A drug invented for the Soviet military is ruining the careers of not only Russian athletes

The creator of the now infamous drug called meldonium, the head of the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, academician Ivars Kalvins, is outraged: why on earth did the World Anti-Doping Committee include his invention in the list of prohibited for athletes?! “Meldonium was considered prohibited for athletes because someone really wanted it,” said the scientist, who was asked for clarification in connection with the positive test of our tennis player Maria Sharapova, whose sports career is now in question.

The drug was added to the prohibited list on September 16 last year, with the ban starting on January 1. Our liberals, who are especially well versed in the ways of showing hatred towards what seems to be their own country, rejoice at the revelations of several Russian athletes, not noticing that athletes from Sweden, Turkey, Ethiopia, and Ukraine are having the same troubles. So, it’s not a matter of the Russian school of training athletes, but something else?

“If they can’t win in any other way, then they turn to such tricks,” Kalvins explained to the Delfi portal about adding his drug, better known in Russia as mildronate, to the list of prohibited drugs. — Due to the fact that meldonium was invented in the USSR, it is very popular in the post-Soviet space. And since athletes from this region achieve good results, they conclude: most likely, meldonium helps them. But this is absolute nonsense! In fact, meldonium helps them do all the work in training without damaging the heart and other muscles.”

These words, by the way, coincide with the statement of Sharapova’s former coach Jeff Tarango, unfortunately for our liberals, not Russian, but American, who worked with Maria in her formative years. “Her heart wasn’t healthy enough to play for more than 15-20 minutes. After that you had to take long intervals,” he said. “For 16-18 year old tennis players, withstanding heavy loads is a very difficult task. If you don’t take medications that strengthen your heart, then playing at a temperature of 120 degrees (Fahrenheit, the equivalent of 48 degrees Celsius), you can die,” TASS quoted Jeff Tarango with reference to Sky News.

The Free Press correspondent called the attending physician of his relative, who has been taking mildronate for many years due to ischemia.

“This is a common drug that supports the energy metabolism of the heart and other organs,” the doctor explained. — Indicated for oral or intravenous administration as part of complex therapy for angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure and other diseases, as well as decreased performance and physical stress.

Ivars Kalvins recalled the incident that occurred on May 22, 2011 with the mayor of Riga Nils Ushakovs. He participated in the Riga Marathon and lost consciousness at the 20th kilometer. He was taken to the intensive care unit of the local University Clinical Hospital and two days later transported in a state of medically induced coma to the Charite clinic in Berlin. Only on May 28, Nil Ushakov came to his senses. He returned to work on July 11. “You saw what happened to Nil Ushakov, who was overloaded during the marathon? – said the academician. – He almost died! It’s the same with athletes. If they train and take meldonium, then in case of overload they will not suffer heart damage, but without meldonium there will be a lot of people who can die right on the field.” According to Kalvins, meldonium does not provide any “sports” effects, but protects health. “To prohibit athletes from taking care of their health, in my opinion, is a crime against human rights,” the scientist stated.

Kirov Lipman, co-owner and chairman of the board of the leading pharmaceutical company in the Baltic countries, Grindex, told the Delfi portal back in 2011: “Mildronate is very popular among athletes. I know that the Russian national hockey team does not come to training camps without Mildronate, not to mention the players of the Latvian national team. Now sports figures are telling me about the possibility of using mildronate in all sports. We sent mildronate to Germany to do an analysis to see if it is doping. The answer is unequivocal – it is not…”

Well, it’s not like it is, but it’s included in the list of prohibited ones. Maybe Ivars Kalvins is right in naming the reason?.. But his fellow countrywoman Liene Kozlovska, the former head of the anti-doping department of the Latvian State Center for Sports Medicine, seems to know more about mildronate-meldonium than its inventor. She claims: the point is not that athletes should not take this drug if prescribed by a doctor, but about taking it in large doses without medical indications.

Hm… But it is known that Sharapova was prescribed mildronate by a doctor. And in general, Russian athletes do not take any drugs without a doctor’s decision.

Or maybe Liene Kozlovska is objecting in absentia to the inventor of Mildronate, since now she works not in Riga, but in the sports department of the Council of Europe?

Ivars Kalvins synthesized the drug at the Institute of Organic Synthesis of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR by order of the USSR Ministry of Defense. The Afghan war was going on. Combat operations in difficult conditions often led to the death of soldiers from stress and lack of oxygen. The military turned to scientists with a request to create a drug that mobilizes vitality.

Studying the research of German physiologists on dogs, Ivars Kalvins found out: they found a substance released in animals in response to stress. And a Latvian scientist developed a drug that would not allow a certain molecule to disappear during the metabolic process. During the tests, it turned out that the drug is effective for heart patients. Since 1984 it has been widely used in medicine.

And recently, the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis created a molecule whose efficiency is 40 times higher. But athletes probably won’t see this supermeldonium…