Medication

Interesting and somewhat controversial topic today. Medication in training and racing.

A question came to me from an athlete today, is it okay to use medication in training and racing, as long as it is being used legally?

Hmmm, like most of these questions it is a hard one and in my view has no one single answer. As you can imagine it depends a bit of what the medication is and how it is being used.

Now, I am not a Doctor, so first things first, if a Doctor tells you that it is okay to use a particular medicine to get through training then I would say go for it, however, alternatively if a Doctor says you need to stop, then that is what you need to do. Medication should never be used as a crutch to mask the symptoms of a severe or potentially long term injury.

So if a Doctor says it is okay, is it? Once again, I think it depends. I have certainly nursed my way through a niggle with the regular use of anti-inflammatory drugs post training. I might have used them to get me through a couple of weeks of training until race day, or I might have used anti-inflammatories during rehab to help an injury calm down. I have also used anti-inflammatory drugs during a race to keep a back niggle under control on the bike. In my view these sorts of uses are okay. In most of these cases the use of anti-inflammtories was recommended either by a Doctor or a Physio and it was in conjunction with a bunch of other rehab work such as icing, stretching and strength work. In this way the medication was viewed as part of the rehab arsenal. This use I think is okay.

Where I think medication use in sport gets dangerous is when it starts becoming a regular, long term thing. In my opinion if you have such a persistent, long term niggle or injury that it requires regular use of pain medication or anti-inflammatories then there is a bigger underlying issue at play that needs addressing. This issue may require a break from the sport to allow recovery, it might require a period of rehab and strength work, it may require a change of gear etc. Whatever needs to happen, for me long term persistent pain and injury means something is wrong and something needs a change. Medication shouldn't be used as a tool to mask the symptoms of a serious underlying issue.

Similarly if the use of medication escalates to control an increasing level of pain then I think that is also a sign that a change is required. If a particular medication or dosage has been recommended by a medical practioner but you find that it is no longer sufficient and the temptation is to use a stronger medication, or use it more often etc, then I think that is moving over into the unacceptable use of medicine territory and instead a re-examination of the underlying issue is necessary.

These can be hard decisions as it may mean stopping training for a while, or missing a much anticipated race, but in the end these are the hard decisions that sometimes need to happen when injuries occur.

I think deep down we all have an idea of what is okay and what isn't, particularly in the area of medication in sport. Usually when the little voice in your head starts wondering if what you are doing is okay, that is probably a good indication that it is time to have a re-think.

Tough topic though.