HUMAN BIOCHEMISTRY - L. V. Kapilevich - 2016

PART 2. FUNDAMENTALS OF SPORTS PHARMACOLOGY

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF SPORTS PHARMACOLOGY

The past 10–15 years have been marked by the widespread Introduction into athletic practice of numerous pharmacological agents used to enhance General and Specific physical performance in athletes and accelerate recovery. As a branch of sports medicine, sports pharmacology has currently evolved into a fully established and rapidly developing field of so-called healthy human pharmacology. Its primary goal is to modulate the functional state of a healthy individual operating under complex (extreme) environmental conditions. This involves The Use of medications that facilitate adaptation to factors such as heat and cold, high-altitude and deep-sea environments, starvation, strenuous physical exertion, specialized tasks performed by astronauts, pilots, or air traffic controllers, and the like. Sports pharmacology investigates the specific effects of drugs when administered to healthy, trained individuals undergoing physical stress. The reason for this is that the effects and application specifics of many drugs used in sports medicine differ significantly from those known in clinical pharmacology, which are designed for sick patients (who are certainly not engaged in intense muscular activity). Consequently, the principles and achievements of conventional pharmacology cannot be mechanically applied to athletes, even when they take standard over-the-counter medications. Today, the focus on leveraging Pharmaceuticals to cope with physical loads and thereby boost performance and athletic results characterizes all levels of sports and recreational physical activity.

Both junior athletes and seasoned professionals show a keen interest in sports pharmacology products, which are frequently perceived as a panacea. Sometimes, There is a search for "miracle" drugs allegedly capable of propelling an athlete to record-breaking levels in the shortest possible time. Attempts are occasionally made to sideline or even completely replace targeted, rigorous training with pills or injections. At times, athletes resort to taking medications that are not only ineffective but also knowingly harmful and dangerous to their health—frequently with directly opposing effects. From a moral and ethical standpoint, such an approach to sports pharmacology must be firmly condemned.

At the same time, the biomedically justified and rational use of certain pharmacological agents (which are not classified as doping and do not compromise the athlete's health) expands the functional capabilities of a healthy body, opens new frontiers in various sports, and helps refine training methodologies. Such ethically and medically justified pharmacological support for athletic activities, combined with pedagogical, psychological, and social approaches, can become a crucial element of the overall system aimed at facilitating physiological adaptation to maximal physical exertion. The reckless use of pharmacological agents by athletes, particularly in elite sports, has essentially pushed the body's physiological limits to the extreme over the past two decades. Under these conditions, further progress in A number of sports disciplines requires additional means to help stretch the limits of bodily adaptation to stress. It must be strongly emphasized that the pharmacological support of athletes must be strictly subordinated to pedagogical objectives, namely, ensuring the effective execution of training programs and competitive activities.

Sports pharmacology is based on the fundamental general clinical medical principles of drug administration:

1. The necessity of avoiding the use of mutually incompatible drugs, as well as agents that mutually weaken each other's effects.

2. Overdose or the simultaneous use of A large number of medications can trigger allergic reactions that are difficult to treat medically.

3. During competitive and pre-competitive periods (and throughout the annual training cycle in the absence of sufficient medical indications), the use of pharmacological agents that violate anti-doping regulations (prohibited by the IOC Medical Commission) is strictly prohibited.

4. Athletes face a high likelihood of developing a sustained physiological or psychological tolerance to certain pharmacological agents, which is accompanied by a decrease or complete loss of drug efficacy.

The general objectives of modern sports pharmacology include:

1. Enhancing athletic performance, i.e., expanding the body's capacity to adapt to physical loads.

Achieving this primary goal through pharmacological means is possible both directly via the use of appropriate preparations and through the fulfillment of specific sub-objectives of sports pharmacology (2–5).

2. Accelerating the recovery of bodily Functions impaired by fatigue.

3. Accelerating and raising the level of adaptation of athletes' bodies to unusual training and competitive environments (mid-altitudes, hot and humid climates, rapid time-zone shifts during long-haul flights leading to acute desynchronosis, etc.).

4. Modulating The Immune System, which tends to be suppressed during intense physical exertion.

5. Treating various diseases, injuries, and functional Disorders of the body, i.e., therapeutic goals.

The medications used to achieve goal 5 are standard pharmacy drugs prescribed for therapeutic indications. To accomplish goals 1–4, A wide variety of agents with diverse Mechanisms of action are also employed, unified by the overarching requirement to comply with anti-doping principles (safety, absence of side effects, and approval by the IOC Medical Commission).

Main classes of drugs used by athletes:

1. Amino acid supplements and high-biological-value protein products.

2. Vitamins.

3. Anabolic agents.

4. Hepatoprotectors and choleretic agents.

5. Immunomodulatory agents.

6. Adaptogens of PLANT AND ANIMAL origin, as well as preparations of certain other groups (e.g., energizing agents (METABOLISM/26.html">Energy Metabolism substrates), antioxidants, electrolytes and minerals, carbohydrate-rich mixes, combination drugs, etc.).

Self-Assessment Questions

1. Why is there a need for athletes to take medications?

2. What principles underlie the use of pharmacological agents by athletes?

3. List the objectives of sports pharmacology.

4. List the main groups of permitted substances for use by athletes.