The drug that caused Maria Sharapova’s failed doping test sounds almost like a miracle potion.
Published studies say the drug, meldonium, may be effective in treating heart ailments, strokes, diabetes and perhaps Alzheimer’s disease and in improving people’s moods. It even increases the sexual performance and sperm motility of boars.
But some experts say that the evidence for such claims is scant and that it is not even clear if the drug improves athletic performance. And they say there is little reason for someone like Sharapova to have taken it to treat her medical conditions, as she says she did.