Dr. Don Catlin owns and operates Anti-Doping Research which is one of the premier performance-enhancing drug research organizations in the world. Catlin is considered one of the fathers of drug testing in sports and he has worked with the Olympics, the NCAA, MLB, and NFL. Recently, Catlin has questioned MLB’s initiative to blood test minor league players for hGH.
Dr. Catlin pointed out that there have been thousands of hGH tests done by the World Anti-Doping Association and only one positive test which came from a tip. He said there is poor retrospectivity with the test, explaining that the hGH is not detected in the blood stream hours after a sample is taken. As a result of WADA’s poor results, Catlin supports a different type of hGH test, one that was developed by Professor Peter Sonksen and his colleagues in the UK, with whom Catlin is working.
“There is another method coming along which may well be in terms of retrospectivity. I’ve been working on a new method called a marker method, that will have a retrospectivity of probably a week and sometimes two weeks,” Dr. Don Catlin told The Larry Brown Show on Sporting News Radio.
Catlin continued to explain how the marker method works, “When you take growth hormone, you’re going to have growth hormone in your blood for a few hours, but you turn loose a whole number of markers that change in the blood. So if you measure four or five different markers, you can make an index of growth hormone use. That’s what the marker method does — it measures many different markers and calculates the likelihood that you’ve used growth hormone.”
In addition to recommending that sports leagues begin using the marker test for hGH, Catlin says he’s been working hard on testing supplements, adding that “it’s a huge issue.”
“You have to get them tested to make sure they’re clean,” Catlin said. “You can’t trust the label — the label on the bottle does not necessarily reflect the tablets that are in the bottle, but that’s been a problem for many years. We’ve decided to work on that and attack it.”
The excuse of athletes blaming a positive drug test on tainted supplements is a common one that has been used by players such as Shawne Merriman, Rashard Lewis, and J.C. Romero, over the years. While I’ve always doubted the excuse, placing it in the “my dog ate my homework” category, I might have to reconsider my stance. Given Catlin’s words, there may be more merit behind those claims than I had thought.
In the end, while it appears as if MLB is taking a step in the right direction by introducing hGH testing in the minor leagues, it’s far from being an effective step. If they really want some results, they should consider testing players using the markers in addition to what is already in place.
