Lance Armstrong

[CaseyMiller]

Okay, this may sound a little nuts but all this talk of how Lance Armstrong doped himself enabling him to do superhuman acts makes me wonder why more people don't have the opportunity to do it.

It seems like some of these techniques could be used to help the aged. Perhaps it is done and I just don't know about it. Or, more likely, it is not being done due to some stigma.

I'm sure there are many people that would trade an opportunity vitality versus longevity.

[freein05]

I have always wonder if those drugs really made a difference in your athletic performance. It looks like they do but what are the long term affects on your body.

[Simplemind]

Good question.

[sweetana3]

These are young, conditioned, well fed, exercising people taking the drugs or "treatments". Basically, they are those who the drug companies would love to use in Tier 1 trials of new unapproved uses for drugs to see what the new drug does to the healthy. There are reasons why these drugs or treatments are limited in application. The secondary effects can be worse on the body than the benefit derived. Some young and healthy people have been hurt in Tier 1 trials.

They are taking drugs in unproven ways soley to increase some performance, not to increase life or remove a medical condition and they dont care what it does to them or anyone else who might take the same thing in the same way. Remember that many of the drugs are approved for appropriate and fully tested uses, like human growth hormone and testosterone, but being used by this segment in unapproved ways.

You have to wonder about the mind of someone who wants to "win at whatever cost".

[CathyA]

I find the whole Armstrong thing so totally disgusting. Everything he did seems completely undeserved now........unless you want to see who can do the most, while being blown up on drugs.

Lance Armstrong, the more I'm hearing, sounds like a pathological liar, with a big personality disorder.

And he probably had the cancer, BECAUSE of the drugs...........which is why they probably aren't used on a regular basis to "help" sick people.
(Plus.......aging is completely natural and I wish we could quit trying to deny it).

And the thing with Armstrong..........I have the feeling he's only being honest now, in hopes of getting back into the cycling world........not to make peace with himself or amends to anyone else.

[catherine]

And he probably had the cancer, BECAUSE of the drugs...........which is why they probably aren't used on a regular basis to "help" sick people.
(Plus.......aging is completely natural and I wish we could quit trying to deny it).



I agree with that. You can't fool around with your hormones without having some ill effect. He was taking testosterone--and he had testicular cancer. Similar as to how women can put themselves at risk of breast cancer when they take HRT.

[bUU]

Without condoning or otherwise mitigating Armstrong, I find some of the exploitation of the story in the media to be offensively opportunistic. I can put together a 15-20 word attack that is thoroughly prejudicial. So a condemnation of what he did should take 15-20 words, max, and then they should move onto something that is actually important, like explaining why doing what Armstrong did to his body is bad for you.

[Gregg]

These are young, conditioned, well fed, exercising people taking the drugs or "treatments". Basically, they are those who the drug companies would love to use in Tier 1 trials of new unapproved uses for drugs to see what the new drug does to the healthy. There are reasons why these drugs or treatments are limited in application. The secondary effects can be worse on the body than the benefit derived. Some young and healthy people have been hurt in Tier 1 trials.

They are taking drugs in unproven ways soley to increase some performance, not to increase life or remove a medical condition and they dont care what it does to them or anyone else who might take the same thing in the same way. Remember that many of the drugs are approved for appropriate and fully tested uses, like human growth hormone and testosterone, but being used by this segment in unapproved ways.

You have to wonder about the mind of someone who wants to "win at whatever cost".

I do think it pays to remember who we are talking about. These guys, like people in other high dollar professional sports, are elite athletes in every sense of the word. Its not the same as someone like me taking PED's. They may help me shave a bunch of time off my mile times or add to my bench press, but why would I care? I don't. These guys are trying to get an advantage that is sometimes only 100ths of a second over the next guy. Their world is that competitive. And (the proverbial) we create the culture they live in by cheering for our modern day gladiators. Just watch your local nightly news; 1/3 of the broadcast is sports. Every single night. What does that tell you? As perverse as our culture is about it I'm only surprised that there might still be athletes that don't dope and that we have any rules against it at all.

[Gregg]

So a condemnation of what he did should take 15-20 words, max, and then they should move onto something that is actually important, like explaining why doing what Armstrong did to his body is bad for you.

+1 Tell the kids. Tell them the truth and tell it often.

[treehugger]

It seems like some of these techniques could be used to help the aged. Perhaps it is done and I just don't know about it. Or, more likely, it is not being done due to some stigma.

When my husband was on dialysis, I had to give him weekly injections of...a drug whose name is escaping me right now (ipogen, maybe), but I know it was something that some athletes use illegally to more fully oxygenate their blood. We could have sold the excess on craigslist for a lot money! We didn't of course. So anyway, a lot of these drugs are already used in more “pedestrian” applications to treat diseases.

Kara