Calluna Running: An Offal Burrito!

latimes.com

On January 14, 2021, Shelby Houlihan, American record holder in the 1500 meters and 5,000 meters, was informed that she tested positive for a banned substance called nandrolone (19-norsteroid potent anabolic steroid). Anabolic steroid is a compound somewhat like testosterone, a hormone that can boost strength by helping muscles bulk up. At low levels, it’s natural in males and to a lesser degree in females, and is part of a family of compounds involved in the synthesis of testosterone, which occurs in the testes of men and in the ovaries of women. It is also found in pregnant women.

Houlihan received a four-year ban from competition from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and on June 11, 2021 she lost her appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). She has been tested approximately 100 times since 2016 and has never tested positive nor missed a test in that time.1

Houlihan was not pregnant. She believes the result came from a pork burrito purchased at a food truck near her home in Beaverton, Oregon, and ate the night before the 6 a.m. test. Obviously, many people reacted with skepticism, sarcasm and dismissed her claim. But what if she is correct? Is it true that a pork burrito can contain nandrolone?

Can pork burritos even contain nandrolone?

As crazy as it seems, yes, if the pork comes from an uncastrated hog. Nandrolone and related compounds do occur naturally in meat, especially offal of male animals, particularly uncastrated hogs (boars). And while boar meat is a small fraction of the overall pork supply (in the United States, nearly 100 percent of male pigs are castrated.2), “small” isn’t the same as “none.”

Offal is the entrails or internal organs of an animal used as meat. If you’ve ever eaten liver, you’ve eaten offal. Houlihan claims that she ordered a carne asada burrito (which should have been beef) but got something unusually greasy and not like normal carne asada. She believes she was accidentally served a pork burrito made from pork stomach meat at the food truck. Houlihan has the receipt and the iPhone tracking data to substantiate her purchase at the food truck. The proprietor of the food truck stated that they use pig stomach in two of their burritos.3

Did that one burrito contain enough nandrolone to cause her to fail the test?

According to the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, the steroid (nandrolone) has been used in breeding and is produced naturally in some animal species, including boars, but that "the likelihood of ingesting steroid-contaminated food must be considered slim." However, there are studies that have demonstrated that "slim" doesn't mean impossible.

In one study, three male volunteers agreed to consume 310 g (11 ounces) of boar offal. We don’t know the weight of the burrito that Houlihan ate, but we can estimate. A standard Chipotle restaurant brand burrito weighs 17 ounces.4 So we can safely use 17 ounces as an estimate for her burrito.

The three men delivered urine samples before, during and 24 hours after eating the offal. Ten hours after eating, nandrolone concentrations in urine reached 3.1 to 7.5 microg/L – enough to trigger a positve nandrolone test result. The researchers concluded: “eating tissues of non-castrated male pork might induce some false accusations of the abuse of nandrolone in antidoping.” 5

Additionally, another study found that it was possible that unknowingly ingesting boar offal can produce positive test results. The researcher concluded: “Although highly improbable, athletes should prudently avoid meals composed of pig offal in the hours preceding the test since the consumption of edible parts of a non-castrated pig has been shown to results in the excretion of 19-norandrosterone (nandrolone) in the following hours.”6

Finally, in order to differentiate between synthetic (drug) and natural (boar offal) nandrolone a lab must test specifically for the difference. The use of isotope ratio mass spectrometry is the only way to distinguish and prove the origin of nandrolone.7 Houlihan’s urine sample was measured at the parts per billion level which established the presence of nandrolone but not its type nor its origin.

outsideonline.com

Houlihan’s Response:

“… the lab never accounted for this possibility (ingesting pork offal). They could have reported this as an atypical finding and followed up with further testing.”

Houlihan also passed a polygraph and had a hair sample analyzed by toxicologists.

“WADA agreed that test (hair sample) proved that there was no build up of this substance in my body, which there would have been if I were taking it regularly. Nothing moved the lab from their initial snap decision... I also believe it was dismissed without proper due process.” 8

The Judgment:

A three-judge panel from the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against her. All they said, in a brief May 15 press release was, “The CAS Panel unanimously determined that Shelby Houlihan had failed, on the balance of probability, to establish the source of the prohibited substance.”

Anti-doping organizations and the Court of Arbitration for Sport have generally declined to entertain arguments about contaminated meat unless the athlete can provide a sample of the meat for testing.

On January 29, 2021, Sports Resolutions (an arbitrator) ruled against Kenyan long-distance runner James Kibet. Kibet claimed that he tested positive for nandrolone after ingesting pork fat. He informed anti-doping regulators that the meat in question came from a shop called "Glorious Pork Joint." Kibet provided additional evidence to support his claim, but the arbitrator said he did not provide a sample of pork fat from that location to be analyzed and therefore "failed to prove that the pork fat he allegedly consumed contained nandrolone."9

Houlihan plans to appeal the decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, but that process would take months and require hiring a Swiss lawyer.

My 2 Cents

If the US food supply is tainted with nandrolone, then WADA and the AIU need to change the level needed to trigger a positive test or mandate that athletes not eat certain foods.

Or tell athletes that if they do eat those foods and test positive, they are out of luck unless they provide a meat sample.

But in the meantime, they should re-verify the initial screening results with an isotope ratio mass spectrometry test to determine the type and origin of nandrolone, especially if the athlete has a long history of negative results on doping tests.

Finally, athletes should NOT eat pork, especially from food trucks!

[NOTE: I am a vegetarian and, all the research – especially on boar offal, - makes me very happy I am!]