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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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School Program Reduces Eating Disorders
Bend.com news sources November 1 - PORTLAND - A health promotion program created by Oregon Health & Science University researchers is the first to reduce disordered eating, body-shaping drug use and other health-harming behaviors among female high school athletes. The findings of this program, called ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives), are published in Monday's issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. "About 50 percent of female and male high school students participate in school sports, and contrary to popular belief, they are not protected from drug use and other harmful behaviors," said Diane Elliot, M.D., ATHENA principal investigator and professor of medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. "For young women, the cultural pressures to be thin may be compounded by similar influences from their sport, resulting in more prevalent disordered eating behaviors and body-shaping drug use. These health-harming actions, even among those not diagnosed as anorexic or bulimic, can be associated with significant health problems. The abilities fostered by the ATHENA program had immediate benefits and may help these young women make healthier choices and avoid harmful behaviors in the future." Elliot and her colleagues enrolled 928 female students from 18 northwest Oregon and southwest Washington high schools representing 40 sports teams, including dance and cheerleading teams. The athletes participated in eight weekly 45-minute intervention sessions during their teams' sport season. For each team that participated in the program, another team with similar demographics was recruited to serve as the control. The program was taught primarily by student "squad leaders," who used scripted lessons. Coaches facilitated the program, and the sessions were incorporated into the team's usual practice activities. Topics were gender-specific and focused on healthy sport nutrition, effective exercise training, understanding media images of women, skills to prevent depression, and the effects of drug use and other unhealthy behaviors on sport performance. The athletes were surveyed before and after their sport season about diet, nutrition and exercise habits. The researchers found athletes who participated in ATHENA reported significantly less ongoing and new use of diet pills, and less use of amphetamines, anabolic steroids and sport supplements. The athletes also reported increased seatbelt use, less riding with a drinking driver, fewer injuries and less new sexual activity. "Previous universal disordered eating and drug use prevention programs have changed students' knowledge, but have had limited influence on unhealthy behaviors," said Linn Goldberg co-principal investigator, professor of medicine and head of the Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. "ATHENA effectively reduced body-shaping drug use while promoting healthy eating habits, just as its male counterpart, ATLAS, decreased alcohol and drug use, reduced drinking and driving and improved nutrition behaviors among male high school athletes. These studies show sport teams are an untapped resource for positively altering the beliefs and actions of young athletes." ATLAS is a five-year OHSU study initiated by Goldberg and Elliot in 1993 that proved successful in reducing a young male athlete's desire and use of anabolic steroids, sports supplements, and a wide variety of substances among male adolescent athletes in schools in Oregon and Washington and credited with significant drug prevention in other locales. ATLAS is a Model Program of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and one of 9 Exemplary Programs of the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free School. Both ATLAS and ATHENA have been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an institute of the National Institutes of Health, and schools in more than 20 states have already implemented them. ATLAS and ATHENA have been recommended for use in elementary and secondary schools nationwide as a result of the recent passage of Senate Bill 2195, the "Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004," co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and signed by President Bush Oct. 22, 2004. The bill provides $15 million for each of six years to teach kids about the dangers of steroids. Other researchers in the OHSU School of Medicine's Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine who worked on ATHENA include: Esther Moe, Ph.D., M.PH., research assistant professor of medicine; Carol DeFrancesco, M.A.L.S., R.D., L.D., senior research associate in medicine; and Melissa Durham, research assistant in medicine. Hollie Hix-Small, M.S., Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, Ore. also was a co-author. For more information about ATLAS and ATHENA, visit www.ohsu.edu/hpsm/index.html.
0 9 - 0 2 - 2 0 0 6 OR program gets $1 million grant to combat steroid use
AP WASHINGTON - Sports Illustrated donated $1 million Wednesday to Oregon Health & Science University combat the growing use of steroids by high school athletes. The university's highly regarded ATLAS and ATHENA programs received the magazine's first annual SI Champion Award for nonprofit groups in sports. The Oregon program was chosen from 48 nonprofit organizations involved in youth sports or headed by a sports figure that applied for the award. Seven million young male and female athletes participate in school-sponsored sports in this country. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2003 that 850,000 high school students have admitted using steroids. Since 1993, steroid use among this group has risen from one in 45 to one in 16. The donation will be combined with public service announcements in the sports magazine and an SI Schools website to be set up by Sports Illustrated, a multimedia subsidiary of Time Warner. Together, they are designed to create a nationwide network of SI Schools to serve as models of how coaches, parents and young athletes can combat steroid use and foster good nutrition, exercise training and drug prevention. "Our partnership with OHSU and the ATLAS and ATHENA programs is a perfect fit for SI in these times," said SI President Mark Ford at an announcement ceremony at the National Press Club. "The magazine has been at the forefront of reporting about the use of steroids and drugs at the professional level, but shockingly little has been done in regard to how these drugs are infecting high school sports." Joining the announcement, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., co-chairman of the Senate Drug Caucus, said "Steroid use by young people is a serious health issue." "A lot of kids don't know how harmful this stuff really is," said Biden, author of the 1990 law that originally banned anabolic steroid use. "This program will teach kids at school, but we have to do it at home too. Eight out of 10 parents never talk to their children about the health dangers of steroid use." Biden's Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 added 18 substances to the list of banned anabolic steroids, including "andro" and THG. ATLAS and ATHENA are the only programs recognized in the 2004 act as model curricula. Begun in 1993, ATLAS - Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids - tries to reduce risk factors among male high school athletes for steroid, alcohol and other illegal drug use. Studies have shown it cut new use of anabolic steroids in half and lowered the incidence of drinking and driving by 24 percent. First installed in schools in 1997, ATHENA - Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Alternatives - targets young female athletes and tries to reduce eating disorders and the use of body-shaping substances while promoting nutrition and exercise. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the programs have been used in more than 60 schools in 31 states and Puerto Rico. Randomized, controlled evaluations have been done of 4,000 participating student-athletes. "Through our partnership with Sports Illustrated, the ATLAS and ATHENA programs will provide young athletes with the tools to succeed without the use of drugs," said Dr. Linn Goldberg, professor of medicine and head of the university's division of health promotion & sports medicine. Goldberg and Diane Elliot created the programs now administered by the university's new Center for Health Promotion Research. |
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