Stupid Doping Tricks.

So, Tyler Hamilton announced his retirement from cycling after testing positive for a banned substance. "He had tested positive for Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) a multi-functional steroid he said was in an herbal remedy he took after he had stopped using prescription anti-depressants."

Self-medicating for depression is stupid. Self-medicating if you are a pro athlete subject to random drug testing is really stupid. Self-medicating after serving a two-year suspension for doping is pretty well off the charts stupid.

Depression sucks. If you are not getting well with your current medication then either change it, change your program or change your doctor.

The reports say that Tyler got caught using a "'homeopathic' remedy - Mitamins Advanced Formula - that included herbs, such as St. John’s wort, and DHEA". Let's break the stupidity apart from that sentence. First a "real" homeopathic remedy contains no active ingredients and is just water, so if the lab at UCLA was able to detect it, it's either a miraculous test or a false positive. Second, if that remedy actually contains St. Johns wort (which is nearly useless in treating depression, anyway) and DHEA, then it is not homeopathic. This either means that Tyler didn't get what was advertised or Mitamins was being misleading when they called it a homeopathic remedy (and either way, my head hurts). Finally, DHEA won't help his depression, is banned (and he knew it) and probably didn't provide any performance enhancing benefit (so then why is it banned?)

I wish Tyler well.I hope he gets his depression under control. I morn for the racer he could have been, without the doping drama. So I'll continue not to watch or pay attention to the pros very much. Instead, I'll just ride.