STIMULANTS AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Report #7214
Some exercisers take over-the-counter pills to treat their stuffy noses or to help them lose weight. These drugs can belong to a class of drugs similar to the amphetamines that killed English bicycle racer, Tony Simpson, in the 1967 Tour de France and are prohibited in many sports including the Olympics.
A recent study from the University of West Virginia shows that over- the-counter doses of these drugs can be taken safely by most healthy people. You can treat your cold or allergy attack with pseudoephedrine pills and suppress your appetite by taking phenylpropanolamine. In the study, recreational cyclists took conventional doses of these stimulants and it did not change the maximum amount of oxygen that their bodies could use, time to exhaustion on the bike or blood pressure. However, their urines contained enough of the stimulants to disqualify them from competition.
This does not mean that everyone can take these drugs safely. It shows that most healthy people will not be harmed by taking conventional doses of the nasal decongestant, pseudoephedrine or the diet pill, phenylpropanolamine. People with irregular heart beats, weak blood vessels or high blood pressure could be harmed by taking these stimulants.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
RA Swain, DM Harsha, J Baenziger, RM Saywell. Do pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine improve maximum oxygen uptake and time to exhaustion? Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 7: 3 (JUL 1997):168-173. Address RA Swain, W Virginia Univ, Charleston Div, Dept Family Med, Suite 108, 1201 Washington St E, Charleston, WV 25301 USA.
Reported 9/1/97; Checked 9/5/05