Athletes, Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Anabolic Steroids

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Recommended: Effects of steroids on the human body

There are many types of steroids abused by athletes in order to increase their muscle mass and strength. Though steroids have a negative reputation, there are some that can be beneficial to athletes and certain patients. There are types of steroids called corticosteroids that have more medical uses to them and another type called anabolic-androgenic steroids that have a more limited medical use. The anabolic-androgenic are usually the steroids that are being abused by athletes (Bigelow, par.10). The use of steroids goes back to the end of World War II around the 1940’s. Doctors were giving the freed prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps that were at risk of death anabolic-androgenic steroids to help gain back their muscle mass and weight faster. From this knowledge, steroids began to be used by body builders and athletes to get more fit than they already were. It is believed that the abuse of the steroids started in the late 1940’s by weight lifters and bodybuilders, and by the 1950’s, it was spread to the Olympics (Bigelow, par.11). Any type of steroid should not be used if they are only going to be abused by being used in large doses with the intentions of increasing lean muscle mass and strength (Bigelow, par.11). After years of abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids in the Olympics they were added to the list of banned substances and random testing of athletes were announced to start taking place (Bigelow, par.35).

The exception to steroid use should be only when they are being prescribed by a doctor for medical conditions. One of the main purposes of keeping athletes from using these drugs is simply for their own health benefits. Over the years there have been multiple cases in which the abuse of these drugs has caused...

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...e are groups out there that already works on these steps, the process can not stop there. Completing this process starts in the average homes and with the youth. If the youth are educated they can help make sure the illegal use decreases in their time and their future.

Works Cited

Basile, Maria. "Asthma." The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders. 2nd ed. 2005. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.

Bigelow, Barbara C. "Steroids." UXL Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addictive Substances. 2006. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Jan. 2011.

Jacobson, Robert. "Performance-Enhancing Drugs." Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. N.p., 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.

Kuhn, Cynthia, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilke Wilson. "The Goals and Risks of Bulking Up." Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Greenhaven Press, 2008.

Web. 28 Jan. 2011.

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