TENNIS AND HEALTH
The continuing story of nutritional supplements and doping infractions
Anti-Doping Authority of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
Correspondence to:
Olivier de Hon, Anti-Doping Authority of the Netherlands, The Netherlands; o.dehon{at}dopingautoriteit.nl
Nutritional supplements can be a source of positive doping cases as some supplements contain prohibited substances without showing this on their label. This problem has existed for some time and has been extensively studied in the past 8 years. The sport of tennis has played a particular role in this problem because of some peculiar doping cases within its community.
This article focuses on this particular doping problem, explaining the background and reviewing the available literature. It presents the first 3 years of experience within the Netherlands Security System Nutritional Supplements Elite Sports ("Nederlands Zekerheidssysteem Voedingssupplementen Topsport" or NZVT) and explains the most extensive system established to combat this particular doping problem.
The NZVT experience has shown that paper-based quality systems are still prone to possible contaminations, which leads to the conclusion that the best possible solution for athletes who wish to use nutritional supplements must include laboratory-based analysis for doping substances, preferably repeated for every new batch. The most important educational message, however, is to use a nutritional supplement only if it is deemed of benefit by a nutritional expert.
Abbreviations: BCAA, branched-chain amino acids; CLA, conjugated linoleic acid; DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone; DSHEA, Dietary Supplement Health Education Act; HACCP, hazard analysis critical control points; IOC, International Olympic Committee; MDMA (or XTC), methylenedioxymethylamphetamine; NOC*NSF, Netherlands Olympic Committee/Netherlands Sports Confederation; NZVT, Nederlands Zekerheidssysteem Voedingssupplementen Topsport; OKG, ornithine-alpha-ketoglutarate; WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency
Keywords: doping; nutritional supplements; contamination
Relevant Article
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Br. J. Sports Med. 2007 41: 805.
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
