Performance enhancing effects of HGH and Test

A modest dose (two milligrams per day) of growth hormone is associated with a 3.9% boost in sprint capacity, which researchers estimate translates to shaving 0.4 seconds off a 100m time. Sprint capacity in men receiving both growth hormone and 250 milligrams per week of testosterone increased by an average of 8.3%. Thankfully our American negro athletes (and Jamaicans) don't need to resort to this sort of cheating. (Link via Randall Parker.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think that the negro dominance of sprinting is mainly due to HGH and test use?

n/a said...

I wouldn't say "mainly", but we have no way of knowing what the black-white gap in elite sprinting performance would be in the absence of performance enhancing drug use.

Probably what would be a small gap stemming from genetics is widened by sociological causes and further widened by drugs.

Here's an article from BALCO owner Victor Conte:

As soon as I found out what Tim was taking, I said: "You're oversaturated with performance-enhancing drugs. Too much is just as bad as not enough." I first met Tim when I gave him some of "The Clear" in Sydney, and he visited BALCO in November. I'd assembled a team -- Project World Record -- that included Milos Sarcev, a brilliant bodybuilder, and Charlie Francis, who coached Ben Johnson when he won gold in the '88 Games. Milos developed Tim's weight-training program. Charlie developed his track-training program. And I developed his pharmacology and nutrition program. Graham was the front man.

Want to hear something amazing? There's a BALCO calendar for Tim that shows he was taking insulin, EPO, growth hormone, "The Clear" and adrenaline -- five different performance-enhancing agents -- through 2001. At the end of June, Tim won the United States Championship. Soon after, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sent him a post-competition letter that said: "Congratulations, Tim. You've tested negative for all performance-enhancing substances in the sample that was collected." He was using all these drugs and [the] USADA couldn't detect any of them. So how easy is it to beat the USADA test? It's like taking candy from a baby. The results of Project World Record, by the way, were phenomenal. Tim made $600,000 in 2001.


Conte says he was "already rich" and designed drug regimens for black athletes out of a desire to "make history" rather than make money.