Should the Use of Steroids Among Competitive Athletes Be Allowed?

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Should the use of steroids among competitive athletes be allowed?

Are athletes healthy who use steroids?  You ask, well I believe they aren’t really healthy. Nothing in a steroid does the body good all it does is harm the body and in the end you are left with the side effects. Modern day steroids are more effective than they were back in the 1930s because a lot of them have been more researched and modified to help people with illnesses. Professional sports still use them today mostly in baseball but the real question is can professional sports be possible without steroids? Well look at all these professional basketball players who get drug tested and still get out there and do their best without the drug. To legalize the drug in sports should never be available due to the fact that there are so many professional athletes out there who really should make it to the hall of fame for really playing the sport without having to use drugs to help them, preform better.

The human body is a natural born competitive species. Anabolic steroids also known as synthetic hormones have the ability to boost the human body’s capability in helping produce muscles and to prevent them from breaking down. Back in the ancient times around 1849 Arnold Adolph Berthold began doing experiments with birds and testicles. He did many experiments with the birds even by inserting the testicles into the abdomen which he came into a discovery that testicles run in correlation with the blood. In the 1930s thanks to Berthold a German chemist began by being able to purify the hormone androstenone using urine. Leopold Ruziicka also a fellow chemist of Berthold made a synthesized hormone for human use. In 1939 both colleagues received the Nobel Prize due to anabolic steroid science. The Soviet Union was one of the first groups to use anabolic steroids in the 1940s. Right after the Soviet Union began using it so did the Olympics. The U.S. Olympics found a way to produce a drug called methadrostenolone also known as Dianabol. A pharmaceutical company by the name of Ciba put the drug on the market and the FDA approved it in 1958. Germany began to peak with all of its anabolic research making them the best in sports. During the 1960s and 1980s the anabolic expansion began making new and improved steroids available every year on shelves of all drug stores. In 1967 the international Olympic council came up with a drug test to monitor testosterone levels. Of course the Germans had a backup plan to make sure they could keep taking testosterone by developing a synthetic drug to make sure they had levels in the IOC guidleines. Steroids have further developed in so many ways that now you can take them by needle, pill form, skin application and having it planted under the skin. A lot of them are illegal and sold on a black market. The popularity of performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids has substituted some products in order for people to achieve their goals. No matter the banning of steroids by various sports, steroid abuse is still the problem despite the drug being illegal.

Steroids have been banned without a prescription and are commonly used to treat: anemia, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and endometriosis just to name a few. Most doctors recommend the patient take 1 to 5 mg per day for legitimate medical uses. The use of steroids for athletic performance has been sanctioned due to the side effects and the drug abuse it can cause. Steroids do increase muscle bulk, strength, and endurance but, does not athletic skill or cardiovascular capacity. While doing steroids yon can encounter so many side effects like acne, weight gain, high blood pressure, yellowing of the skin causing liver damage, stunted growth, and an increased risk to develop heart disease just to  name a few. While taking steroids it is always good to make sure you are being safe and effective. When using a needle to inject the drug all users need to make sure they have a clean needle to risk getting HIV, hepatitis, bacterial endocarditis, or disease on the liver. When taking the pills be sure to know the amount of dosage that could kill you or send you to the hospital. Your body is your temple so if you do not take care of it the right way when it is ready to crash just know it is all your fault you did this to your body. [pic 3]   [pic 4]

On the left is testoviron, steroid from the mid-1930s it is the oldest brand name of all steroids. It was the first commercially product on the market. On the right is a present day off brand of anabolic steroid and needle used today. Compared to how the needle were being made in the 1930s.

So many people have so much to say about whether steroids should be legal in sports and why they should be illegal in sports. Both sides have pretty good opinions and also pros and cons on whether the answer should be yes or no.

Pros

• Improves muscular performance
• Evens out the playing field so everyone can use
• If it is out there it is easier safer to regulate
• Increases visual appearance
• Increases strength and ability
• Increases effectiveness of training
• Increased aggressiveness

The pros are good effects but will lead to bad effects. The pros will make you feel good and give the person the boost they need to compete, but when it is all said and done the cons will outweigh the pros in the condition the athlete will be in.

Cons

• Acne
• Bad breath
• Muscle cramps
• Increased risk of kidney, cardiovascular, and liver disease
• Increased risk of cancer
• Aching joints
• High blood pressure
• Balding and hair loss
• Nausea and vomiting
• Steroids damage veins
• Stunted growth
• Paranoia and Insomnia
• Aggression and depression
• HIV and other transmitted diseases with needle use

The use of steroids can have a big impact on our everyday life. Steroids can lead to consequences that will affect the rest of our lives. The main thing steroids it will affect is our health there will be many consequences that can result in families breaking up and athletes losing their jobs. Before anyone decides to take this drug they need to ask their self is it really worth the possible outcomes that can ruin my life?