Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

Wiley, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 1(34), 2024

DOI: 10.1111/sms.14567

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Beyond bronchodilation: Illuminating the performance benefits of inhaled beta<sub>2</sub>‐agonists in sports

Journal article published in 2024 by Morten Hostrup ORCID, Søren Jessen ORCID
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractGiven the prevalent use of inhaled beta2‐agonists in sports, there is an ongoing debate as to whether they enhance athletic performance. Over the last decades, inhaled beta2‐agonists have been claimed not to enhance performance with little consideration of dose or exercise modality. In contrast, orally administered beta2‐agonists are perceived as being performance enhancing, predominantly on muscle strength and sprint ability, but can also induce muscle hypertrophy and slow‐to‐fast fiber phenotypic switching. But because inhaled beta2‐agonists are more efficient to achieve high systemic concentrations than oral delivery relative to dose, it follows that the inhaled route has the potential to enhance performance too. The question is at which inhaled doses such effects occur. While supratherapeutic doses of inhaled beta2‐agonists enhance muscle strength and short intense exercise performance, effects at low therapeutic doses are less apparent. However, even high therapeutic inhaled doses of commonly used beta2‐agonists have been shown to induce muscle hypertrophy and to enhance sprint performance. This is concerning from an anti‐doping perspective. In this paper, we raise awareness of the circumstances under which inhaled beta2‐agonists can constitute a performance‐enhancing benefit.