Steroids - a Winning Edge?

Steroids

A Winning Edge?

one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small

Alice in Wonderland

You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.

The Matrix

Our society loves a winner and detests a loser. There is no arena where this is truer than in athletics, besides of course politics. The sports arena is where we look to for our winners. We honor winners with our admiration, with college scholarships, with parades, and of course with lucrative professional sports contracts. As long as the team wins the Super Bowl, the batter hits homeruns, the bicyclist wins races we will hold them in highest esteem. But just as quickly we will scorn their loses and ridicule their weaknesses. Is it surprising than that a growing number of athletes begin to take performance-enhancing drugs for the glory of the win, as a means to riches, or just a way out? Some of these drugs may boost physical strength, but at what cost? The long-term effects of drugs such as steroids have not been rigorously studied but the short-term effects are well-known. This paper will describe the effects of steroid use, the extent of the problem, and how athletic performance can be enhanced with skill and hard work rather than popping a pill, or injecting anabolic steroids.

Anabolic steroids are a synthetic version a testosterone and are taken by athletes to increase muscle mass and strength thereby increasing athletic performance. They are called 'roids, juice, hype, or pump. Why do athletes risk debilitating diseases and death by taking steroids? The simple explanation is they work. They aid in developing muscle and increase strength while reducing the time spent weight training. It is not only the athlete that looks for the quick muscle gain, but the coach in need of a winning season either condones it or at the very least looks the other way. In some cases parents are also to blame by stressing the need to win at all costs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, anabolic steroids come with serious side effects. Men could develop prominent breasts, baldness, shrunken testicles, and a higher voice. There are also side effects for women if they use steroids. Side effects such as a deeper voice, enlarged clitoris, increased body hair, baldness, and increased appetite.

If the physical damage of using steroids isn't enough to deter the athlete from "juicing", there are a number of other reasons not to. The United States Senate for one is considering a bill that would require professional sports leagues to impose lengthy suspensions on athletes using illegal drugs. The laws will cover Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, and the National Football League. The penalties are as follows, first offense would be a suspension for half the season. On the second offense it would be a suspension for the entire season. If the player were to commit a third offense it would be a lifetime ban from the league.

In the past, steroid is used mostly in college, Olympic, and professional sports. Today, steroids are being used by student athletes, amateur athletes, and professional even though most major professional and amateur athletic organizations have banned steroids for use by their athletes. These organizations include the International Olympic Committee, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the National Football League (NFL). Is steroid use common among athletes? We really do not know. What is known is that a December 16, 2004, New York Times poll found that 43 percent of Americans think at least half of the athletes playing professional sports are using performance-enhancing drugs. In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100-meter gold medal for testing positive for the steroids. Professional football star Lyle Alzado suffered an agonizing death as a result of years of steroid for which he blamed his brain cancer. During an interview with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes Jose Canseco says injecting his teammates with steroids was "something so common" that he didn't give it much thought.

Studies of the high school and middle school vary on the number of students who have tried steroids illegally. A CDC study survey indicated