Mmhm.

[ysobelle]

Bless her, mirroreyes explained this to me last night, and some of it, I remember from LAST year-- about one bad test does not a drug-user make.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19943928-2722,00.html

Landis's hormone levels off balance
Peter Kogoy
July 29, 2006

TOUR de FRANCE champion Floyd Landis's positive drug test "doesn't add up", according to a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Gary Walder, a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine, said testosterone creams, pills and injections were used to build muscle and strength and improve recovery time after exertion but took several weeks to work.

If Landis was a user of testosterone, earlier urine tests during the Tour would have also been affected, Walder said.

Landis's positive test came after his extraordinary come-from-behind performance in stage 17 of the race, which included five major climbs, the last of which was the gut-busting climb up the Col de Joux Plane to more than 1800 metres.

Walder said one-time use of steroids could result in an abnormal test, but it would have no effect on performance and could not account for Landis's astounding feat on that particular stage, "so something's missing here".

"It just doesn't add up," he said.

The test for which Landis returned a positive result detected both testosterone and epitestosterone, which is not performance-enhancing. Both are produced by the body naturally and are also made in synthetic form.

The ratio for testosterone to epitestosterone is usually 1:1 or 2:1, Walder said.

Suspicions for improper steroid use arise when the ratio climbs above four parts testosterone to one part epitestosterone, Walder said.

Officials have yet to reveal what ratio Landis's test showed.

Athletes who use performance-enhancing anabolic steroids often also take synthetic epitestosterone to equalise the ratio, said Charles Yesalis, a recently retired Pennsylvania State University professor and doping expert.

There was no medical use for synthetic epitestosterone; it was only used "to cheat drug tests", Yesalis said.

Some men have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone and or epitestosterone, but there is a sophisticated test called a carbon isotope ratio test that can be used to detect synthetic forms.

Alcohol can influence testosterone-epitestosterone levels, but more often in women than in men and it would be unlikely to have a huge effect, Walder said.

Landis said in an interview during the Tour de France that he had had injections of cortisone, a medically used steroid drug to treat pain from a degenerating arthritic hip, but doctors said that would not affect his test results.

Corticosteroids had "zero impact" on the testosterone-epitestosterone test, Walder said.

Comments

[surlywench.livejournal.com]

apparently it's not that it tested positive for testosterone, it simply tested non-negative.

[meekay.livejournal.com]

He registered a ratio of 4:1, which is highly abnormal. As mentioned above, the ratio should normally be 1:1. I forget whether it's because the epi- form is a waste product or whether it's a signalling hormone, but a higher ratio is an indication that foreign testosterone was added to the body — perhaps via a giant needle.

However, ysobelle is correct that testosterone injections will not yield instant results — it's only useful if, like Barry Bonds, you're trying to bulk up a lot of muscle mass over a span of a few weeks. Not (literally) overnight.

So either:

• He (or his coach) was stupid and tried to do something that was both illegal and wouldn't actually work.
  
• The test gave a false-positive result.
  
• The results are due to some natural process, or a reaction to his (legally allowed) medication.
  
• He used an illegal product in which elevated testosterone production (or advanced metabolism of epitestosterone) is a side effect, and not the primary effect.
  
• The samples were contaminated by some third party seeking to defame him.
  

None of these are particularly attractive options.