The World Anti-Doping Agency is looking at the possibility of banning Viagra as a drug that can help athletes perform better on the field as well as in the bedroom.
Marywood University researchers should provide WADA officials with the results of a WADA-funded study by the end of the year, according to Kenneth Rundell, a respiratory researcher at the Scranton, Pa. school.
A WADA committee will review the research this spring; WADA's executive committee will determine at its September 2009 meeting if the erectile dysfunction drug should be added to its 2010 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods.
"There have been studies that indicate that Viagra allows you to exercise at sea-level capacity at higher elevations," said Rundell, the director of Respiratory Research and Human Physiology Lab at Marywood.
Tufts University is also conducting research on Viagra's affects on athletic performance.
"The Daily News reported in June that Viagra and its over-the-counter substitutes had become a popular drug in locker rooms and clubhouses all over the world, including at Yankee Stadium, where Roger Clemens stashed the clearly marked, diamond-shaped pills in a GNC vitamin bottle in his locker, according to a source familiar with the clubhouse.
Victor Conte, whose athletes routinely took Viagra or similar products in 25-miligram doses along with the blood-booster EPO, says researchers may be overlooking another benefit: Because Viagra is selective to certain parts of the body, including the arteries coming from the heart to the lungs, it not only delivers more oxygen but also removes waste products, including carbon dioxide.
"Oxygen is transported into the heart to be pumped out to rest of the body," Conte says. "Viagra vasodilates (widens) the lungs and pulmonary arteries. This is where the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen occurs. So more red blood cells carrying oxygen get into the heart and more carbon dioxide is pumped out."
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