Steriods
When people think of professional athletes they think of highly tuned athletic machines. Professional athletes are humans beings at their best. They are in excellent shape, they are all usually very healthy with their eating habits, and they can do things much better, faster, or farther than most average Joes. How do they do it? Hard work would be an excellent answer for this question. These athletes train hard and strive for their best every day to compete in whichever sport it is they choose to engage in. Sportsmanship, effort, and a level field of fair play are things that the face of professional sports tries to portray. However, there is a problem with this face and it really seems to make the field a little bumpy and not exactly fair. Hard work is not the only thing every athlete uses to produce their best athletic performance. There is another outlet that is not fair, legal, or recommended for your health. It is one that some athletes choose to take because it may help them to become better players of the games they have mastered. Steroid use in sports is a problem and the trend is becoming more popular amongst our youth.
To better understand why steroid use is a big problem you must first know what steroids are and how they effect the human body. Anabolic steroids are drugs that resemble the chemical structure of the body's natural sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone is made naturally by the body and directs the body to produce or enhance male characteristics such as increased muscle mass, facial hair growth, and deepening of the voice. Athletes who take steroids do so in hopes of the fact that it will help them perform better on the field, the court, the diamond, or wherever it is they compete. If you ask any athlete what physical attributes of their athleticism they would like to increase, the answers would more than likely come in no more than two or three words. Answer: speed and power. Steroid use will increase both of these things so there for are the perfect shortcut for an athlete who is trying to make millions of dollars by going to the pros. This is a very big problem in professional sports because it gives the cheating athlete an advantage over their opponent and does not give the person following the rules a fair and level field of play. The trend is beginning to trickle down as well. The professionals do it, so to make the pros some collegiate athletes believe that they have to do it, it has been known to be used in high schools and in some cases even Jr. High.
Perhaps unfair play isn’t enough to convince some people that steroids are not a good thing. Steroids are in fact extremely dangerous and even more so for growing adolescents going through puberty. There can be a large number of side effects from a roid user. Some are visible to the naked eye and some are internal. Some are physical while others are psychological. Side effects also differ between male and female uses. Although steroids are derived from a male sex hormone, men who take them may actually experience a feminization effect along with a decrease in normal male sexual function. Some possible effects include: reduced sperm count, impotence, development of breasts, shrinking of testicles, and difficulty or pain while urinating. Women on the other hand, often experience a masculinization effect from the drug which include the following effects: Facial hair growth, deepening of the voice, breast reduction, and menstrual cycle changes. With continued use of steroids both sexes can experience the following side effects which range from the merely unsightly to the life endangering. They include: acne, bloated appearance, rapid weight gain, clotting disorders, liver damage, premature heart attacks and strokes, elevated cholesterol levels, weakened tendons, severe mood swings, rage, depression, and even thoughts of suicide. Adolescents have to worry about all of these risks in addition to the risk of premature growth. Steroids close the growth centers in bones. Once these growth plates are closed, they cannot reopen so adolescents that take steroids may end up shorter than they should have been.
On an annual basis, over 100,000 drug tests are conducted worldwide at a cost of $30 million. The drug tests are designed to detect and deter abuse of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes. While this seems like a large number only a small percentage of athletes are tested and some of the testing is pointless because the athletes have ways of beating the tests. When athletes know when a drug test will occur, they can prepare for it and thereby neutralize the effects of drug testing on the use of performance enhancing drugs. Year-round short-notice and no-notice testing are the most effective means that we use that helps eliminate the use of training drugs because they make athletes always at risk to be tested. The IAAF and international federations for swimming and weightlifting conduct year-round, short-notice testing. In the United States, the NCAA and the National Football League (NFL) have short-notice (1-2 days) programs, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has approved the implementation of a no-notice program. I believe that this is the answer. If every athlete that entered professional sports had to agree to a no-notice testing system in their contract then it would decrease the use of performance enhancing drugs dramatically because every athlete would always be at risk of being caught and therefore would not want to risk their professional career. This system would also help the funding too because if every test was random and on a no-notice basis then it would take less effort, time, and money to organize testing because all you would have to do is show up with a cup to any athlete you choose and they have already agreed to it in the contract they signed. However, we do not use the no-notice system and athletes can beat the system even on a one day’s notice. So the problem still remains.
Steroid use is unfair, illegal, extremely dangerous, even more dangerous for adolescents, and getting more popular with young people. Also, an easy solution is obtainable. If we can show the youth that steroids are not the answer by eliminating the use of steroids in professional sports, than we will truly be able to create a level playing field for the professional athletes in all sports. Numbers are hard to come by because the flow of these drugs is illegal, but Dr. Mark Gordon, one of the 20,000 members of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, cites a 2004 study that found that more than $1 billion was spent annually on legal HGH. “And its safe to assume that its gone up in the last four years,” Gordon says. The mayo clinic reports that 2.4 million testosterone perscriptions were filled by U.S. pharmacies in 2004, more than twice the number filled in 2000. Mayo also estimates that three million people in the U.S. use illegal anabolic steroids. However John Romano, senior editor at Muscular Development, the top seller among the dozens of magazines that cover power lifting and bodybuilding, estimates that 15 million Americans use performance enhancing drugs.
Whether it’s the old timer using steroids to stay in the game and keep up with the youngsters or a new rookie trying to make a name for themselves, the trend starts to spread. This is not the message we want to send tomorrow’s athletes. The answer is simple, and we can reduce the use of steroids from many people with no-notice drug testing.
