Thyroid Meds

[MartinGT]

According to the Secret Pro these are being abused

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/the-secret-pro-sketchy-thyroids-confused-commissaires-and-more/

Now I wonder which team has been using this to aid weight loss

[42x16ss]

Wouldn’t surprise me, but they would have to be careful as an over active thyroid can lead to heart palpitations and SOBE.

[pastronef]

According to the Secret Pro these are being abused

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/the-secret-pro-sketchy-thyroids-confused-commissaires-and-more/

Now I wonder which team has been using this to aid weight loss

let's wonder (in alphabetical order)

ag2r
astana
bahrain
bmc
Bora
Cannondale
etc
etc
etc

[King Boonen]

Thyroid medication is prescription only, so if it's being facilitated by the team then the most effective thing to do would be to go after the doctors for prescribing medication that is not required by the patient. Again, I'll make the point that the best way to do this is to have a central pool of doctors, funded independently, that are randomly distributed among the teams every year.

[ferryman]

Thyroid medication is prescription only, so if it's being facilitated by the team then the most effective thing to do would be to go after the doctors for prescribing medication that is not required by the patient. Again, I'll make the point that the best way to do this is to have a central pool of doctors, funded independently, that are randomly distributed among the teams every year.

Tramadol is also prescription only, and yet British cycling/Sky doctors (ha **** ha) seem to be offering it around like sweeties. Your second point is a fair one but not in any way workable I'm afraid.

[King Boonen]

Thyroid medication is prescription only, so if it's being facilitated by the team then the most effective thing to do would be to go after the doctors for prescribing medication that is not required by the patient. Again, I'll make the point that the best way to do this is to have a central pool of doctors, funded independently, that are randomly distributed among the teams every year.

Tramadol is also prescription only, and yet British cycling/Sky doctors (ha **** ha) seem to be offering it around like sweeties. Your second point is a fair one but not in any way workable I'm afraid.

Yes, but Tramadol is a pain killer. It's fairly easy to justify in terms of any review panel as many of the other opioids are banned in-competition, so you give the one which won't accidentally trigger a positive test. I'm not saying that's fine with me, I think if you need opioid pain killers you shouldn't be racing/training, but that's currently why it's hard to do anything.

Thyroid meds are different. They have a single medicinal purpose for a specific treatment. While Tramadol can be given for a variety of pains, either alone or with other specific treatments, thyroid meds are only given to those with thyroid problems. As such there should be a paper trail proving that they are required.

The second point would actually be fairly easy to enact if the sport wanted to. Each team pays a doctors wages and an overspend for management and review to an independent body. The board then assigns doctors, from a pool, to different teams each year. During that year doctors are assigned to a team and their expenses are covered by the team. All are required to submit notes to the body and all practices are reviewed. Anything questionable is then on the doctors shoulders and they are the ones who are held accountable. Of course, there would need to be a will to do it...

[ClassicomanoLuigi]

Again, I'll make the point that the best way to do this is to have a central pool of doctors, funded independently, that are randomly distributed among the teams every year.

Very valid point and suggestion ... if teams are interested in 'fairness', then why wouldn't they consent to having these embedded physicians come in, from a centrally funded body? Maybe the resistance on the part of teams is that they contend: winning is in the preparation for the race, therefore secrecy about training 'materials and methods' are an essential part of team strategy ? And from the cycling authorities, willingness to fund an expensive program... are they really enough dedicated to antidoping to spend millions of euro on the central sports-physician pool? That would go a long way toward anti-doping goals, and maybe even be money more-effectively spent than on blood testing. Since the embedded doctors would immediately recognize nonsense going-ons in the teams' medical 'methods'

Thyroid medication is prescription only, so if it's being facilitated by the team then the most effective thing to do would be to go after the doctors for prescribing medication that is not required by the patient.

If facilitated by the team = prescribed by a team doctor, in such a way that it leaves a paper-trail... in this context, it's not really believable that many people with natural hypothyroid conditions would make it to the level of elite endurance athletes in the first place (to triumph by somehow overcoming fatigue, weight gain, chills, somnolence). Especially in the case of males, and when blood testing could largely rule out autoimmune conditions, making the prescription even more suspicious. The article mentions that maybe some athletes do have self-inflicted hypothyroidism and therefore creates a 'grey area' where maybe the meds prescription would be justified... but why risk controversy in a 'grey zone' if the drugs can be found in their mom's medicine-cabinet? So with thyroxines being easily obtained from the market off-the-record, and prescriptions raising too many red flags, that is probably how the cyclists are getting the thyroid medications

[Catwhoorg]

They have been abused in distance running for a while. As low thyroid activity is a symptom of heavy training runners were being prescribed medication to "get back to normal levels", allowing them to train even harder (then up the dose) repeat ad nauseam.

[veganrob]

They have been abused in distance running for a while. As low thyroid activity is a symptom of heavy training runners were being prescribed medication to "get back to normal levels", allowing them to train even harder (then up the dose) repeat ad nauseam.

Yep. See Salazar