Ped in Sports

I Introduction

Performance-Enhancing Drugs, various substances, chemical agents, or procedures designed to provide an advantage in athletic performance. Performance-enhancing drugs affect the body in different ways, such as enlarging muscles or increasing the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity. Despite these apparent benefits, the use of such drugs is considered both competitively unethical and medically dangerous. Most performance-enhancing drugs are outlawed by organizations that govern major amateur and professional sports.

II Purpose

The use of substances to improve athletic performance is not a new phenomenon. There are stories dating back thousands of years regarding athletes using drugs in quest of an advantage. Historic writings refer to competitors ingesting various potions, such as ground horse hooves or sheep testicles, for the ancient Olympic Games and other events. Athletes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries attempted to gain an edge using substances such as caffeine and strychnine. Three years after a Dutch cyclist died of drug-related complications during the 1960 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) came out with its first list of prohibited drugs.

Despite the growing body of evidence of serious health risks associated with performance-enhancing drugs, the development and use of such substances have continued to increase. Rapid advances in sophisticated medical technology in recent decades have produced a wide variety of new drugs and procedures that athletes can use to gain an edge.

The demand for such substances has soared at the same time that the importance and rewards of athletic excellence have also risen dramatically. Athletes spend years training in the pursuit of championships and record-setting performances. The best amateur athletes can receive college scholarships as a reward for their abilities. The top professionals in many sports earn millions of dollars in salary, prize money, and commercial endorsements. Some athletes may take drugs because they fear falling behind other competitors, a rationale often referred to as “leveling the playing field.”

Whatever the reason for their use, performance-enhancing drugs carry serious risks for users, including suspension or banishment from their sport, stripping of their records, and debilitatingвЂ"even life-threateningвЂ"medical complications. Studies have shown, however, that many athletes will ignore even the gravest health risks if they can gain an advantage through artificial means. As a result, the issue has become one of the most serious problems in athletics today.

III Drug Types

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A wide variety of performance-enhancing drugs is in use today. Many of them, such as steroids and amphetamines, are controlled substancesвЂ"that is, drugs whose manufacture, distribution, and use are subject to strict governmental regulation because of a high potential for abuse and medical complications. These drugs are often developed and used to treat real medical problems but are illegally repurposed by athletes or trainers as performance enhancers. Some legitimate medical procedures are used in the same way. Other types of drugs, such as health supplements, are legal but poorly regulated and researched. The line between what is legal and what is illegal has at times been the source of controversy. Controlled or not, performance-enhancing drugs are fairly easy to obtain. Common sources for controlled substances are black-market suppliers, Internet sites, and smuggling from foreign countries.

A Steroids

Much of the attention and controversy surrounding performance-enhancing drugs during the last several decades has centered on steroids. These are lipids (fat-soluble chemicals) produced naturally by the human body. Some of these steroids include the male hormone testosterone (an androgen) and the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. Testosterone is responsible for many of the physical changes that occur to males during adolescence, such as deepening of the voice and increase in muscle mass. Even after adolescence, testosterone continues to influence a variety of male sexual and emotional processes.

Derivatives of testosterone can be artificially produced in a laboratory.

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