Performance Enhancing Drugs

[TheBrent]

here's a little essay I wrote, read and debated to/against my class when I was a Sr. in high school.

I just read it and I could make a ton of revisions and probably give way better points but anyways, here it is. enjoy.



Performance Enhancing Drugs

“Sports celebrate majesty of the human body as a perfectly tuned machine, and the spirit that pushes that machine to its limits. Athletes stretch the very fabric of human performance, smashing world records with their grit, heart and sweat.” (Herper Internet). Using the current trend towards artificial enhancement, some argue, sullies this definition. Sports have grown to be more demanding to teenagers and adults throughout time. Many people are pressured into wanting to become more aggressive in the sports in which they are involved. With this pressure, performance- enhancing drugs are becoming a more common factor in the search for quick strength. But is this really wrong? Although taking performance enhancements is illegal, with the acceptance and supervision of a doctor, it should be tolerable. "Do we throw people in jail for getting liposuction, buying a fancy suit of clothes, or taking birth control pills? Why do we criminalize people who take steroids to improve their appearance or physical performance?” (Gendin Internet). It is the person’s own accountability to accept the risks of taking these drugs while performing in an aggressive sport; with the proper supervision and knowledge, athletes and informed adults should be able to better their performance and physique with the use of these substances.


One of the biggest arguments that society makes against the use of performance enhancing drugs is found within their dangers to adolescents. Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, regrettably, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example to younger viewers. Athletes use steroids because of their positive physical effects. The increased size and strength that occurs when a person combines weight training and a diet altered by steroid inspires many young athletes to consider these illegal substances. Athletes using steroids become bigger, stronger and, often, more hostile on the playing field. These altered effects may lead to a more effective athlete, but the risks involved can become very dangerous. “The use of performance-enhancing drugs leads to serious health problems, including “steroid rage”, the development of male characteristics in female athletes, heart attacks, and greatly reduced life expectancy. Some drugs are also addictive.” (Endersby Internet). Adults should be able to make this choice, just like cosmetic surgery, and drinking, but teenagers are not ready for this kind of life-altering decision. Not only are young athletes not capable to make a fully rational, informed decisions about drug-taking, the health impacts upon growing bodies may be even worse than for adult users.


Baseball player Mark McGuire admitted to using the over-the-counter testosterone producing pill andro (androstenedione) during his record-setting homerun season back in 1998. Soon after this episode, sales of this performance-enhancing drug skyrocketed, an increase of 500% occurred. When the media announces these things, there is an obvious effect on society as a whole. People want to be like these athletes and will go to nearly any extent to be more like their sports heroes. The problem isn’t that these famed athletes are using methods to enhance their playing capabilities, but the fact that the media blows the use of these enhancers out of proportion. Prior to 1998 the prohormone androstenedione was perfectly legal to the public; sales were not extraordinarily high, but since the media proclaimed McGuire a cheater by the use of this performance-enhancing drug, men, women and adolescents began purchasing and using these enhancers.


There are risks involved. Anabolic steroids are believed to halt bone growth, damage the heart, kidneys and liver. It is also believed that the use of performance-enhancing drugs such as androstenedione and anabolic steroids can actually lower a man’s testosterone level, and increase the production of estrogen. “Some side-effects in men include acne, diminished sperm production, shrinking of the testicles and enlargement of the breasts. In women, side effects include acne and masculinization, such as deepening of the voice and male-pattern baldness. Andro might also stunt your child's growth.” (Mayo Clinic staff Internet). Each of these side effects is highly unwanted and quite harmful to those experiencing them. Many would say that these abnormalities should be enough to dissuade athletes and adults from using steroids. Ephedrine is another performance enhancing drug that has been banned from the public. “Ephedrine can cause such side effects as strokes, seizures and heart attacks — even death. Ephedrine can raise your blood sugar and cause an irregular heart rhythm. Long-term use can lead to addiction.”(Mayo Clinic staff Internet).


Accepting risks is part of adult life, however. There are obvious dangers that one becomes susceptible to when taking performance-enhancing drugs, but there are also risks and dangers involved in over the counter drugs, sports and other activities that people are allowed to participate in on a daily basis. Furthermore, the majority of dangers found from taking steroids and other performance enhancing drugs occur from abuse such as overdosing, use for excessive periods of time, untested and unsupervised use. “The principle dangers of the injectables result from over-dosing and, even so, they are mainly such alarming matters as acne and severe headache. Every legally obtainable prescription drug comes with a warning of dozens of worse side effects.” (Gendin Internet). With the proper dosage and precaution, many of the so-called side effects can be considered nonexistent and the chances of them occurring become less and less likely. Many of the cases where ephedrine was thought to be the cause of death were due to overdosing; uninformed adults were taking amounts prior to gym exercise that doubled the dose of an entire day of supplementation would call for (Weintraub Internet). Any substance taken in excess is going to be harmful, whether it is a performance enhancing drug or a glass of water. There have been cases when people have gone into convulsions, commas and have even died from drinking too much water. Food, fast food specifically, can cause such side effects as heart problems, high cholesterol and an overall unhealthy state through weight gain. Alcohol and tobacco also hold some of the same side effects that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are claimed to have. Alcohol abuse causes severe problems in the liver as well as being highly addictive, tobacco also poses many harsher dangers than that of performance enhancing drugs, “Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more than $75 billion in direct medical costs” (Carmona Internet). Athletes, adults, and adolescents have all been found to use these substances, substances that harm themselves as well as the people around them. Where is the ban on these substances, as there are for performance-enhancing products? (Haley Internet)


Many of the accusations made against performance enhancing drugs are false; although at times, there can be dangers when proper precaution is not taken. Any substance- when abused- can be harmful to one’s health; the key is to use in moderation, under supervision, and most importantly, with knowledge. In society today, in many other fields, people are allowed to alter themselves so that they can be “better” in one way or another, just as athletes and adults would like to do through the use of performance-enhancing drugs. “We have come to prefer a world where the distractible take Ritalin, the depressed take Prozac, and the unattractive get cosmetic surgery, to a world ruled arbitrarily by those fortunate few who were born focused, happy, and beautiful. All athletes want, for better or for worse, is the chance to play by those same rules” (Viotard Internet). Athletes are held to such high standards in society and in their area of competition, they are under the spotlight throughout most of their lives. As informed, thinking adults, should it be someone else’s choice to choose what is best for their health?

[stbizzle]

nice paper, that took me a minute to read

[TheBrent]

thanks for readin it all. i'm shocked you did. i almost didn't read it all tonight before i posted it.

[PornoStar]

im glad u did the comparison with alcohol and tabacco. i get pissed when people come up to me with a cigarette in their mouth s and they tell me steroids are bad. i have a friend who would tell me to stay away from roids when he ate shrooms the night before. good paper.

btw, im natty.

[TheBrent]

Originally Posted by Karacter

im glad u did the comparison with alcohol and tabacco. i get pissed when people come up to me with a cigarette in their mouth s and they tell me steroids are bad. i have a friend who would tell me to stay away from roids when he ate shrooms the night before. good paper.

btw, im natty.

smart man. I agree. lots of drugs out there with less benefits and more harm

[Vegas]

Worthy of the Steroids forum. I'll move it there.

[EastCoaster]

nice write...

[Mallet]

Choose your poison i always say.

[TheBrent]

bump, b.c. I was so cool in highschool

[ronaldace]

Hi,

Wonderful article, gives me some idea to write of my own...


This one is too good...

Athletes are held to such high standards in society and in their area of competition, they are under the spotlight throughout most of their lives. As informed, thinking adults, should it be someone else’s choice to choose what is best for their health?

I hate drugs... there are more disadvantages to it than advantages...
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