| A new blood test has
been developed that will enable the detection of human growth hormone use in athletes. Athletes
use growth hormone for its ability to increase muscle size, strength and physical
performance.
Until now, it has been impossible to distinguish between natural growth hormone that is
produced by the pituitary gland in the brain and synthetic growth hormone that has been
injected. This has posed a dilemma in drug testing athletes. Growth hormone is banned by
most competitive organizations including the IOC - International Olympic Committee but due
to this substance being undetectable, enforcement has been nonexistent.
Dr. Christian Strasburger of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, and
colleagues have developed a testing procedure that appears to be 100% accurate in
detecting injected human growth hormone.
Strasburger and colleagues note that the test requires blood tests taken within 36
hours of the hormone being injected. This could police the use of growth hormone by
athletes which is believed to wide spread throughout Olympic and professional competition.
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