The Dangers of Enhancing Drugs in Sports

The Dangers of Enhancing Drugs in Sports

From basketball to football to gymnastics, enhancing drugs have changed the face of sports as we know it. Performance enhancement drugs, like anabolic steroids, may help athletes perform better by giving them greater muscle strength; however, these athletes may not realize that these illegal drugs are highly dangerous. Is it rally worth risking ones life or health just to win that game or medal?

Performance enhancing drugs are substances that are used to increase certain physiologic functions. These drugs affect muscle strength, endurance, the ability to pump blood, the ability to breathe, liver function and kidney function. Taking these substances help athletes with their performance, which enables them to do better in competition. Performance enhancing drugs range in many types from dietary supplements to steroids.

The most common enhancing drugs are the anabolic steroids, which include testosterone, and its precursors; androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. Dentalplans.com had an article breaking down the process of how steroids work:

Anabolic means we build up tissue. So, we as we eat protein, we get more

muscle. If we inject steroids that are anabolic, we hold on to that protein

and our muscle mass grows; we get stronger. The normal response to

running or weightlifting might be to grow muscles and become stronger

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to a degree. But to add anabolic steroids to that recipe, so the muscle get

bigger or stronger, is unnatural and there can be hazards from doing that.

When taking these drugs, they are consumed orally or by injection. I guess you could say one would not have to be afraid of needles, that or grin and bare it; athletes will go to major extremes to get to that certain strength.

Speaking of athletes, what athletes are taking these dangerous drugs? Savulescu (2004), states that enhancing drugs have been dated back to the late 1800's and the first official ban on "stimulating substances" was introduced in 1928, by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. He also goes on to state that performance enhancing drugs have been used as early as the games of the third Olympiad by Thomas Hicks. It is amazing to me that an illegal drug so dangerous, causing so much harm, being used still to this day by gymnast, baseball players, weightlifters, and other athletes. Barry Bonds, a well known baseball player, a few years ago on trial for the use of steroids and many other well known athletes being exposed for their use of steroids.

One may take the side of the United States and say if it were not for the use of enhancing drugs our country may not have one that medal; if it were not for the steroids, our favorite baseball team would not have one that big game; or if it were not for the enhancing drug that