Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports

Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports 1

Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports
Angie Holmes
Axia College University of Phoenix
Effective Persuasive Writing COM 120
Roseanne Robinson
24 September 2006

Performance-Enhancing drugs 2
Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports Although athletes are good enough to play in professional sports, many of the players feel pressured into using performance drugs to enhance their athletic skills. Athletes take these drugs believing that it provides a competitive advantage. They also take these drugs because they have an image they have to uphold. Many people, children in addition to adults, look up to these people. They feel as though they have something to prove at every game. Athletes feel the need to win at all costs, even if it means taking drugs. Performance-enhancing drugs, which are also known as anabolic steroids, are the reason athletes are violating ethics and laws to be the best player ever. Steroids can be taken orally, or they can be injected. No matter how a person takes steroids, it will still have a negative effect on his or her body and career. Steroids, taken both orally and injected, can be detected months after it was taken. The body tolerates the injectable steroids more effectively than the oral steroids. High school students have also started to take these illegal drugs. Many adolescents take steroids because they want to be like older and better athletes. If professional athletes do engage in this risky behavior, younger athletes are going to be tempted to do the same. Younger athletes look up to professional athletes. They imitate what the professionals wear, how they talk, and how they compete in their games. Children love to imitate those they admire. Taylor Hooton, the high school student who died as a result of depression attributed to steroid use, was asked by his father, before he died, "Why do you take steroids?" Taylor 's answer was, "Why not? Barry Bonds does"(Matheson, 2005). Not only does it make users artificially superior to their contemporaries and
Performance-Enhancing drugs 3 forebears, it also poses potentially serious health risks (Staudohar, 2005). Steroids have many side effects both mentally and physically. The side effects of drugs do not seem to matter to athletes. Steroid use has serious side effects that can be mild or fatal. Some physical side effects for men are reduced sperm count, impotence, and development of breasts, shrinking of the testicles, and difficulty or pain while urinating. The physical side effects for women are facial hair growth, deepened voice, breast reduction and changes in their menstrual cycle. Physical side effects for adolescents are the same including premature growth. Steroid use can also be fatal with continued use. In the Pulse (2006), studies show oral steroids greatly increase the risk of suicide by more than four fold at high doses, a new study of UK general practice concludes. Previous research has suggested the drugs adversely affect mental health, but the new study of half a million patients is the first to link them to suicide. Current use of oral steroids raised the risk of suicide 2.5 fold, analysis of patients on the UK general practice research database found those taking daily doses of more than 30mg were at a 4.2 fold increased risk. Steroids are known to halting growth in adolescents. Although these side effects can seriously affect athletes, they still feel as though they need to take them. Athletes use steroids because they believe it will make them better than everyone else. Athletes have a certain image they have to maintain for the public. Looking good and playing harder is more important to players than staying healthy. Performance-Enhancing drugs 4 Players feel pressure from many people around them. Coaches sometimes pressure athletes to do well because of stats. If the athlete looks good, people may think it is because of the coach. If a team is constantly winning, the coaches get to share the spotlight. The coaches receive better deals and more money which makes them want their team members to perform better than ever. Because of this, Coaches feel the need to pressure team members for selfish reasons. Athletes must play better and harder than their competitors. If an athlete believes that a competitor is performing better than he or she, the pressure increases for that athlete. Teammates may cause similar pressure for the athletes. The media plays an important role in portraying how an athlete should perform. The media influences everyone 's opinion of athletes and their performance. Family members and friends can also cause a lot of pressure for athletes. Many athletes feel the need to compete with other successful members of their families and friends. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland on November 10, 1999 and is led by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The agency works to help stop drug use in sports. WADA also receives half of its budget coming from various governments throughout the world. The WASA was developed to make sure all athletes have the same advantage. The IOC has worked with people to stop athletes from using drugs by banning these steroids. Anyone caught using these substances will be prosecuted. Athletes should not be the only people to get in trouble for using drugs. Physicians have been getting away with distributing drugs for years. While the Anti-Doping Code of
Performance-Enhancing drugs 5 the WADA prohibits anyone from administering or attempting to administer a banned substance, sports organizations rarely impose penalties on physicians, and only on team doctors. Many physicians do not care about the code of ethics. For the right amount of money, many physicians will give athletes what they want. Physicians are more concerned about getting paid than the life of these athletes. No performance-enhancing drugs have been approved by the FDA. Any physician caught prescribing these substances will be held equally responsible. Steroid use has been around for a long time with many different opinions expressed on the practicality and morality of its use in athletes. Many people believe it should be the athletes ' choice to ignore the side effects and take the drugs. Some people think taking performance-enhancing drugs is cheating. People still choose to use steroids when study after study shows that its use can be harmful to the body and mind. Athletes will continue to use them because they believe it puts them a step above their competitors while non-athletes choose to use them because of the gains to their physical appearance. There is one thing that all the references agree upon, and that is the health risks of using steroids and other drugs outweigh the physical gains that are achieved when used. Will the fight to stop steroid use in sports end? Can anyone educate athletes enough about steroid use and its side effects? Is paying a fine with no jail time enough punishment for violators? Do athletes not care about their health? These are the questions that need to be asked when someone violates the law for selfish reasons.

REFERENCES
Cohen, Roger. (1993, July 7). Doctors tell of issuing steroids to East Germans. New York Times, p. c4
Matheson, Gordon O. (2005, May). Physician and Sports medicine, vol. 33(5), p 6
Pope, H.G. & Katz, D.L. (1998) Affective and psychotic symptoms associated with anabolic steroid use. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 487-490.
Staudohar, Paul D. (2005). Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Baseball. Retrieved September 24, 2006, from the University of Phoenix Library Web site: https://axiaecampus.phoenix.edu
Steroids More than Double Suicide (2006, August 10). Pulse, vol. 66(31), p 1-1, 1/6 p

References: Cohen, Roger. (1993, July 7). Doctors tell of issuing steroids to East Germans. New York Times, p. c4 Matheson, Gordon O. (2005, May). Physician and Sports medicine, vol. 33(5), p 6 Pope, H.G. & Katz, D.L. (1998) Affective and psychotic symptoms associated with anabolic steroid use. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 487-490. Staudohar, Paul D. (2005). Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Baseball. Retrieved September 24, 2006, from the University of Phoenix Library Web site: https://axiaecampus.phoenix.edu Steroids More than Double Suicide (2006, August 10). Pulse, vol. 66(31), p 1-1, 1/6 p