One Wednesday morning in September of 2015, I slept in until 8 a.m. I was not going to school that day. Instead, I was going to Phoenix Children’s Hospital to get an MRI on my hip to see if there was a tear in my tissues and also receive a cortisone shot to relieve pain. I dressed in comfy clothes, drove to the hospital, and anxiously waited in the waiting room. When the doctor took me back into a room, he had me undress into a gown so all of my skin was exposed below the waist. Carefully, the nurse sanitized my hip and groin with alcohol swabs. Next, she injected me with a numbing medicine so I would not feel the doctor moving the long needle inside of me. After the local anesthetic kicked in, the doctor set up a fluoroscopy that would show …show more content…
Athletic competition started at the beginnings of mankind, and believe it or not, performance enhancing drugs have been around just as long. The use of these drugs can be traced all the way back to the original Olympic Games held from 776-393 B.C. The Greeks conducted experiments with herbal medicines, drank wine potions, used hallucinogens, and ate animals’ hearts or testicles in order to identify the effects on their performances. In 100 A.D. the Roman chariot racers fed their horses hydromel, which is an alcoholic beverage made from honey. The hydromel would make horses run faster, or in other words, improve their performance. Similarly in time, the gladiators ingested hallucinogens and stimulants such as strychnine. These substances helped combat fatigue and injury and improved the intensity of their fights (“Historical Timeline - Drug Use in Sports - ProCon.org, 2013”). It was not until 1849 that research was done on the adrenal glands and nearly a century later, in 1948, the cortisone shot was implemented in patients who needed …show more content…
Thomas Addison had the initial speculation that adrenal glands and Addison's disease were connected. This led to more research and study of the adrenal glands, and by 1894, researchers determined that the adrenal cortex produced a specific type of hormone called “cortin”. To take the research to the next step, researcher Edward Calvin Kendall secluded six diverse compounds from the adrenal glands and labeled them A through F. In 1948, Edward Calvin Kendall discovered the antirheumatic, or pertaining to inflammation and pain, effects of Compound E. On September 21, 1948, compound E, which was later renamed cortisone, became the first glucocorticoid to be injected into a patient with arthritis. Almost a year later on September 30, 1949, Merck & Company became the first corporation to produce cortisone. The 1950 Noble Prize for Physiology was awarded to Edward Calvin Kendall for his remarkable finding of adrenal cortex hormones and their structures and functions; however, scientist Percy Julian made a huge improvement in the process of producing cortisone and he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990 (Bellis). Shortly after his advancement, many athletes were able to get their hands on the beneficial steroid starting in the 1960s (Nichols,
The first case of performance enhancing drugs in sports came before the discovery of anabolic steroids and is believed to be that of a British road bicycle racer named Arthur Linton. At the age of twenty four, he died during a race between Bordeaux and Paris in 1886. Controversy then soon arose when he was believed to have taken a stimulant called trimethyl at the time of his death.
Canadian track star Ben Johnson was denied his gold medal in the 1988 Olympics after he tested positive for anabolic steroids. This incident sparked worldwide attention to the extent of anabolic steroid use. To date, the International Olympic Committee has barred the use of seventeen anabolic steroids. Other organizations, including The National Football League, National Collegiate Athletic Association's International Amateur Athletic Federation, and the International Federation of Body Builders have followed suit. Athletes and non-athletes alike are still abusing anabolic steroids to excel in sports. Anabolic steroids belong to a group of androgenic drugs. They are synthetic derivatives of testosterone and other male hormones. Most healthy adult males produce 2-10 milligrams of testosterone per day. Females produce trace amounts of this hormone. The hormone helps the body retain dietary protein, which aids in the growth of muscles, bones, and skin. They can also affect aggressiveness and sex drive. Steroids tend to mimic testosterone's body building traits, while minimizing the masculine effect. The adrenal glands in women and young boys produce very little testosterone. It is the increase in the production of testosterone in young males that precipitates puberty. The anabolic effect of testosterone during puberty includes deepening of the voice, increasing muscle mass and strength, and decreasing body fat. All of this takes place without exercise or training. Anabolic steroids can be taken by injection, by mouth, by skin creams, or patches. Steroids are often taken in six to twelve week cycles. The dosage depends on the sport, as well as the perceived needs of the athlete. Depending on what they want to achieve, athletes control how they respond to the drug and the physiological effect it has on them. Athletes often take far higher doses of anabolic steroids than have been given for therapeutic use or in clinical studies. Some athletes use 10 to 100 times the amount their bodies produce. Anabolic steroids are primarily the result of research to develop drugs that would separate the tissue building capability of testosterone from its masculinizing properties. This separation has never been accomplished. By 1935, the basic nature of its anabolic and androgenic effects had been recognized by Dr. Charles Kochakian, who most experts consider the "Father of Steroids." He showed that a hormone-like extract from male urine stimulated a strong positive nitrogen balance in castrated dogs. A positive nitrogen balance indicated the synthesis of new tissue proteins in dogs and humans.
MacAuley, Domhnall. “Drugs in Sport.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, 313.7051, 7/27/96, 211. Online. EBSCOhost. 16 Nov. 1999. http://www.EBSCOhost.com.
In the world we live in today, some college athletes take certain substances to boost their physical body in hopes of taking their game to the next level. These substances are labeled as PED’s. PED’s is an acronym for performance enhancing drugs which to this day are illegal for not only college athletes but professional athletes as well. An athletes’ usage of performance enhancing drugs can affect many people. For example, we know that enhancing drugs will affect the athlete using them but the usage of PED’s can also effect the athlete’s teammates as well as the coaching staff. Failing a drug test due to performance enhancing drugs can result in a loss of a full year of eligibility with the first offense (Disalvo). Failing a second time can
In today’s society in athletics, muscle mass and strength seem more important than in years past. It is believed that many athletes use anabolic steroids to increase their muscle mass and also their strength. Anabolic steroids are a group of synthetic hormones that promote the storage of proteins and the growth of tissue, sometimes used by athletes to increase muscle size and strength. Before the mid 1970’s the use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) was used mainly by highly trained athletes especially those involved in weight training. Since then other athletes including those involved in recreational sports and non-competitive sports have started using the steroids. Steroids are also being used by many school age children especially those involved in sports in the schools. Everyone wants to be bigger, stronger, and faster and will do almost anything to gain this.
In the 1988 Summer Olympics, an unbelievable feat occurred. The feat happened during one of the premiere events, the 100 meter dash. The event was set up to be a great race between Carl Lewis of the United States and Ben Johnson of Canada. This did not happen. Ben Johnson blew away the field running a 9.79, a world record. Carl Lewis finished a distant second with a 9.88 ("Ben Johnson").
I had just finished facing my fears watching the metallic needle slip so seamlessly under my skin into the veins of my nervous, clammy hand. Hugging my Mom like it could have been the last time I saw her, seeing my dad's face stern and worried. I wheeled down the hall into this operating room, white was all I saw, a bed in the middle for the surgery to go down. As I lay on the bed waiting to be put under I remember seeing the blue masks of the people to be operating on me, I had to put all my trust in them, trusting someone you seen for less than 5 seconds with your life. Absolutely terrifying. The nurse slipping the fluid into my IV as I lay on my back looking up at the white ceiling, this cold sensations rushed over me. Then suddenly, I was out.
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite, and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids, one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced.
In 1935, German scientists developed anabolic steroids as a way to treat hypogonadism or testosterone deficiency. Through scientific experiment and studies the...
There are many controversies today on what should be allowed in sports. Many people have many different opinions about those controversies. The most important controversy would be whether or not steroids should be allowed in the sporting world. All sports have included tests that are mandatory for all players to participate in randomly whenever they are approached. The side effects of performance enhancing drugs are very serious and should never be ignored. As long as with the boost in performance that players experience when they use these medications also. The sport would never be the same and they would have to deal with a significant number of extra problems with the players and their health. Steroids make people perform way past human expectations, suffer from severe health problems that come from Side effects, and the sport will permanently be effected and therefore should not be allowed to be used.
Athletes are often pressured from an early age to be better than the rest. In sports such as football, baseball, basketball, and soccer, the need to be “great” is becoming a dominant factor in the world of sports. Regardless of which sport is chosen, the stigma to be great is slowly surpassing the main goal of sportsmanship among team players. With the notion that being great is the key; many athletes, both amateur and professional, are relying on steroids to help bring them to the top of their game. Steroid use can cause damaging effects to the body and preventing this may save the lives and careers of current and future students. This essay is written to explain the problems of steroids in sports and the solutions in which to help deter or stop this problem.
Every year high school, college, and professional athletes try to get just ?a little bigger,??a little stronger,? and to increase the amount of weights they lift by, ?just a few pounds.? To achieve these goals athletes often turn to anabolic steroids to aid them in achieving their goals. Anabolic steroids are a quick, but dangerous way to increase muscle mass, and they can carry many risks including some life threatening side affects. Years after taking steroids athletes can live to have serious heart problems, sterility, or possibly not even live, all because of foolish decisions they made in the past. These potentially fatal drugs are not widely known by young athletes at all, because they don?t know about the risks that can go along with them. In school, every student is taught about marijuana, cocaine,heroin, sex, liquor, and all those other health risks, but they?re never taught about ?roids? or ?juice.? (slang words for steroids) That should be changed, because it is known that student athletes often use steroids, not knowing the risks. Many times they take the risk because they hear about professional athletes taking steroids. But, despite their widespread use in sports, steroids can have more negative than positive effects on athletes of all types. Steroids are chemical substances that can be made naturally by the body or produced synthetically. There are many different types of steroids that are used for different things other than just athletes enhancing muscles. For example, there are types of steroids that can be used by women as birth control pills, and other types that are used for menopause treatment. The abuse of steroids is almost always found to be in the case of athletes, and that is the focus of this paper. ?All anabolic steroids are synthetic compounds whose molecular structure is similar to that of the natural male sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone affects development of the male body in two important ways: it has an anabolic effect - increases growth, especially of muscular and skeletal tissue - And an androgenic effect - increased development of male sexual characteristics. Anabolic steroids are constructed stythetically in such a way that they maximize the anabolic effect of testosterone while minimizing the androgenic effect.? The way that steroids work can easily be interpreted by a foo...
Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hop es of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity. This is why the search is now on to find some legal means of enhancing athletic per formance.
Since drugs have become easier to get they have also become more popular with young people and competitors in sports. During the mid-nineteenth new drugs emerged from the laboratories athletes started to be experimented on. The French tried using caffeine to enhance their performances. While other Europeans were mixing cocaine and heroin to give them extra energy they called this drug “speedball”. In 1886 this deadly mix contributed to the first drug related death in sports by taking the life of a cross-country cyclist. Today the drugs have changed dramatically many athletes have done or are on anabolic steroids, amphetamines, depressants or what are known as “ brake drugs”.
Doping is a practice that has been going on since the time of "ancient Greek athletes, who supposedly ate herbs, sesame seeds, dried figs, and mushrooms for this purpose" (Hoberman, 1992, 104). Likewise, athletes have readily consumed such drugs as caffeine and alcohol to improve performa...