Although most people recognize the term “performance enhancing drugs” as a reference to anabolic steroids, the term actually refers to a wide variety of different drugs used to increase strength, commonly found in athletics. Although these drugs appear to work great at first, they damage your body in multiple ways with their many harmful side effects. Not to mention, they are also illegal to use in the United States without a prescription from a doctor. If somebody is found to have used performance enhancing drugs while playing a sport either collegiate or professionally they will be punished accordingly, usually in the form of fines, suspensions, or even expulsion from the league. Not to mention that person will now be looked down upon by their peers for the use of these drugs, as they are considered a form of cheating. Even some of the greatest sports legends can have their legacies tarnished by scandals such as the use of performance enhancing drugs.
The most common type of performance enhancing drug is formally known as anabolic-androgen steroids. Most people know them as steroids, but other common slang names include “juice” or “roids”. The usage of steroids is also known as “doping”. Steroids main function is to mimic the naturally occurring hormone testosterone. Testosterone helps cells with process of protein synthesis. As a result of protein synthesis the cellular tissue builds up, especially in muscles. Although also found in females, testosterone is found at a much higher level in males as it also helps advance certain male characteristics. Steroids were first developed in the 1930’s and have many legal medical uses. Steroids are used to help people with medical issues such as bone or muscle strength probl...
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...” will prevail eventually. Later in their life their use of these drugs will have an effect on their health. With information being available to the public about the harm of performance enhancing drugs now more than ever, there should be a drop in the amount of people abusing these drugs. The key to being a great athlete is similar to being great at anything else. There are no shortcuts; the only way to get there is through hard work, determination, and the will to be the best you can possibly be.
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroids#Routes_of_administration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance-enhancing_drugs
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/performance-enhancing-drugs/HQ01105
http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_ster1.php
http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/derek4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Report_%28baseball%29
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.
First of all, what are steroids? “Steroids are a group of compounds derived from testosterone or produced synthetically to stimulate tissue repair and body growth”. Although the word steroids automatically translate into a form of sports and physical fitness abuse in our brains, it is not always used for such and it is not always the case. Steroids are used in many ways besides physical endurance, strength, speed and the ability to perform longer. “In general society, firefighters and police officers use them to better handle the daily rigors of their jobs. Bouncers and military personal use them to better prepare their bodies for combat”. For daily life people steroids are helpful and can be beneficial for the type of career or job that they have. It can help them perform jobs that require their maximum potential in order to save the lives of other people.
There are many types of steroids abused by athletes in order to increase their muscle mass and strength. Though steroids have a negative reputation, there are some that can be beneficial to athletes and certain patients. There are types of steroids called corticosteroids that have more medical uses to them and another type called anabolic-androgenic steroids that have a more limited medical use. The anabolic-androgenic are usually the steroids that are being abused by athletes (Bigelow, par.10). The use of steroids goes back to the end of World War II around the 1940’s. Doctors were giving the freed prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps that were at risk of death anabolic-androgenic steroids to help gain back their muscle mass and weight faster. From this knowledge, steroids began to be used by body builders and athletes to get more fit than they already were. It is believed that the abuse of the steroids started in the late 1940’s by weight lifters and bodybuilders, and by the 1950’s, it was spread to the Olympics (Bigelow, par.11). Any type of steroid should not be used if they are only going to be abused by being used in large doses with the intentions of increasing lean muscle mass and strength (Bigelow, par.11). After years of abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids in the Olympics they were added to the list of banned substances and random testing of athletes were announced to start taking place (Bigelow, par.35).
Performance enhancing drugs are not fair in sports. First off, they are a form of cheating. Most athletes work in the weight room and sacrifice their time. They work hard to use their natural talents and abilities, PED’s give the players an undeserved and unfair edge over his or her peers. “It is not fair to those that are naturally talented or work hard to remain in shape for another to come in and take the spotlight because they have decided to take the easy route” says a individual from Debate.Org. Along with giving the player a trump card, so to speak, it gives the whole team an advantage. Therefore, the whole team or organization is now cheating! “Hard workouts can not have the same benefits as PED’s, this makes the users have an advantage.”
When people think of sports, people might wonder if the greatest people in sports used performance-enhancing drugs.
In all areas of sports, professional, college, and even high school, there is widespread illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. Although there are many reasons for athletes to choose to use these drugs, the cost of such use, both to the athlete and to society can be extraordinarily high. It is important to understand why performance-enhancing drugs are used and what are the consequences of their use to the athlete and society.
Steroid is a name given to drugs that are manufactured from testosterone, a reproductive hormone found in men. Some athletes normally use anabolic steroids because these drugs improve one’s capacity to compete and train, yielding high results. Steroids work by reducing exhaustion during training, and also reduce the length of time an athlete needs to recover from exhaustion. In addition, steroids enable the growth of tissues and muscles in an athlete’s body by instructing the body to produce extra proteins. During the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, the first rumors of athletes using steroids emerged. The problem of athletes using steroids was again reported in 1954 during weight lifting championships. The Soviet athletes recorded a very impressive performance at all levels of weight lifting. Later on, the team’s physician admitted that the Soviet athletes were being injected with testosterone in order to increase their muscle mass and strength after being questioned about how they achieved their success. WHO (World Health Organization) in 1968 was the first party to complain about incidents of athletes using steroids, these sentiments were later backed by IOC (International Olympic Committee). This paper is going to give reasons why professional athletes should not be allowed to use steroids (Yesalis 25).
Steroids (anabolic) are a drug that was discovered and made by medical scientists in the last 1930’s to help with medical problems. The drug was made to help with many medical problems such as testosterone, growth, sexual functioning, and other medical problems such as helping people with HIV to help grow musical. It also helps with many other diseases. Like any other drug on the market people learn that the drug can be used for many other ways. Steroids can enhance athlete’s performance as well as bodybuilders and is used in almost every sport out there. The use of steroids has become a widespread problem. Steroid use has caused many help problems with the misuse of the drug and has caused the drug to be illegal for people to use them in any kind of sport. Steroids are only prescribed for people that need them for medical problems only.
Anabolic Steroids have been apart of America for over half a century and continue to be a very controversial subject. I believe that further research needs to be done on steroids in order to have medical proof that can detour people from using this illegal substance or to prove that it is not harmful if used properly so that it may be made legal and people be given a choice. To understand why more studies must be done before we just put a lid on the subject many things must be made clear and free of propaganda from both pro and anti steroid speakers.
Throughout the history of athletics, athletes have searched for ways to make themselves better, faster, and stronger. Steroid use is one of the most popular choices among these athletes. Steroids are synthetic hormones that produce specific physiological effects on one's body and have been used since the 1930s (Center for Substance Abuse Research). Although the German Scientists who discovered steroids did not intend to use it for body building or to create better athletes, steroid use has developed into a controversial subject concerning the health of users and other moral issues. The use of steroids in athletics is physically and morally wrong because it essentially promotes the deterioration of the health of athletes and unfair competition among these athletes.
Steroids have been used by many athletes. They take them because they think that it will improve their playing performance. They also feel that it builds lean muscle mass and reduces fat. Some athletes sometimes take two or more steroids at a time. They believe that taking two different drugs will give them double the strength and muscle mass than just one.
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
In sports many people think it is ok to use Performance Enhance Drugs to be the best player of all time.Performance Enhance Drugs are substances used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. For example, Bruce Irvin the defensive end with the seattle seahawks,and Daryl Washington the linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals. It is not just football players , baseball players also like, Cody Stanley from the St. Louis Cardinals. Many people use them, but the end up getting caught and suspended from playing.You are basically cheating your way to fame.People should not use drugs in a sport to become better because,These drugs have an effect on having a long term of health, could lead to overdose, and if you get caught you most
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.
Today, drug use in sport has reached enormous proportions in society and is destroying athletics from the ground up. Nowhere is the problem more serious than in professional athletics, where athletes, coaches and trainers misuse drugs in search of ways of ways to improve performance. Many athletes fail to take their time when making the decision whether to use drugs to their advantage. Unfortunately athletes may use drugs for therapeutic indications, recreatio9nal or social reasons, as muscular aids or to mask the presence of other drugs during drug testing. But the safety of the athlete's health is being neglected. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths and suspensions of athletes. Also, if this continues all athletes someday will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance...