Steroids

Nowadays, it's not uncommon to know how much money a professional athlete makes. The media covers every aspect of professional sports, for any type of story. You could say their just doing there job, but popularity and achievements romanticize professional sports. The glamorization in professional sports puts added pressure on young teens and adults to use performance enhancing drugs. Today, performance enhancing drugs are talked about on a daily basis; young athletes might think its ok to use performance enhancing drugs just because a professional athlete is using them.

Outside of an athletes sport, you hear and see athletes getting more and more exposure in the public eye. The athletes you see in TV commercials are usually athletes that have had some success in their career. Star professional athletes are usually very popular with the public and stay out of trouble in there daily lives. If they claim their not using performance enhancing drugs, there shouldn't be any problem expressing it to young athletes. What about all the commercials about not using performance enhancing drugs? Young athletes need positive and supportive roll models. They're the next generation in professional sports and they need to be taught about the integrity and spirit of the game.

When young athletes see the glamour in professional sports they see a fantasy life. They see glamour in professional athletes when their in music videos or on TV shows showing off their houses and cars. Also when women are always hanging around athletes, they see special treatment. When a young athlete

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pursues a sport, he or she might take any sacrifice to make it to the professional level, including performance enhancing drugs. The glamour in sports isn't about the love of the game anymore, but about money and fame.

Performance enhancing drugs are used to boost athletic performance, ward off fatigue and enhance physical appearances. Performance enhancing drugs affect the body in several different ways such as, enlarging muscles or increasing the blood's oxygen carrying capacity. (King, 2006) Not all performance enhancing drugs are illegal but, not all of them are safe either. In fact more studies have been done and with all the media attention about steroids. Some performance enhancing drugs have been closely looked at and have been banned from being sold over the counter. "The line between what is legal and what is not illegal has at times been the source of controversy." (King, 2006)

The most commonly heard and used performance enhancing drug is steroids. Steroids are synthetic modifications of testosterone, the male hormone. It can be taken by injection or in pill form, performance enhancing steroids work primarily by stimulating certain proteins in the building muscle tissue. (King, 2006) Young athletes may use steroids because they feel the need to look like the professional athletes on TV. Young athletes may also get peer pressure from friends and sometimes athletes reach a plateau at some point in their training. Despite being illegal, steroids are still widespread among athletes seeking to gain strength and bulk up their bodies.

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Androstenedione was made famous by the major league star Mark McGwire. Mark McGwire made public comments of his use of the performance enhancing drug,

Androstenedione. After a closer look at its side effects, it was soon banned. Off the shelves of stores and banned in professional sports, the game of baseball being one of them. In men and women androstenedione can decrease high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol). Lower HDL levels put you at greater risk of heart attack and stroke. (Mayo clinic, 2004) "On Oct. 22, 2004, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 classified andro as a controlled substance, adding it to the list on banned anabolic steroids and making its use as a performance enhancing drug illegal". (Mayo clinic, 2004, p.3)

An example of a legal performance enhancing drug would be Creatine. Remember just because its legal, it doesn't mean it's safe. "Creatine helps muscles make a circulate more adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is used for quick, explosive, bursts of activity, as in weightlifting and sprinting". (Mayo clinic, 2004, p.4) I personally have used it before. All the side effects associated with Creatine are true. It pulls water away from the body to the muscles. The weight gain is due to water retention expanding the muscles. When I had to run in the U.S. Marine Corps, I began to severely cramp. Not knowing the long term side effects made of creative also, made my decision about quitting a lot easier.

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The long term effects of performance enhancing drugs haven't been rigorously studied and short term benefits