Your fag-packet calculations are too basic. There are other variables which Dr Lipworth mentioned.
I take your point on the chin regards to Armstrong, but the presumption of innocence is important in my opinion.
Your fag-packet calculations are too basic. There are other variables which Dr Lipworth mentioned.
I take your point on the chin regards to Armstrong, but the presumption of innocence is important in my opinion.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
Dr Lipworth has admitted he is isn't an anti-doping expert. Additionally his article is very poorly written. He tells us for instance that the reading on it's own is meaningless without context. No it isn't. The reading is the context. It tells us how much drug was in his system. We can't rely on a context, the circumstances given by a professional cyclist because as we've seen they tend to lie a lot.Originally Posted by Witton Park
http://medicine.dundee.ac.uk/staff-m...ian-j-lipworth
I read the original piece and I was rather surprised to note the tone of the article - perhaps Dr Lipworth thinks Dundee needs some publicity or more funding?
The other problem is that newspapers only care about what will sell - usually sensation -and truth and balance don't figure. The DT might have approached a dozen experts before finding one that would give them good copy and that is the view they will print.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Okay, so I'm playing Devil's Advocate here. Is there an argument that people with asthma or similar conditions that require long term (performance enhancing) medication to "manage" should be considered as a class of competitor in "para" sports? Of course they could enter the regular TDF etc as long as they didn't take their medication during the race/competition/training phase?
That might sound quite harsh (but I am playing Devil's advocate), but it is also quite harsh that people injured in a car crash may never be able to ride the TDF or people with normal cardio vascular systems etc etc...
What Dr Lipworth is an expert in Salbutamol. He knows how it affects the user and what its benefits and side effects are.
The DT has actually done several pieces since the news came out and they are mixed in their approach and include "Sir Bradley Wiggins' wife Cath calls Chris Froome a 'slithering reptile' after Team Sky rider returns adverse findings"
Historically there are lots of asthma sufferers medalling and competing at the highest level in many sports (including fell runners). My understanding is that treatment is allowed (and should be allowed) in a similar way to cortisone injections, ibuprofen and other such treatments that are to restore a problem to normal, not to enhance the normal.
If Froome or the Doctor has made an error deliberately or accidentally, they should be dealt with appropriately.
But to attack asthmatics, who use inhalers, is counter to the way sport is managed, and actually may put asthmatics off getting involved. I have a few in my group and I certainly know that some asthmatics have represented GB in athletics, even on the mountains.
I had one U13 Girl who used to carry her inhaler in races as she could get quite nasty attacks. She was told at one Mid Lancs meeting in 2014 that she had to hand it to the official, that she wouldn't be allowed to carry it, was upset, didn't race, and we haven't seen her again since.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
I just want to make it clear that I wasn't trying to attack asthmatics in any way, I think that as many people as possible should be helped and encouraged to take part in as many sports as possible.
What happened to the U13 girl you mentioned WP is terrible and it is sad if she has been discouraged from taking part since.
I was just (perhaps misguidedly) trying to prompt a wider debate about the use of therapeutic drugs in competition. I'll hold my hands up, I don't know any of the science around Salbutamol or the wider implications so the counter argument to my question could just be shut up PAG you're being naive and stupid and have missed an important point. That's fine, I'm always happy to learn.
If something is not performance enhancing though, why there is an upper limit that someone is allowed to have in their system?
If the rule is that you are only allowed xxx drug up to a certain level, then surely the test needs to be rock solid, otherwise it will always be contested and the result will always be grey?
But the puzzling thing is that it would be such a daft way of cheating. Froome would have known that he would definitely be tested and that salbutamol shows up clearly in a urine sample. So why cheat like this when he would have absolutely no hope of getting away with it?
Almost as daft as surviving cancer against all odds, and then risking your life with diy blood transfusions and buckets full of PEDs. No-one would do that either surely . . .
But both can happen at the same time. A problem can be brought back to normal I.e. the lungs, whilst enhancing the normal I.e. muscles, blood etc. And that is the issue Witton and its something you've never understand after all the discussions we've had on here. I don't put you in the same class as the doctors who do understand the issue but evasively pass it off to the public. I just think you don't grasp the issue.
Asthma medications have effects. Main effects and side effects. Most people who take drugs try to avoid or limit the side effects. But some sports doctors and athletes are interested in asthma medications for their side effects. The fact that they open the lungs is one thing but that these drugs also spare adrenaline, increase muscle strength, break down glycogen and fat, increase red cell count and therefore increase endurance, increase the effect of corticosteroids, pump potassium into muscles to make them work harder, is quite another.
That isn't making them normal Witton. Something needs doing about it at the top level. If asthmatics want to compete then they should be allowed but not at world class level where money is to be made by cheating and taking advantage of TUEs. Unfortunately that's the only way of dealing with this problem.
Oh and by the way it's athletes and their doctors abusing the TUEs that are responsible for genuine asthmatics getting a hard time over this. If that is the case as you say.
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