NFL players have been accused of using deer antler spray, a banned performance enhancer with a bizarre name.
By Colin Lecher Posted 01.30.2013 at 5:31 pm 8 Comments

Mule Deer
Mule Deer Wikimedia Commons

A new report from Sports Illustrated connects Baltimore Ravens player Ray Lewis with deer antler spray, also known as deer antler velvet, one of the oddest-sounding performance enhancers we've ever heard of. (Lewis and the team, by the way, deny he did anything wrong.) So what is this stuff?

Well, it's pretty close to what it sounds like: It's a spray or pill with an active ingredient, IGF-1, extracted from deer antlers. Christopher Key, one person in the two-person company SWATS (Sports With Alternatives To Steroids), which sells the spray and pills, gave this quote in the Sports Illustrated report:


"You're familiar with HGH, correct?" asked Key, referring to human growth hormone. "It's converted in the liver to IGF-1." IGF-1, or -insulin-like growth factor, is a natural, anabolic hormone that stimulates muscle growth. "We have deer that we harvest out of New Zealand," Key said. "Their antlers are the fastest-growing substance on planet Earth . . . because of the high concentration of IGF-1. We've been able to freeze dry that out, extract it, put it in a sublingual spray that you shake for 20 seconds and then spray three [times] under your tongue. . . . This stuff has been around for almost 1,000 years, this is stuff from the Chinese."

SWATS isn't the only company, either. You can even pick up a bottle on Amazon.

IGF-1, a naturally occurring chemical, can (supposedly) stimulate muscle growth in above-average quantities. It's been compared to the better-known human growth hormone, or HGH. But, as the International Business Times points out, we're not even completely sure how well, if at all, the substance works with humans, although at least one major study did find increased performance in athletes who used it.

So maybe consider the fact that it's unproven (and also consider the poor deer) before you try that out.

8 Comments

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ribbitFrog
01/30/13 at 7:19 pm

Your last sentence seems to suggest that you don't know that deer antlers are regrown and shed every year. They aren't like ivory or horns where they have to be sawed off the skull. The simply fall off at the end of every season.

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glorybug
01/30/13 at 9:32 pm

Your comment suggests that you don't know anything about deer antler velvet. Mature antlers that fall off have no velvet. And, yes, the antlers are sawed off the deer's skull.

"Early antler growth (velvet antler) is soft, cartilaginous tissue, well supplied with blood vessels and nerves, which can grow more than 2 centimetres a day. After about 60 days, the antler begins to calcify from the base upwards. The velvet is harvested between the 45th and 60th days, under anaesthetic by a veterinarian or a trained and registered person who has passed tests established and overseen by Deer Industry New Zealand."

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/deer-and-deer-farming/page-9

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killerT
01/31/13 at 10:42 am

Do we get to eat the deer afterward?

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killerT
01/31/13 at 10:44 am

So if its not even proven to work, whats the problem in using it?

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ford2go
02/01/13 at 3:21 am

According to the news the substance under discussion is on the NFL's banned list.

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Robot
02/01/13 at 9:14 am

Human competition should be equal to human competition.

When we add chemicals or things from other animals, then it becomes a competition of something else, plus money.

I so much more enjoy watching high school or children play sports! IT's REAL!

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araisbec
02/07/13 at 9:59 am

First of all, IGF-1 is not unproven to work. I'm too lazy to dig up papers on it right now, but it is a popular performance enhancer in Bodybuilding... it works, and it works well. It is only being sold as "Deer Antler Extract" so that it isn't labelled IGF-1, which would generate a lot of controversy. It is no more "natural" then Testosterone. You can find it on every "research chemical" supply site for bodybuilding on the internet.

Second of all, whether you agree with performance enhancement or not in sporting competitions, it is employed by the large majority of elite athletes. The whole public outcry about Lance Armstrong is a complete joke; he's just one of the unlucky few who got caught. Regardless of the "ethics" of enhancement, I believe that it is only natural it will eventually become a concrete part of competition. We seem to be constantly moving in that direction as a society/species...

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araisbec
02/07/13 at 10:03 am

@Robot: Should is a subjective term; ethics is a blurry topic. I don't know if I agree or disagree with performance enhancement, but GOOD LUCK policing sport when gene doping and designer babies become a norm. It will happen.



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