The Major League Baseball is once again the center of attention with the recent positive test of Manny Ramirez. Even authorities are eyeing on the association as well as its athletes for another steroid controversy to surface. But did you know that a baseball player or any other athlete can still take a steroid but with absolutely zero repercussions? There is a drug known as the dehydroepiandrosterone or otherwise called DHEA, which is considered legal in the United States and available almost everywhere. Experts have divided opinions on the performance-enhancing impact of DHEA. On the steroid spectrum, this drug is considered as a lower-grade testosterone. But DHEA is still classified as a steroid.

The league has 58 anabolic androgenic steroids that belong to its prohibited list and DHEA is not included in it. Because of this, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the Representative of Manny Ramirez, who tested positive for steroid use, were prepared to appeal his suspension by citing DHEA use is the reason for excessive amount of testosterone level in his urine sample. As the league prepared for the hearing, it found evidence that the Dodgers star received a prescription for a banned woman’s fertility drug. Ramirez however did not contest receiving the prescription and accepted the suspension, and the DHEA argument was not even tested.

Since DHEA is accepted in baseball, it can still be used as a loophole through which steroid users can escape. MLB also foresees this idea and the league spokesperson said that the loophole “has, in our experience, been purely hypothetical.” Christinne Ayotte of the INRS-Institut in Montreal, the one in-charge of the drug test in baseball, said her work focuses in finding individual metabolites of performance-enhancing compounds. So Ayotte can clearly tell the difference once an athlete claims to be taking DHEA when actually taking a banned steroid. The MLB could therefore establish evidence whether Ramirez’s testosterone level was elevated from taking DHEA or a banned substance. “We know very well how to differentiate those produced by androstenedione, DHEA and testosterone,” Ayotte added. “Well, most of the time.”

Ayotte’s answer however is more careful than unsure. MLB Players Association and MLB itself are still debating over the ban of DHEA. The Ramirez excuse only illustrates that even if a loophole exist, cheats are not above trying to create one. Any doubt that poorly reflects on a drug program that knew Ramirez had elevated testosterone but guaranteed a suspension only by ensnaring him with a prescription for a female reproductive hormone on a banned list. “There is always a potential for a loophole,” according to Anthony Butch of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. Just like Ayotte, Butch also warned that the likelihood is minimal.

DHEA was first banned by the Food and Drug Administration on 1985. But after nine years, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act reclassified the substance as a supplement hence it became legal. In 2004, lawmakers tried to add it to the list of drugs under the Anabolic Steroid Control Act that are not legal to obtain without prescription. Andro, along with the other 40 new drugs were included in the list but DHEA made a great sense of inclusion.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS