SHOT DOWN: North Korea's Jong Su Kim holds up his medal after winning the bronze in the Beijing 2008 Olympics men's 10-meter air pistol shooting competition Saturday, August 9, 2008. Kim was stripped of his two medals and expelled from the Beijing Olympics after failing a doping test, Friday August 15, 2008.
Image: (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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Yesterday, North Korean Olympic shooter Kim Jong Su was stripped of silver and bronze medals after he tested positive for propranolol. The drug is prescribed for a variety of conditions, from high blood pressure to migraines.
You've heard of various doping drugs such as EPO, but why would an Olympian use propranolol? (It probably wasn't to treat a hangover, despite some myths about its use for that condition.)
For an answer, ScientificAmerican.com called cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar, author of Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation, and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y. An edited transcript follows.
Tell me what propranolol is typically used for, and what it does.
Propranolol is a beta-blocker, so it blocks the action of adrenaline. Adrenaline is implicated in a number of effects on the body—high blood pressure and a fast heart beat, for example—so by blocking it, propranolol lowers blood pressure, and heart rate. Doctors often use it to treat patients with high blood pressure, and with heart disease, to keep the heart rate in a reasonable range and not tax the heart muscle, or have it use too much energy.
It’s also used to treat other conditions that are mediated by high adrenaline levels, such as tremor and performance anxiety. Beta-blockers don’t lower the anxiety level, but they lower manifestations of the anxiety, such as fast heart rate, sweating and tremor.
I understand it’s also used for treating migraines?
It is used for treating migraines in kids.
Why would an Olympics shooter want to use it?
Probably for some of the same things that I just mentioned. It’s used to combat stage fright, or performance anxiety, and tremor. From the next to nothing I know about this case, he wasn’t using it for a medical condition; it was for performance enhancement.
Doctors do prescribe it for people with tremor, for example elderly patients with essential tremor. That’s a medical condition. It sounds like the tremor this shooter was experiencing had more to do with enhanced performance than with any medical condition. So it’s reasonable to ask whether he had an unfair advantage.
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11 Comments
Add CommentUse of propranolol is also banned from golfers for similar reasons.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPropranolol is used (illegally I believe) by golfers, for similar reasons.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishey scientific american, get a real reporter! propanolol slows the body down you fools. it's a reverse enhancement, sotospeak, needed for shooters who are unsure of themselves to shoot small targets.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am rather confused on wwkoerth37's statement... it seems odd someone would reverse enhance themselves. What knowledge do you have this statement? Give me good reason to believe you and by the way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt this point, I believe the reporter's logic. He correctly capitilizes his sentence, so he obviously made his way through 1st grade.
A sharpshooter's pulse is a major challenge to be overcome. I would guess that a lot of the training involved addresses this problem. Every beat pushes the gun off target. The slower the heart rate, the easier it is to settle back on the target and get a shot off before the next pulse. Maybe a lower systolic pressure would decrease the amount of deflection, I don't know.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNaturally, nervousness works against the shooter, increasing the heart rate and distracting from the intense concentration needed.
I expect the reporter had a pretty good idea of the drug's effects before getting the expert's 'answer'. It's just a rhetorical device to present the information.
Propanolol also has a high rate of physical disorientation. The last thing a shootist would do is deliberately take this drug to calm nerves. More than likely the athelte was taking the drug for a normal medical application and did not want to declare it for fear of appearing to be in less than top shape for competition. This is another case where the IOC is on crack--which I believe is a banned substance, even for officials.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm not here to make anyone believe me for one. i'm too lazy to cap. haha... and your opinion and mine are just that, opinions. although propanolol is a beta-adrenergic blocking agent. it blocks the action of the sympathetic nervous system. the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the pace of the heart beat. by blocking the action of these nerves, propanolol reduces theheart rate and is useful in treating abnormally rapid heart rhythms. propanolol also reduces the force of heart muscle contraction and lowers blood pressure. by reducing the heart rate an the force of muscle contraction, propanolol reduces heart muscle oxygen demand. when shooting EVERY movement counts. i cap'd. every is that o.k.? hehe...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm not here to make anyone believe me for one. i'm too lazy to cap. haha... and your opinion and mine are just that, opinions. although propanolol is a beta-adrenergic blocking agent. it blocks the action of the sympathetic nervous system. the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the pace of the heart beat. by blocking the action of these nerves, propanolol reduces theheart rate and is useful in treating abnormally rapid heart rhythms. propanolol also reduces the force of heart muscle contraction and lowers blood pressure. by reducing the heart rate an the force of muscle contraction, propanolol reduces heart muscle oxygen demand. when shooting EVERY movement counts. i cap'd. 'every' is that o.k.? hehe...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisscientific american is what i consider a top-notch mag. the article seemed to me to be written by someone with little experience. my intentions weren't to offend. it was my opinion.
The blind pursuit of glory clouds all clear thinking and conscience.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEver since the dawn of civilization, men have been notorious cheats. Men cheated to live a more comfortable life and to secure greater power; then gradually turning fraudulent in practically all endeavors to gain fame, status and wealth.
Before tests for doping became compulsory and efficient, the use of drugs to enhance performance was epidemic. Nowadays it is done in much subtler ways. After all, the grandeur of winning an Olympic medal would be too great a temptation for a normal soul to avoid.
(Tan Boon Tee)
The blind pursuit of glory clouds any clear thinking or conscience.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEver since the dawn of civilization, men have been notorious cheats. Men cheated to live a more comfortable life and to secure greater power; then gradually turning fraudulent in practically all endeavors to gain fame, status and wealth.
Before tests for doping became compulsory and efficient, the use of drugs to enhance performance was epidemic. Nowadays it is done in much subtler ways. After all, the grandeur of winning an Olympic medal would be too great a temptation for a normal soul to avoid.
(Tan Boon Tee)
"A sharpshooter's pulse is a major challenge to be overcome. I would guess that a lot of the training involved addresses this problem. Every beat pushes the gun off target." - Spraggs
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is exactly correct. Beta blockers change the nature of the heart beat from one that is a rapid contraction to one that is more of a gentle squeeze. As a result the amount of vibration caused by each beat is reduced.
Surgeons have been known to take beta blockers in order to reduce the natural tremours in their hands and improve their surgical abilities.
I was given a perscription for propanalol 3 months ago, and 8 hours after taking the first dose, the effects were quite evident. In the morning when I would normally wake up to the sensation of what I considered a normal heart rythm, there was absolutely no sensation at all.
It was quite surprising.