Athletes and The Use of Drugs and Performance Enhancing Supplements - Research Paper Example

 Performance Enhancement Drugs Introduction Performance enhancement drugs, also referred to as ergogenic aids, are drugs that people use to achieve a competitive advantage (Goldberg, 2010). In their 2005 policy statement on the use of performance-enhancing substances, the American Academy for Pediatrics’ Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness defined performance enhancing substances as any substance that an individual can take in non-pharmacological doses particularly with an intention of boosting their performance in sports. Further, the committee delineated that a substance enhances performance if it benefits an individual’s sports performance by boosting their ergogenic/endurance, power, strength, or speed, or by causing alterations on their body weight or body composition. Moreover, any substance that boosts performance by bringing about alterations in an individual’s behavior, perception of pain and/or arousal level ought to be considered as performance-enhancing (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). This paper discusses the use of performance enhancement drugs among athletes and holds the position that anything that enhances athletic performance unnaturally should be banned seeing that it perverts the integrity of competition. Maximizing an individual’s athletic performance abilities is not only arduous, but also a time-consuming undertaking that calls for among others, proper hydration, good nutrition, sufficient sleep, avoidance of supplements, moderate use of alcohol, and quality coaching and practice. Unluckily, in their efforts to attain peak athletic performance levels, some athletes do not rely on natural resources. They instead perceive a need for something that will facilitate and speed up the natural route to optimal athletic performance. They therefore end up giving in to the urge of using performance enhancement drugs in order to achieve their goal of emerging the very best athlete that they can possibly be. It is important to point out that nearly always, media reports on some alleged incident of use of performance enhancement drug in the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, or among Olympic track-and-field high profile participants (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). Brief history of performance enhancement drugs Greek athletes ate mushrooms as early as the third century B.C to boost their performance. During the 1800s, athletes consumed nitroglycerin, opium, strychnine, and alcohol to improve their performance. In 1904, American Thomas Hicks won the Olympic Games marathon after purportedly consuming brandy and strychnine, and he was not disqualified. In the 1940s, some bodybuilders and athletes, in order to increase their training regimen and to intensify their body mass, consumed anabolic steroids. In the last few years, drug use in sports has become more publicized – stories of the use of drugs by athletes have abounded in the media. The sporting careers of such famous people as Marion Jones have gone down the drain as a result of the use of drugs. Most affected is the Major League Baseball, which has attracted much adverse attention as a result of its scandal with performance enhancing substances. Seeing that athletes are considered as role models, their fall from grace touches a chord. Furthermore, the use of these drugs by athletes is antithetical to the conception that they embody a healthy lifestyle. The gender of an athlete as well as the kind of sport they played determined their drug use. For instance, those taking part in contact sports seemed to prefer heroin, cocaine, and crack; while those who took part in noncontact sport opted for amphetamines. Regardless of whether athletes engaged in contact or noncontact sports, marijuana was the most preferred drug. While female athletes preferred morphine and amphetamines/uppers, male athletes preferred anabolic steroids, red alcohol, marijuana, heroin, ecstacy, caffeine, LSD, and crank. As far as alcohol is concerned, men preferred beer while women preferred wine (Goldberg, 2010). There is an infinite number and kinds of performance-enhancement drugs, the general motive behind their use by athletes being to improve their performance. However, a number of athletes also use sports supplements to enhance their appearance (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). Risky illegal performance enhancers/banned drug classes Performance-enhancement substances are categorized into two: illegal performance enhancers and legal performance enhancers. Legal performance-enhancement substances include both dietary supplements and over-the-counter drugs while illegal performance-enhancement substances include anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), anabolic steroid precursors, human growth hormones, prohormones as well as a large array of other drugs acquired mainly via the black market (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). The focus of this research is on illegal performance-enhancement substances. i) Anabolic-androgenic steroids Anabolic steroids are synthetic substances related to the male sex hormones – they mimic the action of testosterone. These substances are consumed by rubbing into the skin, taking them orally, or through injection (Scott, 2008). It is believed that if motivated people who follow a proper diet and train intensively consume the drugs, they boost their bulk and strength. Before their use in athletics, German soldiers used them to boost their aggressiveness and muscle strength during WWII. Initial report of the use of these substances by female and male Soviet athletes appeared in the year 1954. Shortly afterwards, American weightlifters started consuming them, and swimmers and football players followed suit (Goldberg, 2010). Upon combining all categories of competitive sport, anabolic-androgenic steroids are the most popularly abused performance-enhancement drug. Seven years ago, the estimate usage of AAS among male college athletes was fifteen percent and six percent among female college athletes, while the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported a range of one to six percent among athletes. The study of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the year 2005 revealed that over half of anabolic-androgenic steroids use starts in high school, which clearly indicates that athletes bring their performance-enhancement drug use problems and patterns with them to college. This behavior might be emanating from either sporadic or non-existent drug testing at the high school level. Athletes engage in the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids anticipating that they would experience an increase in their muscular strength, increased muscle mass/hypertrophy, reduced body fat more so among female users, and fast recovery following high-intensity sessions of training (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). ii) Anabolic steroid precursors The infamous androstenedione, dehydroeiiandrosterone (DHEA) and androstenediol are the most common anabolic steroid precursors. Just like the users of anabolic-androgenic steroid, users of anabolic steroid precursors seek increased muscular strength, fast recovery following intense training sessions, hypertrophy and enhanced body composition. They anticipate these benefits since anabolic steroid precursors act to boost the production of testosterone. Consumers of these performance-enhancement substances are faced with a number of potential health problems (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). College athletes obtain steroids from drug stores, gas stations, grocery, through the internet, from coaches, and friends. There are both short-term and long-term side effects associated with their use. Among other effects, they lead to acne, infertility, liver and kidney tumors. It is however important to note that when prescribed by physicians, anabolic steroids have medical benefits (Goldberg, 2010). iii) Human growth hormones These drugs stimulate protein synthesis and athletes use them as a doping agent. They like them because of its ability to reduce body fat and because they are hard to detect in random drug tests. They are mostly used together with anabolic steroids because they are said to increase their effects. According to anecdotal reports, growth hormones lead to impressive musculoskeletal performance changes in athletes. Erythropoietin is a hormone that athletes reportedly abuse, that increases the production of red blood cells and enhances endurance. Its level increases in response to aerobic endurance exercises such as marathon running. Athletes’ use of this drug results into significant cardiovascular risk (e.g. heart diseases), leading to possible death. Other side effects of growth stimulating hormones include increased cholesterol levels, increased bone growth of the jaw, feet, forehead, and hands. It also leads to impotence, and high blood sugars (Baechle, Earle, & National Strength & Conditioning Association (U.S.) 2008). Caffeine For several decades, most athletes have used caffeine to enhance performance. Its popularity in enhancing performance began 25 years ago when Dr. David Costill of Ball State University reported its ability to improve endurance performance due to its ability to raise fat oxidation and to spare the use of muscle glycogen. Caffeine is also believed to delay fatigue and to increase concentration of hormone-like substances in the brain during exercise. These hormone-like substances create a sense of well being, affect mood, and reduce pain perception (Ivy & Portman, 2010). Among others, other illegal performance-enhancement substances include amphetamines, ritalin, peptide hormones and other non-steroidal hormones. Effects of Performance enhancing drugs Psychological effects of performance enhancing substances include impaired judgment, aggression, irritability, delusions, arousal, mood swings, depression, mania, psychotic episodes, psychosis, paranoid jealousy and addiction. Other adverse effects include cardiovascular problems, infertility/impotence, strokes, permanent breast enlargement in both men and women, menstrual irregularities and deep voices in women, acne, and liver disease, among others (Scott, 2008 & Baechle, Earle, & National Strength & Conditioning Association (U.S.) 2008). Regulation of the use of performance enhancement drugs Until recently, performance enhancing drugs’ regulation in sports has largely been left to governing bodies of respective sports. Some countries however have prohibited the unauthorized possession or distribution of some of these drugs. These include the federal law of the US. Although attempts to regulate their use date back in history, it is only in the last two and a half decades that there have been meaningful attempts to regulate them. Unfortunately, there is no common standard for regulating performance enhancing drugs in sport. Moreover, there is considerable hypocrisy and inconsistency in performance enhancing drugs’ regulation. The use of these drugs is much more prevalent in some sports than in others. In the US, dietary/herbal supplements’ regulation is extremely lax despite the fact that they account for thousands of adverse health outcomes among users every year. As opposed to producers of prescription drugs, FDA does not require those who produce dietary supplements to give a report of adverse events related to the use of their products. Initially, many performance enhancing substances have been categorized as dietary supplements and this way, they have been legal and used widely in sports, before being regrouped as Schedule III controlled substances when substantial proof of their potential harm accumulates (Mosher and Akins, 2007). Drug testing in sports Drug testing for athletes is a niche of forensic toxicology that presents unique challenges to sports organizations, athletes, and toxicologists. Toxicologists perform an autopsy and check biological samples such as urine and blood for traces of drugs. However, they face challenges because violators have learnt to develop strategies to beat drug tests and whenever they anticipate that they will be tested, they are able to adjust doses and schedules to ensure that all traces of illegal substances are gone. Toxicologists should therefore work towards improving testing methods and accuracy (Bell, Fisher, & Shaler, 2008). The national collegiate athletic association This is a nonprofit organization that manages the athletic activities of various universities and colleges in the US and Canada. The 2005’s National Collegiate Athletic Association study, which they conduct every four years, on the use of performance enhancement drugs among college student-athletes revealed that public perceptions of the use of performance enhancement drugs in college athletes is less common than popularly thought. According to NCAAS, majority of college athletes do not utilize performance-enhancement drugs. Additionally, in a sports-illustrated pool conducted in the year 2008, ninety-nine percent of the respondents asserted that they would not use steroids to boost their performance in spots just because professional athletes do. This bolstered an opinion that the National Center for Drug Free Sport’s president, Dr. Frank Uryasz, had when he questioned the impact that steroid use had in professional sports in college athletes (Kissinger and Miller, 2009). Conclusion Based on the logic that in athletic competition, anything that enhances athletic performance unnaturally should be banned since it perverts the integrity of competition; illegal performance enhancement substances as well as such widely accepted supplements as asprins, creatine, vitamins, amino acids, among others should be banned seeing that they all assist athletes and enhance performance. It is important to note that the use of any drugs carries some level of risk and the government needs to put more effort towards their regulation – there is need for the development of a policy governing the use of these substances in sports in order to protect the health of athletes. Their dangerous side effects should as well be exposed. As Scott (2008) notes, the use performance-enhancing drugs is not only dangerous but it also reduces the significance of sportsmanship. Moreover, most these substances cost a lot of money, thereby straining the economy. For instance, research indicates that in Canada more than one billion dollars goes to sports supplements every year (Goldberg, 2010). References Baechle, T. R., Earle, R. W., & National Strength & Conditioning Association (U.S.). (2008). Essentials of strength training and conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Bell, S., Fisher, B. A. J., & Shaler, R. C. (2008). Encyclopedia of forensic science. New York, NY: Facts On File. Goldberg, R. (2010). Drugs across the spectrum. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Ivy, J. & Portman, R. (2010). The Performance Zone: Your Nutrition Action Plan for Greater Endurance & Sports Performance (Large Print 16pt). United States: ReadHowYouWant.com. Kissinger, D. B. & Miller, M. T. (2009). College Student-Athletes: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Implications. Charlotte, North Carolina: IAP. Mosher, C. J., & Akins, S. (2007). Drugs and drug policy: The control of consciousness alteration. Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.: Sage. Scott, M. (2008). The Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports. Retrieved from http://www.deltacollege.edu/org/deltawinds/DWOnline08/theuseofperformance.html Read More