Are You On Performance-Enhancing Drugs?

You have trouble concentrating
Without a prescription, Adderall, the attention-deficit drug, is universally banned at any dosage in competition, from the Olympics to Nascar, as an amphetamine. “It works on the parts of the brain associated with focus and perceptions of effort,” says Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic. In early April, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who was suspended in 2012 after testing positive for Adderall (but later won his appeal), was quoted saying that half the NFL uses the drug—an assertion the league swiftly denied.

You’re a bagel lover
“If you’re applying for a new job, don’t eat poppy seeds, because you can test positive for opiates,” says Dr. Linn Goldberg, a specialist in sports nutrition at the Oregon Health & Science University. As a narcotic, opiates are banned from all athletic competition. A quarter teaspoon of seeds is enough to trigger a positive test, says Leslie Bonci, director of sports medicine nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Opiates were some of endurance sports’ earliest doping agents, consumed as pain relievers.