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Peformance enhancing drugs
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Although most athletes are dedicated to working hard in practice and training hard in the off-season, there are other athletes that aren’t so dedicated and want to skip the blood, sweat and tears part of becoming the best athlete. Other athletes try hard to become the best but they are limited by the their God-given characteristics. In high school being an athlete is all about having fun, and some want to aspire and make it to the next level (NCAA), but lots of kids don’t realize how much difference there is being a college athlete. In college sports everybody is the cream of the crop, and the level of competition is extremely higher compared to high school. This dilemma causes some athletes to consider taking ergogenic drugs, some which may have been banned by the NCAA and illegal. Suspension of play for a year is the cost if an athlete’s test shows them positive for an illegal drug. Catching drug cheats through frequent urine examinations is essential if NCAA sports are to be conducted on a level playing field. Performance enhancing drugs or ergogenic aids are supplements or drugs that help the body become bigger, stronger and faster. Unfortunately the NCAA bans not all but a majority of the performance enhancing drugs on the market. Although the short-term effects of these performance-enhancing drugs are proven to be beneficial to an athlete, the long-term effects are not always healthy. There are hundreds of supplements and P.E.D’s out on the free market, but in the NCAA there are a few that are abused significantly more that others. Steroids, Creatine, and growth hormones and also a technique known as blood doping are among the most abused ways to cheat in the NCAA. Then there are also the common street drugs, which are not P.E.D.’s but can make some athletes feel as if they were. Steroids are an illegal form of performance enhancing drugs based on the male hormone testosterone. Steroids mimic the effects of testosterone in the body, which increases the body's ability to recover after exercise as well as increasing muscle mass in a diminished period of time (anabolic 1). It sounds like a great boost to athletic performance but steroids also come with a long list of potential side effects including acne, mood swings, increased hair growth, kidney damage, heart failure, and death (anabolic 1). Although this list provides plenty of reasons for people not to use these drugs studies have shown a dramatic increase in their abuse especially in college athletes such as track and field, football, wrestling, and swimming are prime areas where athletes use the drugs for better recovery and improved performance. Creatine is among the most wide used P.E.D.’s in college sports and is not banned by the NCAA. Creatine is a natural amino acid produced by the body that helps the muscles recover after a workout and enables them to do more work. Creatine is relatively new and is still being tested for its effectiveness but one study showed a 34% increase in muscle mass after beginning a steady program of creatine and weight lifting for three months (creatine story 1). Although the benefits are great as seen by these results studies have also shown potential side effects of long-term kidney damage, and the inhibited production of creatine naturally in the body (creatine story 2).
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