The effect of cardiovascular medicine on sports doping

Abstract

This summer, we have witnessed several high-level sports events, the UEFA European Football Championship, the Tour de France/Tour de France Femmes and the Olympic Games. As we admired these impressive athletic performances, the issue of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) inevitably resurfaced. Although PEDs are sometimes used to treat cardiovascular diseases, they can also cause severe side effects such as atherosclerosis, thrombosis, arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Here we discuss the use of PEDs, their direct effects and side effects on the cardiovascular system with Aaron Baggish, a professor of medicine at the University of Lausanne’s Institut des Sciences du Sport (ISSUL), chief of sports cardiology at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), and founder and emeritus director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiovascular Performance Program (CPP) affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Baggish has been working with athletes for over 10 years and is a consultant for numerous sports and sports-related organizations including the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).