Sports Supplements
Athletes are competitive. They go out there to win. But, at all costs? Why are athletes willing to sacrifice their long term health in order to have one outstanding season? Will it be worth it when they are hooked up to machines in order to stay alive? Many athletes do not think that taking a supplement will harm them. They are strong, tough athletes, nothing can harm them, right? So, they start taking creatine or andro, or both. For most, they lose body fat, gain strength and muscle. That sounds great, but that is not always what happens. The use of over-the-counter sports supplements is dangerous and the FDA should take them off the shelf.
Supplements are supposed to be taken to make up for a deficiency in some aspect of a person’s diet. For example, if someone does not like milk and does not eat any foods that contain calcium, they could take a calcium supplement. But, athletes use supplements to lose body fat and gain muscle and strength. Once favored primarily by gung-ho body builders, products that purportedly add muscle and increase strength are now being snapped up by weekend athletes hoping to stay in top form, as well as older adults wanting to stay toned and healthy as they age. These sports supplements are not being used correctly, and this causes problems down the road for users. There are many different types of supplements.
Creatine monohydrate, generally known as creatine is a popularly used supplement. Creatine occurs naturally in muscles, but many athletes or body builders take it to increase their strength and size. When using muscles, a chemical called ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) is broken down into ADP (adenosine DI-phosphate) and an inorganic phosphate. The release of the phosphate is what gives the muscles energy. Creatine, the naturally occurring kind, or the kind that comes in a jar, combines with phosphate and can restore ADP back to ATP. Theoretically, this means more energy. But it does not come without a price. The manufacturers and advertisers for Creatine tell people they should use the product because muscles contain an average of 3.5 to 4 grams of naturally occurring creatine per kilogram of muscle. They say the good news is that up to 5 grams may be stored. So, by using their product, you can use your full potential of muscle energy. Basically what the company is telling you is to pay an outrageous a...
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...ing dangerous supplements. Michelle Smith de Bruin of Ireland won three gold medals in the Atlanta Olympics. Quite an accomplishment? Maybe if she had done it without the use of andro. She was banned from swimming for four years because of it. She ended up appealing the drug charges, but was not taken seriously because she spiked her urine sample with alcohol. In the end, she retired from swimming. The use of androstenedione is banned in almost every proffesional sport, the NCAA, and the Olympics, but not in professional baseball. There needs to be a unifrom drug policy throughout all sports, not just certain ones.
The use of sports supplements such as androstenedione or creatine is dangerous, and these drugs should require a prescription to obtain. The people who are using them are misinformed about the side effects that they might have. Athletes are willing to sacrifice their health and well being by taking androstenedione or creatine, in order to perform outstandingly for one season. The United States and the professional sports organizations need to tighten up legislation reguarding these drugs. If nothing is done about this, many people will develop serious medical problems.
Professional athletes, throughout history, have been exalted for their outstanding abilities and achievements in sports. Unfortunately, many athletes have turned to anabolic steroids in order to give them an edge, a boost their athletic performance. Starting with the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships, where the Soviets unexpectedly dominated their lifting classes with the use of steroids, it has become increasingly popular among athletes to cheat with the help of this drug. Although the appeal to steroid use is evident when observing how it increases someone’s athletic abilities, many users fail to consider the detrimental side effects of the drug. Also, in my opinion, athletes should be expected to perform based upon their natural abilities, opposed to abilities enhanced by anabolic steroids. Ultimately, anabolic steroids should continue to be illegal in professional sports due to their major health risks and the unfair advantage they serve players.
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.
Bill Romanowski, Shannon Sharpe, and Mark McGwire, are just a few of the professional athletes that use and endorse fitness supplements such as Androstendione, Creatine, and other products. Every on camera interview that you see Shannon Sharpe he is wearing an EAS mock turtleneck. EAS is one of the leading manufacturers of Creatine and other supplements. The hottest supplement in Hollywood is Ephedrine; an herbal based drug designed to increase fat loss. Why do so many athletes use supplements? Who is using the supplements? How can I get supplements? Those are a few of the questions I have tried to answer in this report. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to educate. To educate not only the athletes using the supplements such as Creatine and Ephedrine but to also educate the governing bodies of collegiate sports. Answers were sought to the following questions: 1. Who is using Creatine and/or Ephedrine based products? 2. Why are they using supplements? 3. Are these products easily available? 4. Should the NCAA increase regulations on supplemental usage? Methods and procedures used to formulate this report I used primary and secondary research methods. I used the Internet as a focal point for my research. There were many sites devoted strictly to supplement usage and education on subjects related to the supplements, Creatine and Ephedrine. I also used muscle magazines and books for research. For primary research I gave forty questionnaires (see appendix 2) to twenty women and twenty men from Husson College.
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.
Primarily lifters and athletes take creatine to get ahead of the competition. In an article written by Nancy Ling, she mentions how in the Olympic games from 1964-1994 Soviet Union powerlifters consumed creatine to get an edge on the competition and had great success from it. ("Creatine? Is It Worth the Risk?"). Also in the article, Nancy stressed the importance of taking the correct amount of creatine because it can help prevent kidney and liver problems. On the other side, consuming creatine can be dangerous if you are prone to having seizures, blood clots, or cardiac
As writers from Wellness FX.com stated: “Several pre-workouts have been banned because they contained substances known to increase the risk of: heart attacks, bleeding of the brain, and even death” (WellnessFX Team). The ingredients used in most pre-workout mixes can be very dangerous to major organs; especially the liver, kidneys, and heart. Creatine is the best example of a drug that has only been claimed to be a safe way to gain lots of muscle mass.
year (Debate), the competition for playing time has become more heated. Most male athletes in any sports these days are looking for any sort of edge that they can get over the people who are fighting for the same spot they are. These battles for playing time become so heated that these kids are willing to try just about anything to win. Most kids are not willing to try anything illegal like steroids, but something very similar to steroids is a supplement called creatine. Creatine is now the most widely used supplement in athletics today (Debate).
Creatine has been used in sports throughout time. Athletes have always had a fascination with being excellent at what they do. With the banning of steroids from competitive sports and the implementation of random drug testing in most sports, most athletes are still somehow hoping to gain an edge on their competition. This edge that they are using is creatine.
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.
Are young athletes being pushed too far to always perform at higher and higher expectations? Taking vitamins are highly recommended by doctors, but there are some supplements that are illegal for use in high school sports. New pre-workout supplements cause new high school drug policies, research into both the active ingredients and short/long term effects of these products. These pre-workouts are this generation’s steroids and can have side effects that are just as dangerous. Their purpose is to provide you with a burst of quick and long lasting energy, increased blood flow, muscle growth, and faster recovery periods. Their popularity is growing faster than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can research them and provide more information on what these products truly do to your body, such as whether they are actually safe for young adult athletes to use.
from all sports. They assume creatine is not natural, harmful to the body and unfair in
Much to athletes' delight, a new promising product, creatine, has recently appeared on the market. Creatine is a substance found in meats and synthesized by the human body but the latest craze is over artificially made creatine. Many athletes take it in hopes of increasing their strength, speed, or endurance. Althoug h the initial results of creatine testing were very positive, showing potential to help athletes increase their strength and speed, new evidence shows that creatine is not as perfect of a nutritional supplement as it once appeared to be. Creatine supplementation is now being linked to several hazardous side effects in the body and even its effectiveness has come into question. The use of creatine supplements by athletes is a dangerous wa y to enhance performance and should be regulated or banned.
The sellers of creatine and androstenedione (pronounced androe-steen-die-own) make these sorts of claims although there are no long-term studies of the effectiveness or safety of these drugs. Nevertheless, retailers can’t keep them on the shelves. Their popularity has been aided by high profile athletes. Both drugs are chemicals naturally produced in the body and found in minute amounts in food, mostly red meat. But that is where the similarities end.
Every athlete dreams of becoming the best player in their sport. For most athletes, this dream was created in their childhood watching their favorite player perform at great levels to achieve success. Most athletes will stop at anything to achieve success, even if that means breaking the rules. An athlete whether the biggest, fastest, or strongest, will always look for something that will give them and extra edge over everybody else, even if that means performance enhancing drugs. With new records being broken day by day, I believe performance-enhancing drugs should be legal in all professional sports.
Dietary supplements can be a good thing to use but they aren't always what they say they are. They are used by over half of all Americans and those people normally take a multivitamin or protein supplements after their workouts. In fact, whey protein is the most supplied dietary supplements among all Americans. People would also say that supplements are helpful when they become older in age, but then those people who believe supplements do not work at all. What they don't know is that if individuals take too much or too many supplements, it could hurt them and not benefit these people.