“What have I done?” Jason questioned as he lay in a stretcher, IV in his wrist, ambulance screaming down the highway en route to the hospital. Jason, a former performance-enhancing drug user, was supposed to live to be 50 and see his children grow up, but at 40, the effects of those harmless pills meant to keep him in the game were finally taking their toll. Performance-enhancing drugs, also known as PEDs or steroids are pills, injections, or topical treatments taken for the purpose of boosting one’s energy level, increasing muscle mass, or one's athletic or physical performance. PEDs have been in use since the first Olympics in Ancient Greece but have skyrocketed in popularity since the 1970s due to popular demand for more exciting sporting …show more content…
According to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, USADA, these drugs are “extremely dangerous, and in certain situations, deadly.” This is an example of the dangers of steroids in an athlete’s body. PED cases such as Barry Bonds have gotten lucky in dodging the bullet, but others such as Miguel Tejada have never been the same. Steroids love to attack internal organs, the Health Research Organization reports that “For athletes that do decide to take steroids on a regular basis, 80% of them show some form of biochemical abnormalities of the liver during medical testing.” This proves that performance-enhancing drugs have an extremely high chance to chemically affect an important organ, the kidney. The dangerously high chance of internal damage or death after using these drugs leave athletes playing roulette with not only their athletic careers but their lives as well. The latter being something that athletes and their professional leagues and associations don’t want to gamble with. As many young, aspiring athletes idolize their professional counterparts, performance-enhancing drugs have grown in usage by many teens and high school athletes. For any young man or woman dreaming of making a living out of professional sporting, the superstars of their respective sports are always looked up to, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports by these role models has led many young athletes
Performance enhancing drugs have been a longstanding problem in sports. It not only deteriorates the honesty of the game, but also can have broader social affects that one may not even realize. The use of performance enhancing drugs is especially apparent in Major League Baseball. This problem can be traced back to the 1980’s when baseball was facing one of its first “dark periods”. During the 1980’s Major League Baseball was experiencing a home run drought. Home run totals were down as far as they had been since Babe Ruth, and fans were seemingly becoming bored with the sport. The lack of home runs was a growing concern for players whose salary relied on home run totals. Players needed to find a quick way to boost their power and performance in order to keep the sport alive and to keep bringing in their paychecks. This desire for fame and fortune introduced steroids into Major League Baseball in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Home run totals jumped tremendously during these decades and players were willing to risk being caught using illegal substances in order to shine above the rest. New idols and role models started to sprout up from these outstanding home run statistics and young children started to take notice. This all came tumbling down when these new idols and role models who were making the big bucks and hitting the ball out of the park tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Here lie the affects of a growing social problem in sports. These famed athletes become walking advertisements and promotions for the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. The influence professional athletes have over aspiring young athletes is very powerful and these roles models make it seem acceptable to use performance ...
The problems with performance enhancing drugs are that they give the user unfair advantages over other athletes and come with many health risks such as baldness. Steroid use can result in very substantial legal consequences and can ruin the user’s reputation. There are many alternatives to steroids but not all of them are safe. Different organizations have different rules on steroids, but in most cases, the user can get suspended, fined, or even both. Various types of steroids can have various short-term or long-term side effects. There are several types of steroids, the most popular ones being anabolic steroids. Historically, steroids have been around for many years, but the debate surrounding them started recently, more specifically a few decades ago. An important term to know is anabolic steroids which are made to work with the user’s muscle mass. Another term to know is clarified by Ida Walker, author of the book, Steroids: Pumped Up and Dangerous, published by Mason Crest Publishers in 2008, defines, peliosis hepatis is a rare condition in which cysts filled with blood form in the liver, if the cysts were to pop then internal bleeding would occur. A positive argument about steroids is stated by Adrianne Blue, author of the essay, “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legal,” published in the book Athletes and Drug Use, published in 2009, disputes, “Blue concludes that legalizing performance- enhancing drugs can protect athletes from dangerously abusing them.” The utilization of performance enhancing drugs has left a giant scar on sports and has compromised the achievements of many athletes; therefore, they are transforming the sports world into a drug filled world.
Steroids are ruining sports in the United States, and they are also going to ruin future athletes if the United States does not put a stop to it. Many young athletes in the United States are taking performance enhancing drugs because they see that professional athletes are doing it and getting results. These teenagers are using steroids because they want to look muscular and fit, but they are not aware of the negative effects steroids have on their bodies. Young athletes do not know that they are not only risking their careers but also their bodies. Steroids may make a person look muscular and fit, but at the same time, it is ruining their heart. Steroids also cause people to act differently and do foolish things like using other drugs. Parents can prevent steroid use by teaching their children about it at a young age and staying involved in their children’s sport lives. Steroids have ruined professional careers. They ruined Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds’ careers and almost ruined Alex Rodriguez’s career. Professional athletes use steroids to improve their performance which is cheating. The game is not fair if someone is performing better by using drugs, and everybody should be performing with what they got. There are many different ways to achieve what they want in fair and healthier way. Many high school athletes are using steroids in the United States. They are not doing it under a doctor’s supervision; therefore, they are ruining their bodies without them knowing. Many of these athletes are looking at the outcome only and not what there are doing to their bodies in addition to getting stronger, muscular, and fit. All governing sport bodies in the United States need to take steroid testing seriously and give at...
Human beings have always had a strong competitive nature, and many people have a inclination towards achieving fame and glory. Professional sporting events measure the great spirit, unique natural talents, and competitive nature of humans as they attempt to heroically represent the entire race. Often times humans search for the ultimate advantage in sports to put themselves above and beyond the other athletes. Unfortunately, some athletes turn to unnatural agents to supplement their own natural talents. They often ignore the side effects of the drugs and more importantly ignore the damage they do to how they are perceived and how people view the game. Athletes who use performance enhancing drugs, also known as PEDs, create a monstrous persona,
This article effectively communicates the idea to its audience, of how large of a problem the use of performance enhancing drugs has become in sports. Using logos mostly to persuade the reader, Sullivan conveys his position with multiple examples of how things have changed throughout the years and the possible negative effects that may arise in the future. The author presents a need for intervention, but also feels discouraged about the possibility of one happening in the near future, that doesn’t involve punishment by which he ends by stating “pass the syringe”(Sullivan 3), symbolizing defeat in the fight against illegal drugs.
The era in sports from the late 90s and into the 2000s has often been nicknamed “The Steroid Age” due to the raging use of anabolic steroids and other PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) by professional athletes. The usage of drugs in sports has never been more prevalent during this time, and many people are making it their goal to put an end to the abuse. Influential athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens, who were once held as the highest role models to the American people, now watch as their legacies are tarnished by accusations of drug use. The American population, and lovers of sports everywhere, have followed in astonishment through recent years as many beloved athletes reveal their dark secrets. As organizations such as the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) and BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) attempt to halt the use of PEDs, both the drug users and their high-end suppliers work diligently to avoid detection. The use of performance enhancing drugs in recent years has proven to be cancerous to the honesty and competition of modern sports. Although some strides have been made over the past few decades, the use of steroids is in full swing in Major League Baseball, The dangerous side effects of the drugs are often overlooked and many do not realize the message this sends to the youth. The support for halting the usage of PEDs is in need of attention or professional sports will face the loss of all progress made through the past two decades in its war on steroids.
You’ve all seen them, the enormously large muscle-heads at the gym, the participates of the World’s Strongest Man Competition, the amazing offensive tackles, and the lightning fast runners. They were all unnaturally strong, and looked like gods. You tend to obsess over how beautiful their bodies are, how strong they are, or how fast they can run. All you can think about is reaching that level of athletic excellence, and nothing will hold you back. At times like these some people tend to take the quick fit to get closer to their idols, in the form of steroids. But what individuals tend not see is the horrible side effects that accompany the use of these anabolic steroids. These powerful drugs have both positive and negative results from their use. Along with increased strength and size, users of steroids suffer from a wide range of sicknesses such as cancer, shrinkage of testicles, bad acne, hair loss, damage organs, intense mood swings, and impotence.
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.
Anabolic Steroids or simply put, “Steroids”, is a medicine which has become increasingly popular in the last few decades, specifically in the world of professional sports and body building. In a literal term, the word anabolic means building of the body muscle and by using anabolic steroids, the potential user becomes stronger, sharper, larger and tougher than he would normally be. The consequences of these steroids could be much bigger to a human body and the usage of such illegal products could put an individual’s body at great risk (Haupt & Rovere, 1983).
The intent of this essay is to show that steroids have many negative effects and that steroids, and other natural supplements, should be closely studied by the FDA. This essay will also support the claim that the professional sports industry needs to eliminate steroid use and set a good example for younger athletes.
My issue over the concern of athletes have been struggling with the usage of steroids has widely spread among athletes and others; not only do steroids give an athlete a hard times but it’s also an unfair advantage to the other athletes and what they’ve accomplish. “Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the amount of muscle damage during the session” (“Steroids in Sports”,2005). Now a days steroids are everywhere as an athlete. Many males and female young athletes preferably take it because they want to look and feel good when it comes to impressing someone and trying to become someone they look forward too. Young teens and adults try to cheat themselves in the career of their dreams. When it comes to a sport, teen athletes are not aware of what type of consequences may happen to them at the time. It may come to the time where it’s too late to take care of. In other cases, some athletes may like feeling the aggressive they get when they take drugs such as steroids. Athletes shouldn’t take steroids as the harmful health effects of the anabolic steroid in population wise. Many people have had their lives ruined by the use of illegal steroids and yet the desired effects are overwhelming that people tend to forget about the results and consequences that may effect. Athletes on steroids believe taking steroids will enhance their performance, strength, and size without having to put necessary work. These benefits, however, are associated with much short-term and long term risk.
Many Athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to become a professional. One of the easiest ways to enhance natural ability is through performance-enhancing drugs or, PEDs. PEDs are substances used by athletes to increase their performance. The use of PEDs in athletic competition can date back to ancient Greece. Athletes use PEDs to run faster, jump higher and recover at an increased pace. Many athletes are pressured into using PEDs by coaches or managers and are not thoroughly educated the harmful health issues that can come along with taking performance-enhancing drugs. A rising issue is if performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports. I believe that in any professional sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes should continue to be banned because this rule will help to keep athletes from abusing these harmful drugs.
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.
In all professional sports in the United States, the use of PEDs are prohibited. However, there is only one acceptation to that rule. If an athlete is injured, prescriptions to certain drugs which are used in recover are allowed. These drugs may consist of certain chemicals that enhance muscle grow. Some athletes have used this to their advantage and have got prescriptions to these drugs for their own personal benefits, will other athletes are using it for recreational purposes. This, however, is not the only way to obtain PEDs; there are also other ways such as buying them from an underground market. Athletes with the intention to cheat will take the risk of using PEDs, since if they are successful they will achieve fame and money.
Overall it is clear that the need to use performance enhancing drugs is outweighed by the consequences and issues caused by performance enhancing drugs. Sporting events such as the world cup, the Olympics or the World Series make young children feel inspired and encouraged about what they could achieve through dedication and hard work. I feel it is important for the sporting industry as well as the athletes to return respectability to the sport. By