Performance enhancing drugs

Pete Barner
10/3/2013
Kines 199-01
Writing assign. 1

Anabolic Steroids

Butterworth, T. (2012). Don't Juice. Newsweek, 160(1/2), 12.

Introduction: In this scholarly article written by Trevor Butterworth the issue of the dangers of anabolic steroids in professional sports is addressed. In recent years there has been many players from all the major sports football, baseball, basketball, and the Olympics that have tested positive and been accused of using anabolic steroids. There is a lot of money on the line for these athletes and if they do not perform well they will no longer be employed. So to make them recover faster and become bigger faster stronger in their respective competitions, a lot of athletes turn to anabolic steroids. Now a days because so many people are getting caught using these substances, it is easy to turn a blind eye to what the athletes are doing and let society accept it. Dr. Harrison Pope a professor of psychiatry at Harvard's Mclean Hospital, weighs in on the extreme dangers that athletes as well as normal everyday human beings are bring upon themselves when they start consuming anabolic steroids.
Methods/Results:
Doctors that are doing research on anabolic steroids believe that the magnitude of athletes doping in sports is a lot worse than the common public thinks. After a collection of testing on anabolic steroids it has been found that people who take steroids do not necessarily have health problems right away or even for years after taking them. In fact, people might get well into their elderly age before seeing any effects. Butterworth claims, "the first wave of people who started abusing steroids in the 1980's is only now reaching the age where these risks start to hit home" ( Butterworth, 2012). When the health issues do occur they are usually not forgiving. Steroids are being linked to high risk cardiovascular problems and a heart attack is very common among steroid users. Anabolic steroids also raise your cholesterol to very high levels that the body does not like and could cause serious long term health problems. The liver is very important to the human body because it removes anything that might pose as a threat to the body. When anabolic steroids are consumed, overtime the liver is not able to handle the concentration of the chemicals and it begins to digress. The risks of using anabolic steroids for anyone comes with some heavy consequences in the long-run. There is no avoiding effects from steroid use, The potency of the chemicals will eventually cause damage to anyone who uses them. Doctors are scared of this because many people are under the impression that it's just competitive athletes that are using these substances, but when in fact athletes only account for 1 percent of the total people using anabolic steroids.
Conclusions:
It is alarming knowing that athletes only account for 1 percent of the population of people using steroids. Steroid abuse is more than just athletes using them, it involves much of the public as well. Elite athletes are role models to so many people and when elite athletes become known steroid users, it sets a bad example makes younger kids in the high school athletic field ponder whether to use them to help them achieve their goals of playing at a higher level. High school kids are at a very sensitive time in their life and when they start cycling on and off these steroids it messes with their hormones dramatically. There is not anything positive to say about steroids. You might get some short term success from them, but the long term effects are terrifying. The long-term effects can have such a detrimental effect your health that I do not believe the consumption of steroids should be permitted in any fashion.