Stay away from supplements!
That is the advice to athletes from Dr Adrian Lorde, who was conducting another seminar in the series organized by the National Anti-Doping Commission (NADC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last weekend at the Barbados Olympic Centre.
Lorde, who is NADC chairman, acknowledged that in addition to competing, athletes made a lot of demands on their body from travelling and jet lag, diet and might need “other substances”.
He said the safest way would be to test all supplements to make sure they don’t contain anything on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances, but that was not practical.
There is a lab in Jamaica which does the testing, none here.
“You test one batch; another batch might have in something different. That is where the problem is,” Lorde said.
Failing that, athletes should use the resources of their local anti-doping body to get the labels read before they make the purchases.
Lorde pointed to the herb Tribulus terrestris (which can be found growing across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia) but is known to artificially increase testosterone.
“Some of the manufacturers don’t put things on the label,” he noted.
“Don’t buy them first and then show us. We can advise you what is on the label, but we still can’t advise you to use X-product.”
He also told the audience to avoid buying those which stated “WADA-approved” on the label.
“WADA doesn’t approve any of these things, so you have to be careful. Athletes have to be vigilant because of the strict liability,” he said, while recommending the use of yams, eddoes and breadfruit.
It is the “strict liability” clause which holds athletes accountable for what they ingest.
Lorde recommended the drug resource site www.globaldro.com, which provides information on drugs and medication.
Earlier during the presentation, he pointed out that doping violations not only constituted positive tests. These also include any attempt to tamper with the collection process; refusing to be tested; not filling in the whereabouts form (where athletes can be located); being in possession of substances on the banned lists and even making the attempt to administer them.
Lorde, Neil Murrell and other members of the NADC started the outreach programme in June and to date more than 700 people have received information on anti-doping.
National federations, schools and other groups can also request a visit from the resource personnel.
Murrell said this education drive was also for the public who, for the first time, can win an award at this year’s National Independence Festival of Creative Arts by producing a piece on anti-doping.
