About Performance Enhancing Substances
Performance enhancing substances are drugs or medical procedures employed to create an advantage in the performance of an athlete. They are taken for various reasons, such as building muscles, losing weight and reducing pain. In the competition arena, they are generally banned because of ethical and safety reasons, however some are allowed in restricted form.
Other People Are Reading
-
Reasons For Taking Them
-
There are several reasons why some athletes use performance enhancing drugs. Some drugs are designed to build muscles and increase muscle strength as well as bones. This is useful for those in the sport of bodybuilding. Examples of these are anabolic steroids, beta 2 agonists, human chorionic gonadotropin, luteinizing hormone, human growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor and Insulin. Other drugs stimulate the body like caffeine, amphetamines and cocaine while others offer instant relaxation such as alcohol, beta-blockers and cannabinoids. Athletes who feel they have to keep going despite the pain use narcotics, ACTH, cortisone and local anesthetics to reduce their aches. Because most competitions ban the use of performance enhancing drugs, some athletes resort to taking drugs to mask the drugs that they took earlier. Diuretics, epitestosterone, plasma expanders and secretion inhibitors are some examples.
Medical Procedures
-
While other athletes take medications to improve their performance, others prefer undergoing medical procedures. One such procedure is blood doping. This entails drawing blood from the athlete and isolating the oxygen-carrying red blood cells with the intention of infusing the blood back to the athlete before a competition. What this will do is increase the delivery of oxygen to the exercising tissues to boost aerobic performance. It is particularly advantageous for those involved in sports like long-distance running, cycling and cross-country skiing. Another medical procedure, though relatively new and very expensive, is called gene doping. This basically alters the genetic makeup of an athlete thereby stimulating the natural production of steroids, produced by the body to develop muscle mass, and erythropoietin or EPO, which increases aerobic performance and endurance. It is said to be highly untraceable.
-
Health Supplements
-
Although these are not considered as drugs in the strictest sense of the word, health supplements are also used to boost the performance of some athletes. Most of these are sold over the counter and not all are banned, but the danger in using such health supplements lies in the fact that they continue to be unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Efficacy is undetermined as well as long-term effects.
Side Effects
-
Aside from creating an unfair advantage in competition, another reason for banning performance enhancement drugs is health safety. Almost all of said medications and procedures entail harmful side effects. Anabolic-androgenic steroids destroy the liver, causing jaundice and stimulating mood swings, depression and aggression. These side effects sometimes take years or decades to develop. Human growth hormones bring about enlarged human organs, such as the heart, kidneys, tongue and liver. It also promotes heart problems. Increasing the amount of blood in the system causes it to thicken, which makes the heart work doubly hard. This leads to heart attack or stroke. Taking in stimulants possibly induces nervousness, irregular heartbeat, convulsions and even sudden death.
Gaining Edge or Losing Life
-
To simplify, the basic reason why an athlete is tempted to take enhancement drugs is to improve his chances of winning. Winning a competition is the goal, and sometimes athletes feel they need to do whatever it takes to gain top prize. Unfortunately, performance enhancing substances may seem to offer the gold but actually may require the athlete to pay with his life.
-
