Stimulants can:
- Improve endurance
- Reduce fatigue
- Suppress appetite
- Increase alertness and aggressiveness
What are stimulants used for in sports?
Stimulants are used in sports to enhance performance. These substances work on the central nervous system to increase alertness, concentration, metabolic rate, power, strength, and to decrease fatigue. They include caffeine, cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, MDMA (ecstasy), and phenylephrine.
How do stimulants affect the central nervous system?
MSc, CSCS. Stimulants have been used by athletes and bodybuilders for decades because of their ability to instantly improve both mental and physical performance. They have a direct effect on the central nervous system and can improve mental alertness, motivation, and even muscular strength and endurance.
What is a stimulant?
Stimulants are drugs that directly affect the central nervous system. They work to speed up parts of the brain and body, increasing the heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism and body temperature of the user. They are used by athletes to reduce tiredness and fatigue, and to increase alertness, competitiveness and aggressiveness.
Do amphetamines affect athletic performance?
Since their first synthesis, stimulants have been used to enhance athletic performance, with occasionally tragic results. British cyclist Tom Simpson famously collapsed and died in the 1967 Tour de France, and postmortem analysis showed that significant amounts of mixed amphetamines contributed to his death ( 11 ).
Why do people use stimulants in sport?
CNS stimulants are used in sport to reduce tiredness and to increase alertness, competitiveness, and aggression. Stimulants are more likely to be used on the day of a competition; however, they may be used in training, to allow the intensity of the training session to be increased.
What sports benefit from stimulants?
Stimulants are used in team contact sports such as ice hockey and American football and sports which require quick reaction times such as baseball.
What drugs do athletes use to enhance performance?
Types of performance enhancing drugs. Among the most popular PEDs are anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin (EPO), beta-blockers, stimulants and diuretics to name just a few.
What is the importance of stimulants?
Stimulants are a class of drugs that speed up messages travelling between the brain and body. They can make a person feel more awake, alert, confident or energetic. Stimulants include caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines and cocaine.
How do stimulants work?
They work by increasing the amounts of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. The increase of these chemicals in the brain improves concentration and decreases the fatigue common in individuals who suffer from ADHD. However, Stimulants can also cause severe negative effects and addiction.
What are 5 performance enhancing drugs?
There are several types of performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone and diuretics. Anabolic steroids are natural and synthetic substances which help build muscle mass, enabling athletes to train harder and recover quickly from strenuous workouts.
What are the pros and cons of performance enhancing drugs?
Stimulants Athletes use the drugs illicitly to increase alertness, competitiveness, responsiveness, and weight loss. However, side-effects of the drugs include addiction, aggression, anxiety, hypertension, brain hemorrhage, coma, convulsions, dehydration, heart attacks, insomnia, stroke, tremors, and even death.
How does Adderall help athletes?
“It increases alertness, aggressiveness, attention and concentration. It improves reaction time, especially when fatigued. Some think it enhances hand-eye coordination. Some believe it increases the mental aspects of performance.”
How do stimulants work on the nervous system?
Stimulants are a class of drugs that “stimulate” the body's central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord. They increase the levels of catecholamines—a family of brain chemicals that includes dopamine. These chemicals are used in the brain processes to signal reward and motivation.
What is an interesting fact about stimulants?
Stimulants are sometimes referred to as uppers and reverse the effects of fatigue on both mental and physical tasks. Therapeutic levels of stimulants can produce exhilaration, extended wakefulness, and loss of appetite. These effects are greatly intensified when large doses of stimulants are taken.
What do stimulants do in the long term?
Long-term health effects of using stimulants can range from increased blood pressure, irregular heart rate, and nutritional deficiencies to asthma, chronic insomnia, impotence, seizures, heart failure, and more.
What sports use amphetamines?
"Amphetamines have also been abused by athletes such as gymnasts, wrestlers and ballet dancers to decrease appetite so as to reduce body weight", says Wadler.
Does ADHD medication help with sport?
Stimulant medications used for the treatment of Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are believed to provide a physical advantage in athletics, but several of these medications are not regulated by the World Anti-Doping Association.
Does Adderall help in sports?
Adderall has found particular favor within the competitive environment of sports. The same way it can imbue students with alertness for finals or the freedom from distraction to power through Wuthering Heights, so too can Adderall help athletes compete and practice with unblinking focus and improved reaction times.
Why do athletes take Adderall?
“It increases alertness, aggressiveness, attention and concentration. It improves reaction time, especially when fatigued. Some think it enhances hand-eye coordination. Some believe it increases the mental aspects of performance.”
Why are stimulants used in sports?
Stimulants are used in sports to enhance performance. These substances work on the central nervous system to increase alertness, concentration, metabolic rate, power, strength, and to decrease fatigue.
What are the side effects of taking stimulants?
The common side effects of stimulant use include increase in blood pressure, heart attacks, chest pain, shortness of breath, stroke, palpitations, dizziness and anxiety. It can even cause you to suffer from heat exhaustion because it disrupts your body’s ability to cool itself.
How can a sports medicine doctor help you?
Injury Prevention. Your sports medicine doctor can help you identify stimulants that may be present in any supplements. The physician can help you avoid inadvertent use of these substances that can be in over-the-counter medications.
Why are amphetamines used in medicine?
Amphetamines are chemically synthesized, controlled substances that can be used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy and ADHD because they increase alertness and sharpen reflexes. They also increase strength, muscular power, and endurance. However derivatives have been used as drugs of abuse, including ecstasy and MDMA.
Does caffeine increase reaction time?
Caffeine is a performance enhancing stimulant found in numerous products we consume, such as soda, workout supplements, tea, chocolate, and coffee. It has been shown to increase reaction time and delay fatigue in sports like taekwondo. Studies in cyclist have shown faster cycling time trials after caffeine ingestion.
Is cocaine a stimulant?
Similarly, cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant and is the most potent stimulant of natural origin.
What is designer stimulant?
What are designer stimulants? Most people use the term designer stimulants to describe chemicals that mimic illegal drugs like cocaine and amphetamine. A couple of examples include MDMA (Ecstasy) and “bath salts.”. However, the term designer stimulants is broader than just illicit drugs.
When will designer stimulants become available?
Designer Stimulants: What Athletes Should Know. Education, Spirit of Sport / January 24, 2019. October 19, 2020. As many designer stimulants become more widely available online and illegally included in supplements, it’s important for athletes and support personnel to recognize the risk, both from an anti-doping perspective and a health perspective.
Why were designer stimulants abandoned?
However, the vast majority of designer stimulants discovered were either never studied for medical therapeutic use or were abandoned due to safety concerns. These stimulants include all of the illicit compounds like MDMA and bath salts, and many other compounds that were not found to be useful medically because they had too many side effects.
Is levmetamfetamine a stimulant?
There have been hundreds of different stimulants discovered this way. For example, levmetamfetamine is related to amphetamine and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a nasal decongestant in some sinus inhalers. Another example is methylphenidate, which is medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Can you use bath salts in competition?
While most stimulants are prohibited for use in-competition, athletes should also be aware of the health risks. There are numerous case-reports of people ending up in the hospital after using bath salts with agitation and violent behavior, delusions, a racing heart, water overload, confusion, and hallucinations.
Can you compete with stimulants?
Yes, all stimulants are prohibited in-competition with only a few exceptions. As with all medications, make sure to check the anti-doping status by searching GlobalDRO.com.
Is designer stimulant safe?
The important thing to realize about designer stimulants sold on the black market is that they are not tested in humans for safety, or even worse, they were actually tested and found to be unsafe or unfit for use by people. Some of them have toxic side effects or they are synthesized in a way that they could become contaminated with a toxic chemical.
How do stimulants affect athletes?
As previously noted, there are potentially life-threatening adverse effects of stimulant drugs on physical performance. Subjectively, stimulants can create a sense of alertness that may mask other physiological drives such as pain. If pain is not accurately perceived, an athlete may not appreciate an injury and may continue his or her sport, resulting in an increased risk for further harm. Peripherally, stimulant use has particularly harmful effects on the cardiovascular system. Increased adrenergic tone leads to peripheral vasoconstriction and increased blood pressure. These vascular changes diminish blood flow from the core to the periphery, limiting the body’s ability to cool itself by conduction. This effect, along with increased body temperature during exercise, puts athletes at risk for heat stroke ( 27, 28 ). Furthermore, stimulant use has a risk for sudden cardiac death, and this risk is increased for those engaged in strenuous exercise ( 28 ). Stimulant use can also cause appetite suppression, which can be particularly harmful given the increased nutritional needs of athletes ( 8 ).
How do stimulants affect neurotransmission?
Stimulants act to facilitate neurotransmission in the following four ways: they can 1) force the release of neurotransmitters from the presynaptic neuron, 2) block reuptake transporters, 3) inhibit monoamine oxidase (degradation enzyme), and 4) directly stimulate postsynaptic receptors ( Figure 1 ). As a result of these mechanisms, the flow of information from monoamine presynaptic neurons to their postsynaptic neurons is enhanced. The downstream effect of stimulants is an increase in overall sympathetic tone centrally and peripherally, resulting in its physiological effects ( 5, 6 ).
What is the name of the drug that manipulates arousal and memory?
42 Brignell CM, Rosenthal J, Curran HV: Pharmacological manipulations of arousal and memory for emotional material: effects of a single dose of methylphenidate or lorazepam. J Psychopharmacol 2007; 21:673–683 Crossref , Google Scholar
What was the first stimulant?
In 1910, Barger and Dale ( 1) synthesized the first stimulant: amphetamine salts. However, this stimulant was not used therapeutically until 1929, when Gordon Alles studied it as a bronchodilator and a nasal decongestant. Alles patented the oral formulation of amphetamine under the brand name Benzedrine Sulfate and later sold it to Smith, Kline, and French. The company continued to research the use of amphetamine for multiple applications, and it received endorsements for use in narcolepsy, parkinsonism, weight loss, minor depression, and psychosis, among other conditions ( 2 ). In 1937, Charles Bradley theorized that amphetamine could be used to prevent lumbar puncture headaches by stimulating the choroid plexus. He tested this hypothesis during his studies on children with minimal brain dysfunction, and he serendipitously observed that these children’s behaviors improved ( 7 ). This study eventually led to the use of stimulants for ADHD. In 1955, methylphenidate was approved, along with amphetamine , for the treatment of hyperactivity (now a part of ADHD) ( 8, 9) and is currently the most prescribed stimulant in the United States ( 5 ). Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has limited the indications for stimulants to ADHD and narcolepsy ( 8 ), stimulants continue to be studied for off-label usages such as treatment-resistant depression, cancer-related pain, neurocognitive deficits associated with pediatric cancer survival, HIV-related cognitive impairment, and traumatic brain injury, among other indications ( 5 ).
What are psychostimulants used for?
Since their discovery, psychostimulant drugs (amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, and methylphenidate) have been used to treat a wide a variety of conditions. The pharmacologic effects of these drugs include facilitation of monoaminergic neurotransmission. Although there is unequivocal evidence for their efficacy in treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the condition for which stimulants are most widely used, the evidence for benefit across a range of other conditions is less well established. Controversy has recently arisen regarding the widespread use of stimulants to enhance athletic and cognitive performance. This article briefly reviews the developmental history and pharmacology of stimulant medications and then outlines the increasing patterns of illicit use and the mixed evidence for enhancement.
Do stimulants improve athletic performance?
Multiple small trials have evaluated the use of stimulants to enhance athletic performance, and the results are mixed. Most trials have shown either no benefit in performance or minor improvements. Subjectively, studies have shown that athletes tended to feel like their performance was enhanced by the stimulant, regardless of their objective outcomes. Given the risks for an athlete taking stimulants and the possibility of a performance-enhancing effect, since 2004 the World Anti-Doping Agency ( 29) has considered stimulants as banned substances (unless there is a medical exemption for ADHD). Even with this ban and the marginal experimental reports of benefit, professional and collegiate athletes continue to illicitly use stimulants to gain a competitive edge.
Does amphetamine affect performance?
Along with objective performance-based outcomes, researchers have investigated athletes’ subjective perception of their own performance while taking stimulants. In an earlier study investigating the effects of amphetamine on college athletes, participants reported that they felt “revved up,” had improved coordination and form, had increased strength and endurance, and had increased mental and physical activation when taking amphetamine compared with placebo ( 19 ). Another study using college students to examine the effects of 15 mg/70 kg of dextroamphetamine on a treadmill endurance test found similar results. Although the students did not show any distance benefit, they reported less overall subjective fatigue at the end of the dextroamphetamine trial. Furthermore, they had a 9% increase in total lactic acid levels at the end of their dextroamphetamine runs. The authors used these data to hypothesize that amphetamine did not influence physiological fatigue production; instead, it helped blunt the cognitive perception of fatigue ( 24 ). Two subsequent follow-up studies by another research group found consistent results; participants felt that they could do more on endurance-related tasks (e.g., step test and cycle ergometry task) while taking amphetamine, independent of actual performance ( 25, 26 ).
Why do athletes use performance enhancing drugs?
Many athletes use performance-enhancing substances to improve their athletic abilities. However, these addictive and dangerous drugs often give an unfair advantage over competitors in sports. It is common knowledge that the International Olympic Committee banned performance-enhancing substances but because of severe competition, the use of performance-enhancing substances in sports has become increasingly common. Taking these drugs can have both benefits and consequences.
How do Performance-Enhancing Substances Affect Athletes?
Although stimulants can boost athletic performances, athletic endurance, and promote aggressiveness on the field , they also possess side effects that can impair athletic performance, including nervousness, irritability, insomnia, and dehydration which can hinder an athlete’s concentration and performance. There have in fact been high profile incidences of athletes dying due to the misuse of PEDs.
What is Blood Doping?
Blood doping is a technique that involves the use of substances to increase the red blood cell mass in the body. This practice allows red blood cells to carry more oxygen to working muscles and increase their aerobic capacity and endurance. There are three most common methods and substances used in this practice, namely, erythropoietin (EPO), synthetic oxygen carriers, and blood transfusions. This practice is highly dangerous as they increase the risk of heart attacks and stress, blood clotting, and strokes. The transfusion method increases the risk of infectious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis.
What are the best drugs to increase muscle strength?
Types of Performance Enhancing Drugs Include: Anabolic steroids: Anabolic steroids increase the testosterone produced by your body making muscles bigger and helps the body recover from workouts more quickly. It can be taken as a pill, injection, or topical treatment. Androstenedione: Androstenedione allows athletes to train harder ...
What is designer steroid?
Designer steroids or synthetic steroids are a particular class of steroids that are manufactured illegally to remain undetected by current drug tests. They are created specifically for athletes with no approved medical use.
What is the drug that increases oxygen in the body?
Erythropoietin: Erythropoietin is taken by athletes to increase the movement of oxygen in muscles. This drug is extremely dangerous and can cause death, strokes, and heart attacks.
What is a performance enhancer?
Performance enhancers are various substances, chemical agents, or procedures designed to provide an advantage in athletic performance. PEDs affects the body in multiple ways such as the increase in muscles and the increase in blood cells oxygen-carrying capacity.
Why do athletes use stimulants?
Some athletes use stimulants to stimulate the central nervous system and increase heart rate and blood pressure.
What supplements do athletes take?
Supplements are available over-the-counter as powders or pills. Creatine monohydrate is a supplement that's popular among athletes.
Why are steroids so popular?
Why are these drugs so appealing to athletes? Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may reduce the muscle damage that occurs during a hard workout, helping athletes recover from the session more quickly and enabling them to work out harder and more frequently. Some athletes, as well as nonathletes, may like the muscular appearance they get when they take the drugs.
What are the effects of anabolic steroids?
Anabolic effects promote muscle building. Androgenic effects are responsible for male traits, such as facial hair and a deeper voice. Some athletes take straight testosterone to boost their performance. The anabolic steroids used by athletes are often synthetic modifications of testosterone.
What is designer steroid?
Designer steroids. A particularly dangerous class of anabolic steroids are the so-called designer drugs — synthetic steroids that have been illicitly created to be undetectable by current drug tests. They are made specifically for athletes and have no approved medical use.
Why do athletes take steroids?
Some athletes take a form of steroids — known as anabolic-androgenic steroids or just anabolic steroids — to increase their muscle mass and strength. The main anabolic steroid hormone produced by your body is testosterone. Testosterone has two main effects on your body: Anabolic effects promote muscle building.
How do diuretics help athletes?
This loss of water can decrease an athlete's weight, which many athletes prefer. Diuretics may also help athletes pass drug tests by diluting their urine and are sometimes referred to as a "masking" agent.
Why are stimulants used in bodybuilding?
Stimulants have been used by athletes and bodybuilders for decades because of their ability to instantly improve both mental and physical performance. They have a direct effect on the central nervous system and can improve mental alertness, motivation, and even muscular strength and endurance. For these reasons, stimulants are extremely popular ...
Why are stimulants so popular?
For these reasons, stimulants are extremely popular with strength athletes or those involved in high-intensity sports. The most widely used stimulant in the world is caffeine, but there are other stimulants that athletes love to combine with or use in place of caffeine to crank up intensity and performance.
What is the active chemical in yohimbe bark?
Yohimbine is the active chemical found in yohimbe bark. Yohimbe bar k contains approximately 6 percent yohimbine , but it’s also available in its synthetic form, yohimbine hydrochloride (HCl). Yohimbine has been studied for its fat-loss and aphrodisiac properties.
What is the most widely used stimulant?
CAFFEINE. Caffeine is the king of all stimulants and the most widely used stimulant in the world. It’s one of the main ingredients in nearly every popular fat burner, energy supplement, and pre-workout on the market, and for good reason: It’s been proven to work! Caffeine has many pharmacological effects on the body.
How does ephedrine work?
Ephedrine works by acting on the adrenergic receptors and increasing the activity of norepinephrine and dopamine. Ephedrine is a non-selective alpha- and beta-receptor agonist. Since ephedrine is non-selective, it affects all types of adrenergic receptors, and that’s why it can increase blood pressure and heart rate.
How does caffeine affect the body?
Caffeine has many pharmacological effects on the body. It stimulates the central nervous system, heart and muscles and acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist and a phosphodiesterase inhibitor. By blocking adenosine receptors, caffeine can increase the release of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and dopamine. Caffeine also decreases airway resistance and stimulates respiration, again by way of adenosine receptor blockade and phosphodiesterase inhibition. Some research shows that caffeine can even decrease GABA and serotonin signaling.
Who is the supplement godfather?
ABOUT DON GAUVREAU MSc, CSCS: Known in the industry as The Supplement Godfather, Don is one of the leading researchers and product formulators in the sports supplement industry. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/rippedfreak
