Steroids and hormones

At the Seoul Olympics 1988 the Canadian athlete Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and the title of the fastest runner ever for taking a banned substance, an anabolic steroid. So what are steroids and why are they banned from athletics?
Dwain Chambers, the European 100 metres sprint champion, was found guilty in February 2004 of taking a ‘designer steroid’, THG, and banned from athletics for 2 years. He appealed on the grounds that THG was chemically related to banned substances but was itself not a material that constituted a doping offence.

All steroids contain the basic structures. Steroids are fat-soluble lipids. Their structures are based on the tetracyclic (four rings) structure. Three of the rings have six carbons in them, whereas the other have five carbons.
Essential compounds like cholesterol and the sex hormones progesterone and testosterone are all steroids. Other examples of steroids are hydrocortisone (a hormone) and digitoxigenin, isolated from foxglove flowers, which is used as a heart stimulant. Some of the old wives’ tales about treating heart complaints often used foxglove along with other locally grown plants.
Cholesterol  is a very common starting point for making many interesting compounds essential to our bodies.3 These include bile acids (which help dissolve cholesterol in ingested food), steroid hormones and vitamin D (note some similarities in structures between the compounds listed). The adverse effect of cholesterol is to block arteries, particularly those of the heart. This causes heart attacks. Chemical research is being conducted to try to find chemicals that will prevent this and yet not affect other metabolic processes. A whole range of possible drugs include compounds called ‘statins’, e.g. fluvastatin. The statin drugs act by inhibiting the enzyme that is involved in the synthesis of cholesterol in the liver. The liver then meets its cholesterol requirements by extracting it from the blood, so lowering the blood cholesterol. Even when eating a no- or low-cholesterol diet, the body manages to synthesize about 800 mg of it each day. It is a required chemical

for making other vital materials.
Testosterone is a chemical that controls the rate of growth of reproductive organs, hair growth and muscles. Its presence gives the deepening of the voice in males.

Some steroids enhance physical performance by increasing muscle growth at puberty. These are called anabolic steroids and are a banned drug for athletes because they create abnormal growth of muscles. Steroids can also help damaged muscles to heal faster. In the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Ben Johnson was found to have illegally taken an anabolic steroid to help him win a gold medal and run 100 m in 9.79 s. He was stripped of the medal as it is a prohibited drug for sports people.
A similar drug, nandrolone, has been detected in unusually large quantities in some sportsmen and women and they have been banned from their sports. There is some debate as to whether the body naturally makes nandrolone from testosterone or related compounds. Food supplements given to some athletes by their trainers increase the quantities slightly above the values found acceptable (2 ng/ml sample). Some food supplements show less than 0.6 ng/ml. Greg Rusedeski was accused in January 2004 of being above the accepted level from a sample taken in 2003. He disputed the findings as he maintained he had not taken any unlawful product. He was restored to the professional tennis ranks after investigation.
Although steroids can enhance performance they also can have a long-term effect of causing liver damage, hepatitis and possibly cancer.3 Progesterone and a similar compound, oestrogen, are female sex hormones. They cause the periodic changes in the uterus and ovaries during the menstrual cycle. A high level of progesterone is maintained during pregnancy and this prevents ovulation. Hence some birth control pills have focused upon this property Herbalists often use the old and effective recipes gathered from books or handed
down through common usage. One such plant is red clover, which contains four different plant isoflavones. When isolated and consumed in a suitable form, these metabolize inside the female body and produce hormone-like compounds which can help with some of the symptoms of the menopause. Research is being conducted to see if these extracts are suitable replacements for the slightly detrimental HRT products. It has been reported that in countries like Japan, where the leguminosae family of plants (lentils, soy beans, sprouted beans, ground nuts) are consumed as foods, menopausal complaints are relatively rare. This has been put down to the phytoestrogens or plant hormones found in these foods.