Caffeine, nicotine, ethanol and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are among the most prevalent and culturally accepted drugs in western society. For example, in Europe and North America up to 90% of the adult population drinks coffee daily and, although less prevalent, the other drugs are also used extensively by the population. Smoked tobacco, excessive alcohol consumption and marijuana (cannabis) sm...

The consumption of nutritional ergogenic aids is conditioned by laws/regulations, but standards/regulations vary between countries. The aim of this review is to explore legislative documents that regulate the use of nutritional ergogenic aids intended for sportspeople in a Spanish/European framework. A narrative review has been developed from official websites of Spanish (Spanish Agency of the ...

Blood doping is an ergogenic procedure wherein normovolemic erythrocythemia is induced via autologous (i.e., re-infusion of athlete's own blood) or homologous (i.e., transfusion of type matched donor's blood) red blood cell (RBC) infusion (11, 27, 28, 34). The resultant hemoconcentration increases arterial oxygen concentration (Ca)2) (9, 23). During peak exercise, oxygen delivery [cardiac outpu...

It is well documented that exhaustive physical exercise leads to inflammation and skeletal muscle tissue damage. With this in mind, melatonin has been acutely administered before physical exercise; nevertheless, the use of melatonin as an ergogenic agent to prevent tissue inflammation and damage remains uncertain. We evaluated the effects of melatonin on swimming performance, muscle inflammatio...

Background Athletes use ergogenic aids in an attempt to increase training-adaptations, which serves to enhance their performance during competition. Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied ergogenic aids. Although many studies have reported the efficacy and effectiveness of creatine monohydrate supplement manufacturers continually introduce newer forms of creatine into the marketplace. ...

If one imagines two horses with identical genetic makeup with equal physiological ability, ridden by jockeys with equal riding skill and with the same way of riding a race, being raced against each other, all things being equal the two horses should finish at exactly the same time. But what if one of the horses were given ‘formula X’ to improve its performance, enabling it to win outright. ‘For...

Chronic exposure to a stressor elicits adaptations enhancing the tolerance to that stressor. These adaptive responses might also improve tolerance under less stressful conditions. For example, historically there has been much interest in the adaptive responses to high-altitude, or hypoxia, and their ergogenic potential under sea-level, or normoxic, conditions. In contrast, the influence of the ...