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Ephedrine use in sports
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Unfair for Ephedra?
On June 24 at 10:10 a.m. a Baltimore Orioles pitcher named Steve Bechler died at North Ridge Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The team physician attributed his death to a heat stroke from the symptoms he saw such as an elevated body temperature of 108 degrees and major organ failure (Mileur pars. 2-3). However, as his death was investigated and his corpse was examined more closely a medical examiner said that Bechler’s use of an herbal supplement called ephedra was a large causal factor to his death (Mileur, par. 4). What is this mysterious herb that has caused such controversy among doctors and physicians? Does it warrant the strict and severe penalties for possessing it that have recently emerged? Should it be available to enhance the performance of professional and pre-professional athletes everywhere? Ephedra is a notorious supplement that has not been thoroughly researched enough to know its effects and cannot be safely administered to athletes or any person of the general population.
Ephedra is a substance that has recently been banned in the United States. The compound ephedra contains ephedrine, a substance “used to relieve nasal congestion originating from allergic conditions, e.g., hay fever, or from bacterial or viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. It may be used as well to raise blood pressure” (“Ephedrine”). Because of its ability to raise blood pressure and increase the metabolism, it has been widely produced and advertised as a weight loss supplement (“Ephedrine”). It has also been used “in the production of methamphetamine”, an illegal drug that affects the brain (“Ephedrine”). The adverse side effects and certain people’s unhealthy reactions to the herb caused it to fall under the careful scrutiny of the United States Food and Drug Administration. On February 6th, 2004, the FDA banned the supplement stating, “We have concluded that dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids pose a risk of serious adverse events, including heart attack, stroke, and death, and that these risks are unreasonable in light of any benefits that may result from the use of these products” (par. 2). At this point, the ban still exists on ephedra and any product containing the substance.
Even though ephedra has been banned, what are its effects upon athletes? Can it really produce a heightened and more skilled performance and can that merit its existence on the market? In one study, researchers “found that a combination of caffeine and ephedrine significantly improved male subjects’ time to exhaustion when compared with male subjects who consumed a placebo” (Antonio 17).
In addition to the reports about the positive aspects of ephedrine, harmful side affects have also been declared. It can alter emotions causing aggressiveness or anxiety that can lead an individual to a risk of personal injury. Other harmful side effects include an increased heart rate and blood pressure possibly leading to dehydration and decreased circulation. Long term more serious effects that these conditions can lead to include cerebral hemorrhage, strokes, or heart irregularities (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/ephedrine-final.htm). Some serious dangers such as death have been related to the use of ephedrine. For this reason, regulatory action on this herb is being considered. The herb has been discovered to be the beginning ingredient in methamphetamine laboratories for the product of the illegal stimulant drug (http://www.smartbasic.com/glos.herbs/ephedra.html. Other abuses of this herb have also been reported causing death.
Most drugs can be put into one of the five categories of performance enhancing drugs. Anabolic Steroids are mainly strength builders. They can be available in forms that flush out of your system within a few hours. The most popular of these drugs is the synthetic testosterone. Most people have a one to one ratio of testosterone and epitosterone. Few people have elevated levels of three to one, while the Olympics allow up to a six to one ratio4. According to the Olympic Guidelines, you could take this drug up to the six to one ratio and still participate in the games with the contenders that don't take anabolic steroids. They can't really discourage this because this is still following the guidelines. Another category is EPO, which stands for Erythropoietin. Erythropoietin regulates red blood cell production. The red blood cells deliver the oxygen to the muscles and organs of the body. EPO is mostly used by the long distance runners because of its endurance enhancing qualities.
Kuhn, C., Swartzwelder, S., and Wilson, W. Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training. 2000. W.W. Norton, New York and London.
When athletes take androstenedione, it gives them an unfair advantage over other athletes. No one will ever know if Mark McGwire or any other athletes could have done their achievements without taking andro. "The International Olympics Committee, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and in the Men and Women's Tennis Tours banned androstenedione due to the fact that it is unsafe and gives an unfair advantage" (Totheroh). It is still legal, though, in Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. If it is going to be banned in some sports, it should be banned in all. Since there are many different opinions of the committees, it is obvious that athletes are confused and are pushing the limits of performance improvements.
Credibility material: Its intake results in adverse medical conditions that are further exalted by its addiction properties that ensure a continued intake of the substance. The drug can be abused through multiple means and is medically recorded to produce short-term joy, energy , and other effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. This ultimately results in numerous psychiatric and social problems; factors that played a major role in its illegalization after multiple and widespread cases of its effects were reported in the country during the 1900s. In addition to this, the drug results in immediate euphoric effect, a property which the National Institute of Drug Abuse (2010) attributes to be the root cause for its increased po...
This process, according to numerous researchers, is an even greater danger when combined with caffeine, which is found in most ephedra-containing supplements.
Brecher, Edward M. (1972) Licit and Illicit Drugs; The Consumers Union Report on narcotics, stimulants, depressants, inhalants, Hallucinogens, and marijuana- including caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. New York, 291-390
The use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs is a common trend that is currently fascinating athletes all over the world. Athletes who are using these drugs are damaging the sport and harming their bodies at the same time. Seeking a greater athletic physique and ability, athletes turned to the use of steroids. Once the dangers and possible health risks arose, athletes then turned to performance enhancers. Two specific supplements have taken the sports world by storm and now are being used by athletes of all ages. They are androstenedione and creatine. It took years until people began to understand how dangerous steroids really were. These performance enhancers, like androstenedione and creatine are going to produce the same results.
Methamphetamine created in 1919 in Japan. It went into wide use for both sides during World War II and it was especially used by Japanese pilots before their flights. Once the war was over, leftover storage of Methamphetamine went public resulting in extremely high amounts of abuse with this drug. During the 1950’s this drug was used as a diet aid and was also used in the thought that it helped to fight depression. It was also over used by college students, truck drivers, and athletes because of its easy availability. This pattern increased remarkably in the 1960’s when this drug became more available in an injectable form. The United States Government in the 1970’s made Meth, for most uses, illegal which then resulted in Mexican drug trafficking organizations to set up large labs in California. Today most of this drug that is available comes from Thailand, Myanmar, and China. (History of Methamphetam...
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...
One major issue that affects the US today is the use of illegal drugs. One of the fastest growing illegal drugs is methamphetamine. Methamphetamine, also known commonly as meth, is "the label given to a homemade substance that is manufactured (typically) in rural labs using fertilizers, cold tablets, and household acids" (Armstrong, 2007, p. 427). When it is manufactured, it is commonly seen as a powder or crystal that is white in color, has no distinguishable odor, and is pungent to the taste (McKinley & Fink III, 2006). There are several means by which meth can be consumed. This can include the product being smoked, inhaled, swallowed, or injected by needles (McKinley & Fink III, 2006 & O’Connor, Chriqui, & McBride, 2006).
Today the sports world is being overtaken by performance enhancing drugs. Steroids have been around for many years, and yet people are still using these drugs to be the best they can be, when they know that it is unfair to the athletes that are not using these drugs. Steroids have many effects such as androgenic effects, but can also create easy muscle building due to the testosterone put into the drug. “Brown-Sequard injected himself with an extract from the testes of guinea pigs and dogs. In 1889, he reported to the scientific community in Paris that these extracts increased his strength and alertness” (“Freedman, 8”). “Synthetic anabolic steroids, the same anabolic steroids we have available today have been used in competitive sports since the 1950's,
Performance-enhancing drugs are commonly used amongst athletes who compete in sports. These substances enhance the performance of the user, which makes them to be stronger, faster and allows them recover from training quicker than an average person. These drugs are illegal in competitive sports and are considered cheating by many people. There have been number incidents in the past and recently where athletes have been caught using these prohibited substances and has suffered consequences. This report is a collation of all the information gathered from websites, journals, news articles, documentaries, movies, interviews and surveys, which discuss the risks involved when taking these drugs, and the reason why athletes take these drugs, whether they take it for the sole purpose of winning, wealth or fame.
Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user.
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...