`Why Riders Mixed Testosterone with Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times
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Why Riders Mixed Testosterone with Olive Oil

By Julie Butler
Oct. 25, 2012 13:54 UTC

A mix of testos­terone and olive oil known as the oil” was in use in elite cycling from 1998 to 2007, the US Anti-Doping Association (USADA) claims.

Testosterone is an ana­bolic agent that can increase mus­cle mass and strength. It is also used in small doses to pro­mote mus­cle recov­ery from stren­u­ous exer­cise and increase endurance.

But what was the olive oil for?

USADA doc­u­ments explain that the form of the steroid in the oil” was Andriol, which con­sists of testos­terone unde­canoate and is designed to be mixed with oil and taken orally.

This way the drug can be absorbed into the lym­phatic sys­tem with­out being trans­ported to the liver, mak­ing the drug more effec­tive and reduc­ing the prospect of liver dam­age” they say.

When asked to spec­u­late on why olive oil was used instead of other edi­ble oils, a per­son close to the inves­ti­ga­tion told Olive Oil Times a pos­si­ble rea­son is it helped ath­letes avoid rous­ing sus­pi­cions from author­i­ties should their apart­ments, cars, or hotel rooms be searched.”

Because it can eas­ily be con­cealed in bot­tles labeled as typ­i­cal olive oil and with the same color and taste, even if Andriol is dis­solved within” the source said.

The oil” is men­tioned in var­i­ous parts of a huge dossier recently released by USADA and con­tain­ing its evi­dence for its sanc­tion of life­time inel­i­gi­bil­ity and dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion against cyclist Lance Armstrong, who main­tains his inno­cence.

Among the ref­er­ences is that of cyclist Tyler Hamilton, who reported that the olive oil-testos­terone mix­ture was to be squirted under the tongue to get a recov­ery boost after races.”

Olive extracts and exer­cise recov­ery

There is no ref­er­ence to any of olive oil’s many proven health ben­e­fits being cited as a rea­son for its use, but the hydrox­y­ty­rosol in olive oil is nev­er­the­less said to pro­mote mus­cle health.

According to a patent appli­ca­tion from Dutch inven­tors, it can help pro­tect mus­cles dur­ing exer­cise, pro­mote recov­ery from injuries, and relieve mus­cle sore­ness.

The olive extracts can decrease the accu­mu­la­tion of lac­tic acid present post-exer­cise, and can also work by main­tain­ing glu­tathione lev­els” they say.



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