Performance Maintenance in Athletes - Research Paper Example

Performance enhancing drugs in sports Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts inserts Introduction The world of sports has always been attracted the attention of many that most of the people wish to reach at the greatest height in sports. But they confront with certain barriers such as physical unfitness or poor financial background that prevent them from accomplishing their ultimate goal of life. Yet another group of athletes rely on drugs in order to reach at the predetermined destination but gradually it destroys their vitality and vigor and throws them out of the track forever. Many people show great interest in sports and they express their worship to the athletes in different ways. Some of them accept athletes as roll models in their life. This is a competitive world and the competition is spread in almost all sectors. By all means, sport is an important part of the competence. For surviving and winning in the competence at the sports field athletes want to maintain and boost their performance more and more. For this reason they always seek the methods for enhancing their performance in competitions and consider drug as the suitable stimuli for achieving their aims. Athletes prefer different types of performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. There are certain reasons behind the use of drugs by athletes. In the book, Drugs in sports, David R. Mottram reveals many important factors related to the use of drugs in sports. In this book he denominates four reasons for the use of drugs in sports. They are listed below. Justifying therapeutic use of drug: - Like other people athletes may be suffer due to illness and they take treatment. Sometimes they take self medication as the part of treatment. Performance maintenance: - As part of the treatments which occurs at the time of their practicing or some other situation they forced to take treatments. At this time the medicines they took for the sports injuries many include drugs. Recreation or social use: - As part of the entertainment or social use athletes uses drugs. Performance enhancement: - Athletes use drugs as one of the best methods for enhancing their performance which will help them to achieve their ultimate aim in the competitions. (Mottram, 2003, p.20.). From the above mentioned four points it is clear that athletes use drugs for improving their performance. Some of the important factors regarding the performance enhancing drugs in sports are discussed below. Performance enhancing drugs athletes use in sports today Almost all kinds of drugs preferred by the athletes contain substances which help the improvement of their athletic performance. It is not a new phenomenon; in the historical period itself athletes prefer drugs for their performance enrichment. It is not limited to one or two types. The most commonly preferred drug types are steroids and amphetamines and health supplements. First two types come under controlled substances, that is its production and distribution are controlled by the legal authority. One of the major reasons for this strict controlling is its high possibility of abuse especially by the athletes and trainers. Health supplements are comparatively less restricted and researched by government policies. Almost all steroids contain androgen and estrogen, the main male and female hormones which affect the sexual and emotional processes in human body. Anabolic steroids are the best example for this and many sportsmen prefer nowadays. It comes under steroid type drugs and works like androgen. Corticosteroids are other steroid popular in today’s athlete’s world. Working of Anabolic steroids Anabolic steroids are motivating the protein synthesis which will enhance muscle growth in human body. Normally the athletes prefer the weight training as the best method for the muscle growth. Healing the micro-tears is essential for the muscle growth. This healing process is done by protein synthesis. Some examples for anabolic steroids are ‘closterbol,’ ‘danazol,’ ‘dihydroxytestosterone,’ ‘testosterone’ and ‘tibolone’ (Cohen, 2009.). Some other performance types of drugs used for performance enhancement are: 1. Steroid precursors: - This is a substance which is changed as anabolic steroids by the body. That is this drugs are also used for enhancing muscle mass. Some of the commonly used Steroid precursors are ‘androstenediol,’ ‘DHEA,’ ‘norandrostenediol’ and so on. Steroid precursors are also called ‘prohormones.’ 2. Steroid masking agents: - Epitestrsterone, probenicid and plasma expanders are some of the popularly steroid masking agents in this period. 3. Stimulants: - Amphetamines and clenbuterol are two examples for stimulants. Some of the reasons for the usage of this kind of drugs are improving the energy level, workout recovery; enhance the working of hormones, reducing fat and increasing muscle mass. Items included in WADA list In 2006 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a list which includes drugs or substances commonly used by athletes today. In the book, Performance-Enhancing Medication and Drugs of Abuse, Mark S. Gold clearly mentions about the items included in this list. According to this book WADA includes nine items in the list. Major items included in that list are anabolic agents, they are of many types like exogenous and endogenous anabolic androgenic steroids and other anabolic agents, hormones and related substances, prohibits Beta-2 Agents, prohibit agents and diuretics, masking agents, stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids and glucocorticoserooids. They also include blood doping, efaproxial, tampering, and gene doping, PI alcohol and Ps Beta Blockers usage in their list. They prohibit the usage of all these kinds of drugs or methods used for the performance enhancement adopted by athletes (Gold, 2007, p.8.). The benefits of using performance enhancing drugs Even if the WADA and other international sports councils banned the usage of drugs in athletes, many of them show a tendency for using it by ignoring the rules and regulations. From this it is clear that athletes feel or get some benefits trough the usage of drugs. One of the important benefits of drug usage is that it helps for enhancing their performance and for achieving more and more success in the competitions. It helps athletes to increase their strength, stamina and endurance and speed. It also helps them to recover from strong workout, continuous and heavy practice and to overcome sports injuries. Rapid recovery from injuries and other kinds of tiredness are very important qualities for an athlete. They will be forced to continuous practices and for participating competitions frequently. At this situation they may exhaust and it will affect their performance. In this situation they need to keep and hold their positions, otherwise they will be pushed back. In this situation they try new methods and ways for enhancing their performance and drugs give a stimulus for getting enhancement for athletes. In short drug’s usage helps them for achieving new targets in a crooked way. That is, by increasing the muscle mass, rapid recovery from performance and training workload, enhancing hormones, and so on. Some of the important benefits of performance enhancing drugs are listed below: It helps athletes to play better. Performance enhancement drugs helps for the faster growth of muscles and to increase muscle mass. It gives more energy and endurance for the athletes without having much effort. It helps them to improve their performance for a limited time. By using performance enhancement drugs athletes can perform well, it will help them for maintain their career for long time. It helps them for improving their self-efficiency. The possible negative effects of using performance enhancing drugs It has often been identified that the abuse of drugs causes many negative effects. Athletes often use it widely for stimulation when aiming greater heights of their athletic career. All most all countries and the sports organizations and WADA prohibit the usage of performance enhancing drugs usage in Athletes due to its negative effects. It has number of side effects which will exploit the future and life of athletes. If an athlete is caught red-handed, he will loose his career as an athlete either for some years or for his entire lifespan. It is the biggest tragedy in an athlete’s life. Some of the important side effects of anabolic steroids are listed below: Liver toxicity: - It badly affects liver’s capability for detoxify substances and it causes damage and effect deceases to the liver like hepatitis and inflammation. Other deceases liver scarring, cirrhosis and permanent liver failure. Acne: - Usage of anabolic steroids will cause to augmented skin secretion and acne in athletes especially in teenagers. Sexual dysfunction: - By the usage of athlete’s intake large volume of hormones from outside. It will reduce or blackout normal hormone production in one’s body. It causes testicular atrophy and other sexual dysfunctions. It has another possibility, testosterone hormone intakes may convert into estrogen. Hair loss: - Usage of anabolic steroids will speed up hair loss due to the ‘Dihydrotestosterone’ DTH (Cohen, 2009.). Causes for depression: - different studies have identified the ill-effect of the abuse of steroids that the continuous usage of it leads one to depression. These studies show that the abuse of it affects hormones like testosterone and estragon which later causes depression. As a remedy for recovering to good health, doctors suggest post cycle drugs that help the drug abuser to re-establish his/her former state. It also affects the drug negatively in another way that it denies him all the legal protections and medical insurance. Increase in Cholesterol levels and Blood Pressure: - another negative effect of the abuse of drugs and steroids is that it causes for the increase of Cholesterol levels and Blood Pressure. Though the extensive usage of drugs provides the user momentary satisfaction and stimulation to the user, it later paves way for serious health issues which sometimes takes away one’s life. Along with these health problems, medical science has identified some minor health issues like, Altered Thyroid Function, Headaches, Nose bleeds, cramps and beastlike tissue in men (Rivera, 2009.). Emotional side effect of Performance-Enhancing Drugs One can see the impending athletic benefits of steroids among the weightlifters and in top level athletes who began to use it commonly. Seeking to achieve strength and immensity for their body, athletes depend on steroids and other drugs. As a result of hormonal imbalances in males there is possibility for them to be directed to escalating of breast. Excessive use of steroids affects the emotional sides of its consumer. One of the major predicaments is that the abuse of drugs causes for aggressive behavior. Stopping the use steroids often cause for depression and other indications of extraction and inferiority. Analyzing the health conditions of steroid users, one can find that majority of people use drugs without proper medical directions or assistance. Unhealthy use of needles often leads to extend severe diseases such as HIV and hepatitis among the abusers of steroids. Presence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes for serious physical and emotional problems. Maintaining drug program is more difficult and it promotes various problems to both economic and organizational fields. Another thought provoking matter is the evident with the abuse of performance enhancing drugs among teenagers. Studies prove that excessive use of steroids and other drugs prevent the smooth functioning of human body and severe emotional problems drag the teenagers to suicide and other antisocial activities. Conclusion Regarding the abuse of drugs in sports, one can infer that it affects the well being of an athlete and it is against the sports ethics. Evaluation of the abuse of drugs reveals the fact that there are different reasons that attract one to it. Along with the deliberate attempts to raise their performance level, some others get addicted to drugs unknowingly; as an after effect of self treatment. But regarding some others who are caught up in different dope tests, it is clear that they take overdose medicines for stimulation and maintaining/enhancing their performance. To conclude, one can say that abuse of drugs should be prevented and there should be attempts that assuring a healthy competition in sports. Works cited: Cohen, M., Steven. "Anabolic Steroids in Sports". Suite 101.com. 7 Aug 2009. . Gold, S., Mark. Performance-Enhancing Medications and Drugs of Abuse. Routledge, 2007. Mottram, R., David . Drugs in sport . Routledge, 2003. Rivera, Hugo. "The Myths and Dangers of Anabolic Steroid Usage". About.com. 7 Aug 2009. . Read More