Steroid and Sports

Parag Viradia
English
02/02/05

“Steroid and Sports”

Question: why athletes (professional and amateur) go to the extreme of endangering themselves to achieve brief higher performance?
I am an athlete and have come across many talks about drugs that are supposed to give you an edge on the competition. Sports have been a very important part of life. Athletes are expected to perform at there very best, in whatever event they are performing in. In order to perform well in an event one needs to put his 100% and to do that one needs to word hard all the time. Steroid is the only way to get around hard work. Lot of people chooses to use steroids, just looking at the positive side of it. As every coin has two sides, there is other side to the steroid use.
“Steroids are drugs derived from naturally occurring male anabolic hormone testosterone. Anabolic steroid more preciously know as anabolic/androgenic steroid belong to group known as ergogenic or so called “performance enhancing,” drugs.” anabolic steroids actually don’t work. Anabolic steroids are usually taken in a pill form or some by injection.
A normal prescribed dose for medical reasons is 1-5 milligrams, but athletes, on the other hand, take hundred of milligrams which result into various kinds of health problems. Steroid helps increase body weight and muscle mass. They also help improve your muscle strength and endurance. On the other side they have on effect on the user’s performance, neither it improves person’s agility, skills and cardiovascular capacity. Mega-dosing is hazardous to health. The external effect is easily seen but the internal effects are not evident until it’s too late. Steroids can also cause behavior changes ranging from aggression, hostility and irritability to psychotic behavior sometimes called "roid rages." Steroid use has an adverse effect on the body both in males and females. Moreover steroids are addictive and once started are very hard to quit.
Now I am left with a question of whether anabolic steroids are really helpful or not?



Work cited
http://espn.go.com/special/s/drugsandsports/steroids.html