of HGH, so if there's a chronic, cumulative effect that's greater than the acute, short-term effect, you'd never know from the published research.

If you want some juicy reporting on steroids, check out the current issue of Sports Illustrated, particularly "Steroids in America" and "The ABCs of HGH".

(Hat tip: Nick Bromberg.)

Tuesday blog meat

Hot damn! Just ten more years until we finally have that anti-obesity pill.
Religion may not prevent obesity, but it seems to help people cope with life's downturns.

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