Drug Usage
One infamous case of the use of performance-enhancing drugs was regarding some of the Bulgarian weightlifting team. Suspicion grew regarding the Bulgarian performance when the team was able to consistently train up to six times a day at high intensities. The mystery behind their performance was their ability to hide their drug use. One method was to fast for the 2-3 days before a competition. Fasting lowers the release of hormones and increases the excretion of steroids. As a result, their urine samples would show safe levels of steroids. The athletes had also mastered the use of diuretics, which would further accelerate the clearance of drugs from the blood. However, diuretics are detected easily and this was how they got caught, forcing the whole team to withdraw from competition at one Olympics.
Hiding Drug Usage
Most athletes know when a drug test will occur, and therefore they can prepare for it by timing their use of drugs or using masking agents to neutralize the drugs. Testosterone is commonly abused by athletes as an anabolic steroid. To test for testosterone, the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio) is measures. Epitestosterone is a natural form of testosterone that does not enhance performance. Most men have a 1 to 1 ratio, but some have a naturally higher testosterone level, so the allowable Olympic ratio is 6 to 1. Therefore, an athlete can lower the T/E ratio by injecting epitestosterone and thus hide the use of testosterone. Of course, male athletes with a lower ratio can artificially increase their testosterone levels until they reach the 6 to 1 limit.
During a normal steroid abuse cycle, some athletes also use other drugs, such as diuretics, to reduce fluid retention. In general, diuretics are prescribed to treat high blood pressure and can be found in diet pills. In sports, athletes that are classified according to weight (such as jockeys and weight lifters), have used diuretics to shed weight quickly. In addition, diuretics are used to mask the use of other drugs (such as anabolic steroids) by reducing their presence in urine samples. Because diuretics increase urine volume and dilution, the concentration of drugs in the sample can be diluted to below the threshold of detection. As a result of their abuse, diuretics are now on the list of banned substances. Athletes have also been known to use plasma expanders and renal blocking agents to manipulate test results.