Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Research Paper

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Performance enhancing drugs in sports present a very real problem. Recently, sports media covered the story of the University of Florida quarterback, Will Grier. He was suspended an entire calendar year from NCAA football for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs (Aschoff 1). Performance enhancing drugs are often a subject that is surrounded by questions that no one ever answers outside of the leagues in which these substances are banned (i.e. NCAA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, etc). This means that most people that are not involved in these leagues are not very educated. This is illustrated in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine by author Levent Özdemir. He is quoted as saying, “[s]ince the potential side effects of doping drugs are …show more content…
Additionally, other questions are raised about the ethical side of the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. Do these drugs translate to better stats and an improved chance for that player’s team to win? The answer is, almost always, yes. As it seems with the changing culture of sports, no one is exempt from accusations of misconduct. This leads someone to question, if he can perform at such a high level, then are there really side effects? The answer is, once again, yes. There are very serious, possibly life-threatening, side effects of using performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs present a very relevant, real threat not only to the player, but to the sport …show more content…
The sports governing bodies (i.e. NCAA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, etc) are very concerned with player health. For this reason, among others, they have banned performance enhancing drugs. To quote Dag Vidar Hanstad, Perspectives in Public Health, the author states in the article “Sport, health and drugs: a critical re-examination of some key issues and problems” that “the best-documented effects are those on the liver, serum lipids [,] and the reproductive system” (Hanstad 178). This same journal goes on to say that “[o]ther areas of concern are personality changes and behavioral changes, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular accidents, prostatic changes [,] and the immune functions” (Hanstad 178). As this medical journal clearly states that the athletes simply are not the same post-performance enhancing drugs. The toll that these drugs take on the user 's body is oftentimes irreversible. In concurrence to the first medical journal the Endocrine Reviews, also confirms these side effects to taking performance enhancing drugs. The drugs that were tested in the Endocrine Reviews are: anabolic steroids, androstenedione, human growth hormone (HGH), erythropoietin, diuretics, creatine, or other stimulants. The Endocrine Reviews states that some of the adverse side effects (just to name a few) are cardiovascular effects, psychiatric effects, and violent behaviors (Pope Jr., Wood, Rogol, Nyberg, Bowers

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