Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports

Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports Performance Enhancing Drugs or PED’s have been around in sports for a few millenniums. PED’s are substances that help you perform to the best of your abilities in sports. These substances are always under scrutiny because of how they affect the human body and how they affect sports. PED’s have also been linked to deaths in some sports. In the past twenty years leagues and organizations have begun testing athletes for the use of PED’s. Considering that professional sports in America play a major part in society, it is important to know about PED’s and how they have impacted society today. There are several types of PED’s and sometimes it is mistaken about what an actual PED is. PED’s are substances or

The first athlete to die in Olympic Competition due to doping was a s Danish cyclist, Knut Jersen, who died on Aug 26, 1960 at the Summer Olympics in Rome during the 100km team final race (Drug Use In). For males the use of anabolic agents (Steroids) causes impotence, shrinking in the testicles, and reduction in sperm production (Effects of PED’s). Steroids also cause these side effects in males, increased aggressiveness and sexual appetite, sometimes resulting in abnormal sexual and criminal behavior, often referred to as “Roid Rage”. In females steroids can deepen the voice, cause the growth of facial hair, and can also cause menstrual cycles. Withdrawal from anabolic steroids can be associated with depression, and in some cases, suicide. Growth factors such as HGH can cause strokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolism (EPO). HGH can cause severe headaches, loss of vision, and heart failures. Blood doping can cause stress on heart, blood clotting, and stroke. Premature closure of the growth centers of long bones (In adolescents), which may result in, stunted growth. Steroids can also aid in recovery from workouts by reducing and help heal the damage to muscles that occur during workout sessions (Exploring Topics in). This enables athletes to workout harder and more often while minimizing the risk of overtraining. In 1992 at the age of 43 Lyle Alzado died of brain cancer his

Testing for PED’s was first conducted at the summer Olympics’ in Montreal in 1976. The NBA (National Basketball Association) began testing for the use of PED’s in 1983. In 2005 the NHL (National Hockey League) first implemented a drug-testing policy for PED’s (Exploring Topics in). In the NFL every player in the league is tested at least once a year. There are ten players per team that get tested every week, this continues into the postseason. Players are randomly selected and some players may have to take more tests than other players. Every player in the National Basketball Association is forced to take four random tests throughout the season and the league conducts reasonable-cause testing. Since the MLB is arguably the sport with the most accused PED users, the players are only subject to one test within five days of reporting to spring training and one other random test. The players have to take one random test and that test can occur in the season or in the off-season. The MLB tests players in the off-season that way athletes can’t use PED’s in the off-season and then have it washed out of their system by the time the season comes around. In 2014 the NFL started blood-testing athletes for HGH in 2014. The NBA followed that notion by starting to blood test athletes for HGH beginning in the 2015-2016