Most enhancing performance aids in sports and exercise have been discovered accidentally. When proven to produce unfair or prejudicial results, they have been restricted for common use and banned for sporting events. But as the popularity of becoming better, faster, stronger, more physically fit and perfect the existing research of products, usually for medicinal use, have been found to have alternative uses other than treatments. So today, especially in sports and the fitness world, there is always the search for substances to improve performance and appearance.
One of these are peptides already, discussed in “Where’s the Beef? Meathead!” described as simple bonds of less than 50 in number that connect amino acids. But why is this novelty becoming so important for treating certain health conditions? What is its use for exercise and sports? How popular is it becoming? Does it have effect for exercise and resistance training? Is it banned in sports?
Drugs made from peptides are becoming popular because they are short-acting and less toxic to the body because they bind to specific cell surface receptors (hormones) affecting their function without the reaction with other molecules and receptors in the body making metabolism run smoothly. But they cannot be consumed orally because they are inactivated by the enzymes of the digestive system starting with the saliva. Right now administration is through injections or IV, but research is being done to develop other routes such as through the skin or through the nose (spray).
Due to the minimal effects the use of hormonal peptides as an ergonomic aid for exercise and sports performance is increasing. They are also sometimes difficult to detect. Naturally these peptides are released into the bloodstream by the cells of the endocrine and also have effect on the nervous system.
The types of peptides that are of interest to resistance training are those that come from the Human Growth Hormone. The research and development of these types of peptides are important for health conditions such as cancers, obesity and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers because they bind to the receptors of the pituitary and hypothalamus. These peptides are known to have effects of stimulating the natural GH in our bodies and produce effects on the brain, feeding behaviour, modulate sleeping patterns, protein synthesis, improve muscularity and body composition, and insulin sensitivity which may cause the results desired by resistance training.
The types of exogenous hormonal peptides that are being studied and developed with similar effects to the ones in our bodies are the Growth Hormone Releasing Peptides (GHRH), the SARMs (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators), Growth hormone variants, Insulin Growth Factors and the product from it Mechano Growth Factor (MGF). ies used to stimulate the use of the Growth hormone. But as mentioned before researching and producing them externally are being used for treatments without undesired side effects of medications.
This is why they are popular for resistance training and sports because they have beenproven to promote protein synthesis, anabolic effects and muscle repair resulting in muscle hypertrophy, increasing power, strength gains and also weight loss due to inhibitory effect of somatostatin and reducing insulin sensitivity without affecting the liver and other organs. Due to some of the effects it producesm they have been banned from professional sports even though it is still difficult to detect some of the substances.
You may not know it, but you might even have knowledge, or even used some of these peptides, because they have been out there a long time. Some of them include insulin, the oldest and first discovered peptide, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCH), leptin, recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), Ghrelin, Myostatin to name a few which is not new to the weightlifting world. But the research is only beginning now to discover their uses and benefits to the medical world. But be careful for even though they don’t present major side effects, there is still a bad side to these indetectables.
Note: I hope that some readers are able to acknowledge the information that is being given by this post, for this has been a subject that has taken the most time to research about and definitely not a lot of information about.
Articles Researched:
Classification status of peptide-based performance and enhancing drugs. Medsafe. 2013.
Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARM’s) as Function Promoting Therapies. Bhasin & Jasuja. Current Opinion Clinical Nutrition Metabolism Care. 2010.
Selective androgen receptor modulators in preclinincal and clinical development. Narayanan et al. Nuclear Recept Signal. 2008.
Insulin-like growth factors. Derek Le Roith. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997
Growth-hormone releasing peptides. Ghigo, et al. European Journal of Endocrinology. 1997
Research on mechano growth factor: its potential for optimising physical training as well as misuse in doping. Goldspink. Br. J. Sports Med. 2005.
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