Steroids

What does it mean to be a champion? Marion Webster defines it as one who shows marked superiority. Many other people define a champion as being the best, the “king of the mountain”. Do we not know how that game works though? Everyone else tries to knock that person off the top of his or her game. For a lot of athletes this means hard work and dedication over many years. However, others do not want to take the time or the effort for the results they desire. Athletes can take a shot in the arm or swallow a couple of little pills to get the desired result. Whatever it takes to be the best, some athletes will do it. I am talking about performance enhancing drugs or most commonly known as steroids. Sometimes more commonly called “juice” or “roids”. Steroids are synthetically produced variants of the natural occurring male hormone, testosterone. Steroids have two main effects on the body whether the user is male or female. One effect is androgenic, meaning the development of male characteristics, deep voice and baldness. The other effect that steroids have on the body is anabolic, which is the muscle building effect of the drug. The quick fix, the one reason that everyone is drawn to them. There are three main patterns of abuse associated with taking steroids. The first is cycling or alternating periods of use. This means that you would take the steroids for one week then cycle off for one week, and this process keeps repeating itself. The second pattern is stacking or using two or more different types of steroids at a time. The third is pyramiding or progressively increasing and then decreasing doses and types of steroids. Which ever way an athlete decides to take anabolic steroids, no long term positives can come if it. There are just too many disadvantages of steroids. However steroids have been proven beneficial in medicine. One of the most prevalent is male hormone replacement in aging men(Robert Dvorchak 2005), steroids can also be used in AIDS patients and in osteoporosis treatment. Depending on the type of steroid and the way it is used determines the end result of the product.

The idea of athletes taking performance enhancing foods or made up concoctions can be dated all the way back to the time of the Greeks (David Mottram). It was Galen, who in 668 BC was the first person to report athletes using stimulants to enhance their performance. The ancient Egyptians where said to have used a special drink made from the hooves of asses that they boiled in then flavored in rose petals and rose hips, to improve their performance. Roman gladiators where also said to have used stimulant to increase their power and maintain energy levels after injury (Donahoe and Johnson, 1986). Athletes have been trying to find a magic potion throughout history. Today’s athletes are simply just following history. Over the years people wanting to increase their performance took anything that made them feel “alive”. There were such concoctions as strychnine and caffeine to cocaine and heroin. It was not until the 1860’s that athletes using drugs to increase performance was recorded. A group of athletes in Amsterdam were charged with using drugs to increase their speed. It was in 1935 that the steroid that we know today was first created by a group of chemist. They developed synthesized testosterone to use on the German soldiers and give them an advantage on the battlefield. In the 1940’s synthesized testosterone became widely used in competitive sports. The positive effects really came through in the 1952 Olympics when the Russian weight lifting team dominated the games that year. During the 1950’s scientist around the world started working on better drugs that the athletes could get more use out of. In 1958 and US pharmaceutical company produced the first anabolic steroid. Early uses of this new “wonder drug” were mainly restricted to football players, track and field competitors, and body builders. Athletes who relied heavily on just brute strength. It was in the 1970’s that athletes who relied on speed found out about the benefits of steroids. These athletes found that they could train harder and longer while use these substances because steroids help repair muscle tear faster. The major factor in building muscle strength. It was also in the 1970’s that doctors started to really see the effects of steroids and publish these finding to the general public. That, although did not hinder there use in professional and amateur sports. Steroids became more and more popular through out the 1980’s and 1990’s with bodybuilders, football players and you also started see more use in baseball. It was also in the 1990’s when steroid use was reaching the height of its popularity that the government made possession of anabolic steroids illegal. Today steroids are still as popular as ever and law enforcement and athletic committees are trying there