Great news coming from the U.S. edition of Reuters.com (the latest news from around the world) for all honest, ethical, hard working, intrinsically-driven major league ball players—a new and improved test for human growth hormone (HGH) is just around the corner.

The article on Reuters, Improved doping test for growth hormone on its way , details a new test that reveals HGH up to two weeks after its use. Prior to this, a test would have to be given within 24 hours of an athlete’s use to yield a positive response.

This obstacle could easily have been a roadblock to adoption by the MLB Player’s Union due to the higher possibility of false positives with such a short window (along with their issue that the more accurate HGH tests require blood testing; see Major League Baseball Union Opposed To Blood Test for HGH, But Urine Test OK??? ).

The new test eliminates that stumbling block.

Dr. Richard Holt of the University of Southampton, U.K. states, “We strongly suspect that a number of elite athletes are abusing growth hormone as a means of improving their performance,” which confirms the need for an accurate test like this.

Continuing to validate how substantial the new test is, it even proved accurate with 12  20-year-old athletes, whose naturally high levels of this hormone might be problematic. However, this was not the case, as none of this age group tested were tagged as users of HGH.

Regarding their ultimate goal, Dr. Holt said “our hope is that if you have an effective test, that will dissuade athletes from taking growth hormone.”

Now if we could only find a way to get athletes to stop looking outside themselves, and their own physical efforts, to reach their potential, then we might truly have something.

And wouldn’t that be nice!!!

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