IOC Banned Drugs and their Effects on the Cardiovascular System

Abstract

Doping is defined as the administration or intentional use of substances external to the body, however they are introduced, or as measures taken by an athlete before or during a sporting event with the aim of artificially and illegally improving his sporting Performance [18]. Physical Performance is physiologically activated by means of the intense Stimulation of all or nearly all the organs or apparatuses of the human body. This is particularly true for the cardiocirculatory System. There is no activity which does not require the immediate Support of blood circulation, and so any substance capable of ergotropically modifying the physical Performance has to act by stimulating the cardiocirculatory system. Many of them are normal deposit-releasing chemical mediators of cardiovascular ergotropic Stimuli, that are usually synthesised and metabolised in the human body, but the majority are substances which are not present physiologically but can indirectly stimulate active cardiac and vessel receptors. In the first group, the Stimuli are physiologically similar to those which normally occur during training sessions designed to improve gradually the responses of neuromodellers and so their artificial introduction into the circulation differs from normal physiology only in terms of their sudden effect and the lack of preparation on the part of the body as a whole; the substances in the second group have a reflex action which is accompanied by the large number of side effects which are themselves toxic for the organism.