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Doping is on the rise among gym users

Fitness fanatics are copying elite athletes and increasingly using performance-enhancing drugs to tone their bodies as doping spreads from competitive sport to high street gyms.

Anti-doping experts say the use of anabolic steroids and stimulants by young and early middle-aged people who are unhappy with their body image has become a “huge problem”.

These are people who have no ambitions to become elite athletes. This is a rising public health issue around the world which requires attention.

Professor Arne Ljungqvists, former vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency

Scientists are yet to establish the true extent of doping in wider society, but the problem in elite sport is believed to be the “tip of the iceberg”.

Experts speaking at the EuroScience Open Forum conference in Manchester say international political, ethical and legal discussions now need take place to “tackle the issue head on”.

Professor Arne Ljungqvist, the former vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), said science had helped to combat the “evil” of doping in elite sport and he did not believe it was more prevalent at that level despite the recent scandal involving Russian athletes.

But he added: “We face another danger – the use of doping substances by young people in general society.
”They are picking up the habits of the elite athletes – their role models – and we have the problem.“

He added: ”These are people who have no ambitions to become elite athletes. This is a rising public health issue around the world which requires attention.

“There is a need for further research combat the increased use of doping by young people. We don’t have the necessary infrastructure or scientific resources in place. There is a lack of co-ordination.”

The European Commission invited experts to undertake a survey of recreational doping across Europe and an extensive report was written in 2014, but no action has been taken.

Concern

The study found that there was a “growing concern” that doping was taking outside organised sport and the misuse of doping agents in recreational sport had become a “public health issue that must be addressed”.

Professor Mike McNamee, from Swansea University, an expert in anti-doping policy and ethics, said: “There is no reliable prevalence data.

”Everybody is agreed there is a huge problem, but there are no sufficiently robust scientific studies to give an indication of its prevalence.

“You can’t just lump amateur gym users with elite athletes. They have a completely different mindset – different motivations and temptations.

”While its easy to focus on the problems of elite sport, what is not talked about is the nine-tenths of the iceberg under the water and that is doping in recreational sport or the use of those products for image enhancement in an entirely unregulated way.“

He added: ”If we want to seriously to tackle the problem, we need to have a legal, ethical and political discourse about how we will or won’t inhibit the freedoms of civil society.

“There is a much broader social set of questions that need to be addressed if we are going to tackle the issue head on.”

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