Beam-Ray Treatments, Deer Antler Spray And Golf Chips
David Epstein and George Dohrmann file a devastating Sports Illustrated look (thanks reader Daniel) into the S.W.A.T.S. "alternatives to steroids" approach and it's not pretty.
One golfer's name comes up.
Modern science may scoff at holographic stickers and negatively charged water, but that matters little if the right athlete becomes a believer or, better yet, a proselytizer. The boundaries of medical science expand at too glacial a pace for many athletes desperate to enhance their performance. That desperation, in turn, represents a business opportunity for self ordained sports science entrepreneurs operating in the shadowy, multibillion-dollar athletic-supplement industry. Key had given some of S.W.A.T.S.'s chips to LSU players before their 9-6 victory over Alabama in November 2011; that helped him get an audience with the Tide players, who received some of the same S.W.A.T.S. products that outfielder Johnny Damon, golfer Vijay Singh and linebacker Shawne Merriman have used. S.W.A.T.S.'s most famous client, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, enters Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday after speaking with Ross in October to request items that would speed his recovery from a torn right triceps.
Well at least, wait what? Oh boy, here's the Vijay-possibly-admitting-to-using-a-banned-substance part:
Overnight, the tiny company that marketed itself as a legal alternative to steroids and that depended on player testimonials became as untouchable for pro athletes as an electric fence.
(Vijay Singh, however, remains a vocal supporter. In November, Singh paid Ross $9,000 for the spray, chips, beam ray and powder additive -- making him one of the few athletes who is compensating S.W.A.T.S. He says he uses the spray banned by the PGA "every couple of hours . . . every day," sleeps with the beam ray on and has put chips on his ankles, waist and shoulders. "I'm looking forward to some change in my body," Singh says. "It's really hard to feel the difference if you're only doing it for a couple of months.")
Many of the Champions Tour's finest endorse the company and its golf "chip." Mark Calcaveccia has previously had a run in with tour rules about the deer antler spray.
The painful testimonial video:
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 10:40 AM
Reader Comments (28)
IMHO - there is a huge difference between an athlete taking steriods (and other PED's) to get bigger/stronger/faster and an athlete using the best medical treatments available to speed their recovery.
Hypothetical:
1) Tiger used 'roids to get bigger - he is a cheat
2) Tiger used 'roids as part of his treatment plan to recover from his knee problems. If he was not competing at that time of the "illegal" treatments, I don't think he is a cheat. I think he was somebody trying to fix his body.
To answer your question, synvisc is not a banned substance.
Anyway, from a medical standpoint, unless these guys have pituitary insufficiency, there is no legitimate use in 2013 for any of these high level athletes to be using anabolic steroids or HGH. Of course, if any of these guys had pituitary insufficiency, they wouldn't be high level athletes in the first place. If and when multiple, strong, random, blinded clinical trials show that there are legitimate, safe and repeatable demonstrable benefits to improving recovery from injury, then a serious debate can, should, and I am certain will be had regarding the use of growth hormone in sports. Until then, yes, these guys who are using HGH and anabolic steroids, regardless of for what purpose they may claim they are doing it, are cheating.
I got a fever, and the only prescription is more Tiger Bingo!
(I'm gonna have to add Cablinasian Jesus to the list this time, and chicken stick)
So there is plenty of precendent for using normally banned substances with respect to injury recovery.
Although having Dr. Nick from the SImpsons or Dr. Galea from Canada casually stopping over is a no no, things can certainly be done in a controlled evironment.
Hang in there, Digs! ShackLand needs you, especially when you type without your glasses, so to speak. My job has led me to know a little about IVIG, which is very powerful but mysterious and not very specific. Be careful.
2) you cannot get a therapeutic use exemption to use HGH to help recover from an injury, that's not how therapeutic exemptions work and it is a legal medication that is prescribed for us normal people by some (but certainly not all Dr's)
3) All this stuff is BS, which mean a) prob shouldn't be taking it and b) it prob shouldn't be illegal
In my opinion, if someone needs treatment for a non-golf-related matter - injury not caused by golf, a disease, chronic issue, or hereditary condition etc, then fine - as long as it is done under the auspices of WADA/USADA and closely monitored.
I know you Tiger fans are going to hate this, but in my personal opinion, my feeling is that Tiger Woods did take banned substances to recover from injury - and a golf-related injury at that. Playing golf at a high level 9 months after serious joint surgery was highly unusual and bizarre.
In many cases a partial ligament tear has seriouly derailed golfers before. Never mind complete tears and multiple bone fractures.
FYI, for those that care, between now and The Masters there are only two events that *count*, the Matchplay in 4 weeks, and Doral in 7 weeks....so other that those two events feel free to go about ignoring professional golf.
Speculation and and relentless pursuit of testimony almost precedes admission or establishing sufficient evidence.
Patterns are the first observation.
Does Tiger exhibit patterns? No doubt about it.
The placebo effect is a wonderful thing
Oh and on recovery times? See Peterson, Adrian (or a lot of others). It's a serious injury but with current surgical techniques recovery time for an athlete is 6-9 months & golf doesn't involve being hit by 250lb linebackers.
Yppie Yi Ky, or Ki, sorry, I am having a brain lockup, the IVIG has been administered so late to the game that I recieve a (relatively) low dose, but the benefits have been great, especially the infection prevention, and infections nearly killed me in 2011, seriously. So I am here to trstify.
I am a willing wanna user of HGH, but money is tight, (and your daddie's good lookin'), so hush little golfers, and let's see who disses VJ first, by and by. In the sky , Lord, in the sky.
I was so tired last night, I kept *reading* ''deer antler spray*, but I kept *thinking* deer repellant, commonly used to keep deer from eating landscaped vegetation, and worse-- I kept computing THAT from being made from deer pee. Maybe that's why VJ was asked to practice at the far end of the range. Anyhow, wrong, and more wronger, with assuredly most wrongest yet to matrialize.
In honor of KLG, I am not wearing reading cclasses, as if he didn't knw yall. And in honor of that faker cooking lady, Paula, the obnoxious white haired woman, I said yall for no reason, except that reason.
Everyone have a grest
Can you do a more thorough examination of recoveries of athletes who have had four surgeries on the same knee? I would love to see the data.
Also, watch more football or basketball, seriously there are guys who have had two ACL surgeries on the same knee, how many times has Kobe been scoped etc. I have no doubt he has little cartiallige left in the knee, but that's mostly a matter of being wiling to play with pain.
And Dick Pound, I had a double knee replacement and was golfing eight weeks post op, so your nine month time frame is way out of whack. I would think that four to five months would be more than adequate.