University of Otago professor of medicine Dave Gerrard highlighted the difficulties of therapeutic use exemption [TUE] for athletes at a doping conference in Dunedin yesterday.
Speaking at the University of Otago's Hercus Building, Gerrard was one of six speakers at the Doping and the Culture of Sport Symposium.
TUE is the process elite athletes need to go through to take medication containing a banned substance for medical reasons.
Gerrard, the chairman of the World Anti Doping Agency TUE expert group, said hundreds of TUE applications were received globally each year.
''We have to establish diagnostic guidelines so that it becomes no easier in Australia for an athlete to receive ritalin for their attention deficit disorder than it might in North America or Germany or Italy,'' he said.
''As you can imagine, it's not easy. But one of the successes that I can share is that we have achieved over the last five or six years, is helping doctors internationally agree to diagnostic criteria that will apply when a patient comes with a condition that requires the use of a banned substance.''
Gerrard said it was important athletes told their general practitioner they were elite athletes when seeking medical help, while the doctors themselves needed to supply sufficient evidence on the TUE application for it to be accepted.
He provided several case studies as examples, including a 22-year-old male triathlete who was chronically fatigued due to an excessive training load.
His symptoms included loss of libido, loss of appetite and sleep deprivation.
''The GP, wanting to do the best for his patient, did a series of tests and only found a slightly lower than normal serum testosterone level. Everything else was fine,'' Gerrard said.
''The application came through to us for this young man to be supplemented with testosterone. This is the sort of thing we have to contend with.
''What do you do? Were there other alternative interventions? The logical one is to say, `Have six months off, cut back on your training, let your body adapt because you are excessively over-trained'.''
There were often gaps left in TUE applications because athletes and doctors had not given the process sufficient thought, Gerrard said.
Massey University professor of sport and exercise Stephen Stannard was one of the other speakers, and used his time to warn about sport supplements.
Stannard said the vast majority of supplements ''do nothing at all'', and also carry a risk of inadvertent doping.
''I won't encourage anyone to take any supplements,'' he said.
''That's really difficult, I've got teenage kids and I tell them they can't take the stuff, and they will still have a fish oil or whatever.
''There is no magic bullet. People that think there is a magic bullet, they are just taking away the idea that hard work leads to gain, and those people shouldn't be there.''
Stannard also used a powerful quote from Loughborough University professor of sport and exercise nutrition Ron Maughan: ''If it works, it's probably banned. If it's not banned, it probably doesn't work.''
