What are diuretics?

Diuretics are banned in sports because they can help with weight loss and could be used to speed up the elimination of drugs from the system, an expert said today.

Diuretics increase the volume of urine produced by promoting the excretion of salts and water from the kidney.

The main classes work by inhibiting the reabsorption of salts and water from the kidney into the bloodstream.

Dr Mark Batt, a consultant in sports medicine at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, said diuretics were most frequently prescribed to treat conditions such as heart failure or high blood pressure.

"They are on the banned list because they could be abused by people who are trying to lose weight," he said. "If you lose body water, you lose weight."

This could be of use for sports where people need to meet a certain weight to compete, such as racing, wrestling, boxing or rowing.

"The second reason they are banned is, if you

take a banned substance that is excreted through the urine, it could speed up the elimination of drugs from the system," Dr Batt said.

He said diuretics themselves were not performance-enhancing substances and it was not healthy to take them unnecessarily.

The potential known side-effects of taking diuretics include dehydration and potassium deficiency.

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