Paralympians Cheat Too

With the news last week of Lance Armstrong refusing to contest the latest allegations of doping during his legendary cycling career, it seems no sports superhero is untarnished these days. But do even Paralympians break the rules to gain an unfair advantage? Apparently yes, but not in the way you'd expect.

Autonomic dysreflexia is a reaction of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system to overstimulation. It is characterized by severe episodic high blood pressure, associated with throbbing headaches, profuse sweating, nasal stuffiness, among other equally unpleasant things. It occurs usually in association with spinal cord injury or a disease such as multiple sclerosis. Basically, it's pain somewhere on your body you can't feel, so it manifests itself in some other way, usually by a  huge spike in blood pressure. (Personal note - I have some experience with AD, and can attest that is unpleasant business. Years ago, I had a few bouts with bladder stones that brought on some severe AD - I got the most painful headaches imaginable, thanks to a BP of 180/140. Thankfully, I'm all good now :). )

Athletes however are using their autonomic dysreflexia reactions to their advantage. It's called boosting. By causing pain to a lower extremity, the athletes activate alternate pathways to the brain, giving themselves boosts in blood pressure and heart rate they wouldn't otherwise be able to tap into. Basically, they injure themselves to perform better.

• A Canadian climber tells the BBC he's experimented with administering electric shocks to his body, to jumpstart his autonomic nervous system. "I took it a notch further by using an electrical stimulus on my leg," he says, "my toe and even my testicles."
• The same climber also talks about clipping off his catheter, in order to not let his bladder drain. You know how it physically hurts when you really, really need to go to the bathroom? That's pain enough to stimulate the boosting response.
• A British journalists says he's heard of athletes going so far as to break their own toes with a blow from a small hammer.
• Other methods include using uncomfortably tight straps bound around the legs, sitting on a sharp pin, or even sharply twisting their own testicles.

Obviously these people are insane. Twisting your own testicles?  Not even if you received your own private island along with your gold medal could I see myself doing that. Some people will really do anything in order to win. But I guess this makes watching the Paralympics a bit more interesting. Imagine: Instead of a world record athlete being suspected of using synthetic testosterone or an anabolic steroid, they instead receive questions about whether or not they punched themselves in the balls before the race.