The National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA) has expressed a great deal of skepticism about the reliability of the blood test for human growth hormone (hGH) promoted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The players’ union has agreed, in principle, to implement hGH blood testing as part of the testing for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. However, they have not been satisfied with the scientific evidence provided for the WADA-backed hGH test. Several experts, who are not directly employed by WADA, believe the distrust of WADA is justified.
The NFL players’ have good reasons to be skeptical of the WADA-promoted anti-doping test according to Matt Chaney. Chaney is a leading chronicler of steroid use and doping in American football who has been critical of the imperiousness of anti-doping agencies.
“American medicine and credible medical bodies abroad have yet to see a democratic, scientific, straight-up independent peer review of this purported breakthrough in doping detection,” Chaney wrote in an email to Deadspin.
Don Catlin, the director of Anti-Doping Research, has repeatedly criticized WADA for their lack of transparency when it comes to their method for the detection of human growth hormone. WADA has repeatedly refused to provide scientific evidence that could be used to independently establish the reliability of the hGH isoform ratio test developed by Christian Strasburger. If this can not be accomplished, then its fairness to the athletes subjected to hGH testing can not be guaranteed.
“[The hGH isoform test] is simply not a useful test, no matter how you cut it or spin it,” according to Catlin.
Peter H. Sonksen, M.D. doesn’t think the folks at WADA were smart enough to understand the shortcomings of the hGH isoform ratio test. Over a decade ago, Sonksen developed an alternative hGH testing method that relied on physiological biomarkers.
“I think that they were, ah, too thick to understand it,” Sonksen told Matt Chaney in an interview. “They weren’t experts in the field, and they don’t really understand it.”
Peer-reviewed, scientific papers have shown the superiority of the hGH biomarker test over the hGH isoform test. The abundance of data allegedly supporting WADA’s isoform test must have been kept secret under internal WADA review.
Just because something is good enough for WADA shouldn’t automatically make it good enough for everyone else.
Source:
Deadspin. (October 27, 2011). Why NFL Players Shouldn’t Trust The Test For HGH. Retrieved from http://deadspin.com/5854014/why-nfl-players-shouldnt-trust-the-test-for-hgh
Chaney, M. (March 21, 2010). Experts Question WADA Blood Test for HGH. Retrieved from http://blog.4wallspublishing.com/2010/03/21/experts-question-wada-blood-test-for-hgh.aspx
