Steroids And Performance Enhancing Steroids

Steroids and Performance Enhancing Steroids

Nick Bott

University of Houston

I have chosen to write my paper on the topic of steroids and performance enhancing substances that are used today in sports. In this paper I hope to focus on the steroids and performance enhancing drugs and how they have become a problem in sports.

An anabolic steroid is a substance that is related to male sex hormones, known as testosterone. The word "Anabolic" means muscle building. The word "steroids" is just referred to as a drug name or a class of drug. Some athletes have made the decision that they would like to jump higher, run faster, throw harder and hit 100 home runs. Well, this can be accomplished through hard work, dedication, and practice can't it? Some athletes feel the need to take a shortcut to being the best, so they indulge in "shooting up." Steroids can be very dangerous and hazardous to your health if you abuse them. Some of these conditions can include, liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, (which is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, tissues, and body fluids), fluid retention, high blood pressure, increase in LDL (bad cholesterol), and at the same time a decrease in you good cholesterol or HDL. One may also get kidney tumors, severe acne, and suffer from trembling. These are some of the side effects that one in general can get from the use of steroids. There are also some other side effects that have to do with gender. In males they can suffer from the shrinking of the testicles and reduced sperm count, which lowers their ability to produce children, baldness, they may start developing breasts, and they are increasing their chances of getting prostate cancer. For women they may start to see some facial hair, some male-pattern of baldness, changes in or loss of menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris and deepened voice. In adolescents they are stunting their growth prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and accelerated puberty changes. This may mean that the adolescent will remain short for the duration of his or her life if they choose to take an Anabolic steroid before the typical adolescent growth spurt. These are some of the physical symptoms that individuals can expect to see while taking anabolic steroids. Some of the psychiatric side effects that may show are the need to be aggressive. Most of the users say that they feel good about themselves while taking steroids but research reports that extreme mood swings occur. Some of these mood swings can include manic-like symptoms that may lead to violence. As a result of this some users might turn to other drugs to relieve some of the negative effects of anabolic steroids. An example of this is that a study was done at a private treatment center for dependence, 227 men admitted of using heroin or other opioids. (Pope and Katz, 1988).

Today, not only athletes but also others abuse anabolic steroids to enhance their performance and for the non-athletes they want to improve their physical appearance. The majority of steroids are taken through injection by a needle; done so in cycles of weeks or months, this is also called "cycling" these individuals who are engaging in steroid use are putting themselves at risk for HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which can cause serious damage to the liver. "Cycling" is taking multiple doses of steroids over a certain period of time, which includes stopping and starting again. Users also do a thing called "stacking" which is simply combining several types of steroids to maximize their effectiveness while minimizing negative effects.

An article done by ESPN states that, " There should be no controversy over anabolic steroid use in athletesÐ'--non-medical use of anabolic steroids is illegal and banned by most, if not all, major sports organizations." Why don't we drug test the athletes if steroid use is illegal? Coakley states that, "Drug testing is needed to protect the health of athletes and to relieve athletes of the pressures they feel to take potentially dangerous substances to keep up with competitors." The problem with getting people to take a drug test is that they have the right to say no if the tester has any reason to give them a drug test. "Drug tests are expensive and drain resources that could be used for health education programs for athletes. The test administered to athletes in Olympic sports by the recently formed United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-doping Agency costs about three hundred dollars per athlete every time it is administered. Testing one hundred thousand potential Olympic athletes around the world once a year would cost about thirty million dollars." (Coakley, 2004). This is a pose as a serious problem. Athletes are going to continue to use steroids, because no matter what people say and how illegal it may be athletes are going to continue to use anabolic steroids for the purpose that it works and it is their jobs to be good at what they do. Most of these athletes are not looking at the fact that this is a drug and it can become addictive and potentially deadly. Long-time steroid users and steroid abusers may experience the classic characteristics of addiction including cravings, difficulty in stopping steroid use and withdrawal symptoms. Dr. Wadler, a New York University School of Medicine