New herbal pill to boost athletes
performance
February 08, 2005
A Mumbai-based pharma company claims to have developed
a herbal pill that could help sports persons enhance
their performance manifold in a natural way without
flouting anti-doping rules.
"Sportaceuticals - as we call it - scan help sportpersons
enhance their performance without really depending on
steroids that come along with long term side effects
and a bad name for both the player and the country he/she
represents," Direcor, Sigma Laboratories Limited,
Dilip Coulagi told PTI.
Coulagi was in the national capital to participate
in the '2 nd Nutraceutical Summit' that took place recently.
"These tailor-made pills suiting specific requirements
of the athletes would help improve their performance
if taken under proper guidance and dosage," he
said, adding they are best-extracted components of food
which often mean the fine line between winning and losing.
The supplements, through a natural process, help sportspersons
maintain the water and salt level in their body besides
compensating for what the game was taking out of them
without inducing banned chemicals, he said.
There are sports supplements available for every fitness
goal an athlete might wish to achieve such as increasing
strength, building stamina, altering muscles' mass or
losing extra fat, he said.
Though they are invariably confused with steroids and
other banned substances that alter body chemistry, sportaceuticals
are 100 per cent safe and legal, said Coulagi, a graduate
in 'Medicinal Chemistry' from St Louis University, in
the US.
"The supplement comes without any side effect
and compensates for the gap in nutritional requirement
of athletes -- a problem that is specific to developing
countries," he said adding that some of the big
names in Indian sports are using the supplements.
Sportaceuticals have a huge market in the developed
nations also as a full stomach does not necessarily
mean complete nutrition, he said.
Right nutrition has been an area where athletes from
the country lose out to their foreign counterparts.
The herbal supplements would now help post a better
tally, he said adding the pricing has to be done in
such a way as to reach the supplements to those who
need it.
"Considering the buying capacity of people in
this part of the world, these supplements come at a
cost that is not affordable for many of the deserving
candidates.
Government should think of reducing duty on the supplements
to make it affordable for budding athletes," Coulagi
said.
Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
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