Steroid Use in Sports

Anabolic Steroids are taken by athletes to increase muscle mass while decreasing fat rapidly and efficiently. They can push the physiological limits of the muscle, making it bigger, faster and stronger than it can get naturally. Steroids achieve this affect on the body by enhancing the natural process of muscle building. The use of steroids has had a negative impact on the lives and careers of many athletes, causing suspensions, bans, and even the loss of medals and other awards and records earned in international events. A few of the high profile athletes whose lives and careers by their anabolic steroid use include: Barry Bonds, Lyle Alzada, Jose Canseco, Ben Johnson, Chris Benoit, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong.

Steroids are a hot topic of debate and controversy in the world of athletes and sports. Steroids fall under the umbrella of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and are a dark cloud that have been hovering over the sports world for a long time. In the world today, steroids are the most relevant in major league baseball. Many baseball players, such as Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Mark McGwire, just to name a few, have ruined their reputations because of steroids. There are repercussions for PED use in major league baseball, which have cut down on the substance abuse by players but have nowhere near eliminated the problem.

President George W. Bush says “Steroids are dangerous in sports and steroids send the wrong message: There are shortcuts to accomplishments and performance is more important than character.”

Steroid abuse has become a huge problem in professional sports today. Athletes are now using steroids to gain a competitive edge over their opponents. Also, the athletes are using the steroids to recover quickly from major injuries or surgeries. Many former superstar athletes have been caught taking steroids during the season and offseason.

The competitive drive to win at all cost is fierce among athletes. Winning at all cost often includes using one of many performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids. Many athletes use performance enhancing drugs, like steroids, to achieve higher goals and set higher records than other drug-free successful athletes. Although athletes are performing at higher levels when using such drugs, what is the cost? Finally anabolic steroids should remain banned from sports because their use results in many harmful side effects; because their use violates sports regulations, and because their use can cause death.

From the beginning of history, professional and amateur athletes have tempted to use legal or illegal drugs to enhance their performance (1). Athletes have used pharmacological agents, called Performance-enhancing drugs(PEDs), to enhance performance or to become leaner or more muscular (2). In sports, administration of drugs that are forbidden by international world anti-doping agency (WADA) is referred as doping (3). Anabolic androgenic agents (AASs) are the most popular agents that are abused by the athletes, especially bodybuilding athletes. Besides these agents, other classes of drugs such as stimulants and peptide hormones (growth hormone and insulin) are new PEDs that are abused by a lot of athletes in the different sports (1). Other than these compounds, athletes often use dietary supplements like creatine, protein, and vitamins to enhance strength and increase body mass (4-6).

Abstract:  With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent.  The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change.  No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent.  Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

Performance enhancing drugs, or steroids, are defined as substances used to improve physical performance. There are many types of steroidal performance enhancers. The first of these performance enhancing drugs are anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are also known as androgen steroids, and they are used to increase the muscle mass and strength of a person. A natural anabolic steroid is testosterone, which your body naturally produces. Some athletes take straight testosterone which is another way to boost your athletic performance. This has the same effect as anabolic steroids, but it is natural and can be found within the body. Anabolic steroids are so effective and appealing to athletes, because they allow athletes to recover faster from a

Success comes from humbleness and dedication to achieve a goal or a dream. Drug use is not beneath some athletes who have seen no other way to become successful in their career. The organization that oversees professional sports should be in the business of testing athletes for drug use at least every month at random.

The legalization of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs will increase the level of play and may a greater audience. During the steroid era of Major League Baseball, which is when a large amount of MLB players were taking anabolic steroids, ticket sales and jersey sales rose to numbers never seen before. This is because ball players were hitting and throwing the ball much further and harder than ever before. Many believe the legal use of steroids in professional sports will rise the play of the game. However, many ball players still use anabolic steroids as 39 MLB players have been caught and suspended for anabolic steroid use in the last ten years. Thus, showing that anabolic steroid use is definitely still in play in today’s

Anabolic steroids are synthetic steroid hormones made to resemble testosterone. These drugs are not the only performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) out there. Some are not even steroids, such as: creatine, tamoxifen, propranolol, cox-2, albuterol, ephedrine, and erythpoietin. These performance enhancing drugs may be boosting the skill level in an athlete’s career, but it is doing no good to the health of the athlete himself. Multiple sports are having reports of athletes using PED’s including baseball, being one of the top sports for steroid usage, cycling, and mixed martial arts. The use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs has forever changed the face of professional sports, and its athletes, making it a world fueled by drug contacts instead of skill and talent. (10 performance enhancing drugs that are not steroids by William Harris)

The use of steroids in sports should be outlawed because they are illegal, harmful to one’s body, extremely costly, could damage an athletes’ career as well as become quite addictive.

One study was conducted (Ljungqvist.1975) a questionnaire on top Swedish athletes, which aimed to investigate the use of anabolic steroids in Sweden at 1975. Anabolic androgenic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone. Anabolic androgenic steroids are used to enhance athletic performance and appearance. A questionnaire was distributed to the ten best male athletes in each track and field event in Sweden in the year of 1973. In total, 144 athletes were involved in this investigation and answers were received from 99 (69%). It was asked in the questionnaire whether the athletes had been using any anabolic steroids. In case steroids had been used the athletes were asked to answer specific questions related to positive and negative effects

In the past three decades, steroids has been becoming a serious problem more than ever in the athletic field. Steroids are anabolic drug "to build" growth hormones that include the androgens (male sex hormones) principally testosterone and estrogen and progestogens (female sex hormones). Steroids were first developed for medical purposes. They're used in controlling inflammation, strengthening weakened hearts, preventing conception, and alleviating symptoms of arthritis and asthma. Unfortunately research has shown that steroids have been abused in almost every kind of sport. Although steroids contribute to a muscular body, usage should remain illegal because they physically deteriorate and mentally destroy the body.