The complete Q and A is available at the source site. The Health Blog.
If you’re ever going to talk to the guy who wrote a book called Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sports and Exercise, today’s the day. As the clock ticked on the release of the big Mitchell report on doping in baseball, the Health Blog managed to get Charles Yesalis on the phone.
Yesalis, a professor emeritus of health and human development at Penn State, has been studying doping in sports for years. Here are the highlights of our conversation.
 How did performance-enhancing drugs get into baseball?
It goes back to World War II. Immediately afterward, professional baseball players who served in the Army brought back amphetamines. It was absolutely rampant. It was mainly to deal with the long season — the mental wear and tear. It was also to help them recuperate from hard nights on the town. I think stimulants are clearly still involved as a significant aspect of the game.
What about steroids? How much benefit does an athlete need from a drug to improve performance? |
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