The Bolt Supremacy by Richard Moore

Author:Richard Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books

In 2013, Müller-Wohlfahrt spoke about medical strategies for muscle injuries in football at Isokinetic’s Football Medicine Strategies Conference in London. In his trademark smart black suit, white shirt and black tie; he was hesitant and halting. The charismatic healer described by those who have visited him in his clinic was not discernible in the handsome but almost diffident figure who read in heavily accented English from his script, only occasionally glancing up.

It was one of the rare occasions when he has discussed, in some detail, his work – and he was candid about his use of Actovegin. ‘I have changed my therapeutic approach only marginally since the seventies,’ he told his audience, ‘since it has been proved highly effective.’

He continued: ‘Since the seventies I use Actovegin together with Traumeel [a homeopathic painkiller] in the treatment of muscle injuries. Actovegin is a deep-proteinised hemoderivative obtained by ultra-filtration of calf blood. It is constituted mostly of electrolytes, essential trace elements, a mixture of amino acids and intermediary products of carbohydrates.

‘I know that there is still controversy about its biologic actions, especially in muscle tissue. But I’m still convinced that Actovegin is the most helpful and highly effective medicine in our treatment. The daily experiences of athletes, some [of whom] were treated not successfully elsewhere, support this. In over thirty-six years I have never experienced any side effects. No complication has occurred.’

He went on to argue for the ‘conservative treatment’ of injuries, explaining that surgery can be avoided with injections – or ‘infiltrations’, as he prefers to call them. Some of his critics object to this, saying that his treatments address the symptom, not the cause. Indeed, some of those critics were in the audience in London, judging by the tuts and shaking heads. Müller-Wohlfahrt explained that his priority is minimising the disruption to an athlete’s training; the treatment itself is active. Rest may sometimes be necessary, but it seems to Müller-Wohlfahrt – like it does to every elite athlete – anathema. In this, he is squarely on the athlete’s side. Perhaps that is why they get along so well.

As Müller-Wohlfahrt admitted in London, Actovegin is controversial. During the 2000 Tour de France, it was found in waste dumped by staff members of Lance Armstrong’s US Postal team, prompting an investigation by the French authorities, and in 2009 the Canadian Anthony Galea, another sports doctor with a stable of stars – including Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez and Mark McCoy – was charged by Canadian authorities with selling an unapproved drug: Actovegin.

However, it is incorrect to say that Actovegin is illegal for sports-people. It was briefly placed on the WADA banned list in 2000, then taken off; a WADA official compared it to a ‘super vitamin for the blood’. It is not banned in the US, either; it has simply never been approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration.

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