Find out what’s so special about this newly-banned drug…
The sports world has been abuzz recently with the story of tennis star Maria Sharapova’s “drug scandal”. The athlete tested positive for a drug called “Meldonium”, which, as of January 2016, was classified as an illegal performance enhancing substance. The World Anti-Doping Agency banned the drug after the 2015 European Games, but the British Medical Journal reported that athletes in 15 out of 21 sports tested positive for the drug.
But what is Meldonium anyways, and why are athletes using it?
Meldonium (also known as mildronate) is a drug used to treat heart conditions: myocardial infarction and angina. The drug helps to treat ischemia, or a reduction in the blood flowing to certain parts of the body. It’s a drug that many Eastern European and Russian doctors prescribe to patients suffering from heart failure or angina.
The reason athletes are taking the drug is due to the fact that it increases blood flow. An increase in blood flow means that the athletes’ bodies function more efficiently. After all, the enhanced blood flow means more oxygen and nutrients are delivered to their muscles, so the muscles can produce more energy and delay fatigue for longer. Considering how long some of these athletic games last, you can understand why this drug would benefit athletes.
The drug also inhibits the production of carnitine, an amino acid your body needs in order to activate fatty acids for oxidation (burning) in times of activity. If your body cannot use fatty acids for energy, it turns to the only other source: glucose. Glucose is easier for your body to burn, meaning it produces energy more efficiently–particularly in low-oxygen environments (such as when breathing heavily during high-intensity sports competitions).
However, one of the primary problems with the drug is that it is not authorized in Europe or the United States. The drug is manufactured in the Eastern European country of Latvia, and it is ONLY distributed around Russia and the other Baltic states. No Western European organizations have approved its use, and it has not gone through the FDA approval process.
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The World Anti-Doping Agency added it to the “banned substances” list in September 2016, and the ban was enforced as of the 1st of January, 2016. However, despite its ban, a number of athletes–including Maria Sharapova–continued to use the drug.
Sharapova reported that she has been taking the drug for over a decade. She suffered from chronic illness, the result of magnesium deficiency and a family history of disorders like diabetes. The use of Meldonium helped her to continue playing, but since it has become a banned substance, her use was illegal–hence the scandal.
But Sharapova is not alone. A number of other athletes have also been suspended for the use of Meldonium, including two Ukranian biathletes, an ice dancer from Russia, the 2013 women’s 1,500 meter world champion, the 2015 Tokyo Marathon champion, and a Russian cyclist. All of these athletes have used Meldonium to increase blood flow to their muscles, thus ensuring a steady delivery of oxygen and nutrients to enhance their performance.
However, the claims that Meldonium is highly effective may be less solid than you’d expect. An article in the New York Times stated “the evidence for such claims was scant and that it was not even clear if the drug improves athletic performance” and “the science behind many of these performance-enhancing compounds is limited, biased and subject to misinterpretation”.
All that to say, while Meldonium may have some beneficial effects for athletes, it may not be worth going against the WADA guidelines and being banned from sports, as tennis star Maria Sharapova discovered.
