Performers Performing at an Enhanced Performance Level

Performance-enhancing drugs are used by athletes in a wide variety of sports and activities, with the purpose being to make them bigger, better, faster, and stronger. Unfortunately, often times the risks of taking steroids outweigh the benefits. The use of performance enhancing drugs is prohibited for athletes, but if the athletes are willing to take the risk, their use of the drugs should be their choice.

     Competition is one of the key factors that makes an athlete prosper. That competitive edge, seeing athletes shine with gold medals and trophies, and having other athletes want to be those winners and take the number one spot. Then it just becomes a continuous chain of competitors competing for championships. Crazy right? But, at what cost? That is where the use of performance-enhancing drugs comes into play in the art of sports and why it should be legal to use them.

     To define PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs), let's use the common performance-enhancer steroids. Like usual, when people hear this word they often think of cheating, unfairness, or disrespectful to sports. Some baseball enthusiasts may think of the "steroid era" that included familiar names like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. Or in professional cycling the famous cancer survivor that had all of his titles revoked, Lance Armstrong. Even in the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and the Olympics, athletes have been convicted of using steroids, a substance that simply decreases recovery time and can speed metabolism while promoting lean muscle.

     Yes, steroids is not that magic drug somebody takes to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime while sitting on the couch. But, it is possible with the hard training that has to come with it for it to be beneficial, whether you want to look like the Terminator or not. Charles Yesalis, an epidemiologist at Pennsylvania State University, gave the example of a baseball player who needs to hit a lot more home runs to save the season. So, the athlete doubles the intensity of his weight training, which can often hurt the body's performance by releasing corticosteroids that are catabolic(break muscles down). Clearly, there is nothing beneficial happening here unless he was supplementing with a testosterone booster or an anabolic steroid to counteract with corticosteroids.

     Yet, still the average person would be terrified of the use of steroids because common medical establishments characterize them as "dangerous" to save competition in sports. Their statements that steroids cause irreversible and adverse side effects, like liver and psychiatric problems rare overstatements. Also, recent research indicates that health risks associated with steroids are common in women, children, and adolescent teenagers. But, there is no evidence to prove steroid-related death's used by athletes in 40 years.

     Obviously there can be severe health risks involved when athletes, or anyone for that matter, self-administrates any prescription medicine without a physician's monitoring. An absence of a physician to prescribe the correct dosage can lead to side effects that may go unnoticed and or untreated until it's too late. The same goes for anabolic steroids. Risks are much higher if a women or teenager is supplementing with steroids than an adult male. Reasons why is because the hormonal balance of a woman is delicate. The use of this PED can lead to excessive hair growth, coarse skin, baldness, deeper voice, breast reduction, altered menstrual cycles, and clitoral enlargement. I would agree with Rick Collins, a bodybuilder and defense attorney for the state of New York, that if an adult woman would prescribe the use of a steroids, to seriously weigh the benefits and costs for such use.

     As for teenagers, premature closure of growth plates and abusing anabolic steroids are strong reasons to discourage these young adults from usage. Generally, teenagers are more susceptible to peer pressure and are wanting fast results which lead to the likely hood of them taking dangerously high dosages without medical supervision. Plus, with steroids there are often post-cycles that are helpful in maintaining strength and teenagers are less willing to take these post-cycles and continue in high-doses for prolonged periods of time. I also agree with Dan Duchaine, author of the Underground Steroid Handbook II, who basically says that the choice for using any physical performance enhancement should be made by a mature, informed adult, with dedication to weight training.

     Now adult males supplementing with steroids is a whole other story. These supplemental androgens effect the body's hormonal balance and decrease the body's natural production of testosterone. This then causes testicular atrophy and impaired sperm, but these side effects are reversible with discontinuance of steroids. Continuing with testosterone, this also effects a males libido increasing the sex drive in the beginning, but decreases after the body's natural production of testosterone is shut down. It is also common to have decreased testicular size with prolonged usage, however,  this is reversible with certain stimulating drugs. Another adverse effect is when steroid molecules eventually convert to a possible altered hormone called DHT. This then effects athletes with a genetic predisposition that is related to male pattern baldness, acne, and an enlarged prostate gland. These effects can be avoided with the prescription drug finasteride. Yet, the appearance of these adrogenic effects is greatly related to the dosage and type of steroid the athlete is using.

But, what about the effects anabolic steroids have on an athlete's internal organs?

     Anabolic steroids are processed by the liver and recent studies have highly overstated the adverse effects of a liver in a healthy athlete. Anabolic steroids, like the C-17 alkylated oral steroid, will increase risk of liver cancer only if the user had liver problems before usage. As for your heart, high blood pressure is a claim that is over exaggerated and has been unconfirmed by many studies. Although some cases have shown low levels of HDL (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), the long-term cardiac risk factors have gone "unanswered". The same goes for an adult males prostate, which seems to be a legitimate concern because of excessive androgens. Finally, the psychiatric problem commonly known as "roid rage". According to Charles Yesalis, he defines this term as, "spontaneous, highly aggressive, out-of-control behavior where the police either were called or should have intervened." Studies have shown that only a small portion of steroid users have been reported showing psychiatric symptoms of aggression, where as many steroid users have feelings of euphoria and enhanced self-confidence. All of these risk factors can be avoided by seeing a physician first, taking the correct dosages, using a post-cycle, no smoking, and even discontinuing the supplement.

Since we now know the risks and benefits of steroid use, what about the other PEDs? 

     There are a wide variety of drugs out in this world that can show athletic improvements. Some may show these advancements with little to great adverse effects. Names of these PEDs are caffeine, human growth hormone, testosterone boosters, amphetamines, blood doping, EPO (erythropoietin), even alcohol and cocaine as well as several others. Even though I have so far been favoring the legalization of adult athletes to be granted usage of steroids, I do not condemn to use of alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, and other depressants or drugs of these kinds to be legal in professional sports. 

      In professional sports today and in the past, we know that there have been numerous athletes that have taken PEDs and gotten away with it, as well as those who did not. Take the NBA for example. Orlando Magic's forwards Hedo Turkoglu and Rishard Lewis both served suspensions after testing positive for steroids. Who is to say All-Star and former teammate Dwight Howard never used PEDs to form his bulbous shoulders or insane athleticism? After all, professional basketball is an intense competitive sport that involves running, jumping, strength, endurance, and rapid recovery during a long 82 game season. But, in today's culture of steroids, people think this substance makes you look, again, like the Terminator. So the NBA player's do not have the traditional looking physiques that explain doping. Then explain how Tour de France rider and recently stripped from his titles, Lance Armstrong, tested positive for traces of anabolic steroids and stayed so skinny. That is why former Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) mastermind Victor Conte said, "...Would they (anabolic steroids) be a benefit to an NBA player? Absolutely." 

     Legalizing "doping" to professional athletes would not be a smart move without regulations though. Not to come off as a double-standard, but there still should be rules to follow so the ill-advised professional athletes do not kill themselves by overdosing. Every professional athlete should take responsibility for their body by getting tested regularly whether it was for testosterone levels, cardiovascular system, hemoglobin levels, all possible adverse effects that PEDs cause. Also, keep the World Anti-Doping Agency's "Prohibited List", but mark off the PEDs that have been properly tested for adverse effects and keep those that are dangerous and or counterfeit. Also, add a "doping amnesty" to athletes in the past that have lost their championships or titles because of doping allegations.

 
      By allowing the use of performance-enhancing drugs, the culture of anti-doping regulations would lag behind the advancements and methods of athletes and physicians. Also, the safety standards for such use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes would be set to make sports have the same results, just on a higher playing field. People complain about competition not being fair because of doping, but by legalizing with regulations gives every athlete a fair opportunity to compete at the highest level possible.