drugs and doping, scientific studies on tumors and Sla-Corriere.it

The most mournful years investigated so far are those between 2010 and 2015 when, among others, Benedetti, Bertuzzo, Rognoni, Zuccheri, Petrini, Viganò, Imbriani, Ferruccio Mazzola, Borgonovo, Zucchini, Aldo Maldera, Rosato, Musiello, died prematurely. Pinotti. All former Serie A or B soccer players, all of whom died of ALS, cancer or leukemia between the ages of 37 and 68. The precise and painful accounting of early deaths in Italian professional football is recorded in a well-documented book by Lamberto Gherpelli published by Edizioni Gruppo Abele: «Someone runs too much. The dark side of football ′′ with a beautiful preface by Damiano Tommasi.

Drugs and early deaths

The possible correlations between the use and abuse of drugs and serious illnesses in the world of football, back on the front page after the death of Gianluca Vialli due to the alarm raised by the former vice world champion Dino Baggio, have been talked about for some time and always on the occasion of a mourning. The endless series of deaths (11 between owners and reserves) in Fiorentina with chain deaths linked to ALStumors and leukemia is the best known and most investigated case study.

ALS cases

On ALS, in reality, the most serious scientific research on football offers very inhomogeneous results compared to sports such as American football where the correlation seems to be demonstrated. The article by Elisabetta Pupillo and Ettore Beghi of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (carried out on a sample of 23,586 Serie A, B, C football players from the 1959-’60 season to the 1999-2000 season) revealed a incidence of progressive neurodegenerative disease twice as high as that of the “normal” population which becomes six times if we refer only to series A with a very early onset of the disease (45 years instead of 65) compared to the general population. In short, an apparently clear-cut and disturbing correlation. There are 34 confirmed casesthe most likely causes would be a mix of head trauma and genetic predisposition and while the contribution of certain drugs is less clear, there would appear to be a link with toxic fertilizers used in some playgrounds. However, the results of a study commissioned by the Fédération Française de Football at the Sorbonne University on 6,200 professionals who played from 1968 to 2015 are different: all the mortality data are aligned with those of the standard population with a higher incidence than just the cases of dementia.

The abuse of drugs

The discussion on the source of drug abuse is more complicated, where the identification of products (or practices) at risk began only when they were put out of business or included in the anti-doping lists. In many cases, players have reported drips, injections or pills of substances whose nature was not specified to them. Several athletes (including those with ALS who responded to the researchers) explain that they were subjected to massive doses of Micoren a “respiratory stimulant” (crotetamide + cropropamide) until the substance was outlawed by the Anti-Doping Agency. However, there are no documented correlations between the abuse of this substance and serious illnesses, as well as in the case of the adrenal cortex used systematically as a “tonic” until the 1990s. Moreover, no one has ever had an interest in developing studies in this field. The case of gangliosides is more delicate obtained from bovine brain extracts, the use of which was denounced by Fiorentina player Walter Speggiorin. Created to treat neuropathies, they were soon withdrawn from the market due to their heavy side effects.

From X-rays to steroids

Another (crazy) practice of the Seventies today heavily under accusation was the x-ray bombardment to treat pathologies such as chronic pubalgia, denounced for example by Gabriella Beatrice, daughter of Bruno, Fiorentina full-back who died at the age of 39 of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The correlation between steroid abuse (the most widespread form of doping in modern times) and cancer has been debated for some time, hypothesized for prostate disease but not at the moment for other cancers.