In recent times there has been more exposure to the illegal drug culture in sport, such as the Essendon drug scandal . There is evidence of an increasing demand for use of peptides in modern day sport. ‘Peptides and hormones are considered a new generation of substances and most are prohibited in sport’ . Peptides occur naturally in the body but can be used as a drug. When used as a drug peptides take many forms. The long-term consequences of the use of peptides are blurred. This report explores the effects peptides have on an athlete and whether some peptides should remain illegal.
What is a peptide?
A peptide is a chemical compound consisting of two or more amino acids that are joined by a peptide bond. This bond is a unique connection in which the nitrogen atom of one amino acid binds to the carboxyl carbon atom of another.
Peptides are often categorized according to the number of amino acid residues. They are simply very short proteins. Unlike the bulk of proteins that provide the foundation for cells or get used up for energy, a few of these peptides actually ‘communicate’ with cells and act as hormones. Peptide hormones, similar to other hormones, travel throughout the blood stream all over the body and only a few have metabolic, image or performance enhancing effects.
Peptides have many different uses. They occur naturally in every call of every living thing. They have many functions including: the construction of enzymes to assist the body break down foreign substances and produce antibiotics for the immune system and hormones that regulate everything from growth to sexual development. Life would not be possible without peptides .
Are peptides steroids?
There are some similarities between steroids and pe...
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...e term ‘performance-enhancing drug’. For example a weight loss drug could assist a professional fighter unethically improve body composition before weigh-ins just like stimulants can increase a sprinters split.
Not all peptides hormones interact with muscles or metabolism in a way that would increase an athlete’s performance. Some peptides communicate singularly with other tissues. As an example, the peptide that causes the skin to produce more pigment is Melanotan, and is not a drug likely to improve athletic ability.
AOD-9604 is the peptide Jobe Watson (AFL player) confessed via interview he was injected with. AOD-9604 was developed by researches aiming to combat obesity by increasing metabolic breakdown of sorted fats and is likely to have therapeutic potential in Australia’s obesity epidemic . But its effects are seen in a way that they can misuse in sport.
n.d. - n.d. Peptides and Proteins. Proteins. Retrieved July 25, 2008, from http://www.cd http://www.cem.msu.edu/reusch/VirtualText/protein2.htm Ophardt, C. E. (2003).
MacAuley, Domhnall. “Drugs in Sport.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, 313.7051, 7/27/96, 211. Online. EBSCOhost. 16 Nov. 1999. http://www.EBSCOhost.com.
Protein have connection with amino acid to help in functions of: skin, muscle, hair and bones
Several track and field athletes all over the world have been known to use enhancement drugs over the years without testing positive, however, in recent times, more and more athletes are being tested positive for enhancement drug use due to the improvements of medical technology. In the book The dirtiest race in history: Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the 1988 Olympic 100 final, Richard Moore stated that all of the top five athletes in the 100 meter final were using enhancement drugs, but only one athlete was stripped of his medal. This brings us to the question; do enhancement drugs help an athlete? Enhancement drugs cause negative effect physically, emotionally and socially, hence the percentages of doping victims are still increasing.
For those who've never heard of the term PED's, Performance enhancing drugs are any supplements that are considered to allow one perform better in their respective sports ,such as anabolic steroids and HGH( Human Growth hormones). The effects of these supplements can range from expediting muscle to increasing one's stamina. PEDs began to become the center of controversy when the I.O.C set up a medical commission to oversee the fight against doping, which ultimately lead to the ban of PED's in professional sports. Stemming off from the I.O.C...
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite, and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids, one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced.
Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hop es of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity. This is why the search is now on to find some legal means of enhancing athletic per formance.
Keeping drugs out of athletic competition has only become more difficult for sports authorities since drug testing was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1968. Changing social norms and technology, which spurred the initial drive to ban drugs in sports, may end up settling the debate. Western societies have shown increasing tolerance for using drugs to enhance performance in areas of life outside of athletics. Drugs such as Viagra, Prozac, and Ritalin are now regularly prescribed to improve sexual, social, and academic performance. It may simply be a matter of time before the “integrity” of athletics no longer appears threatened by performanceenhancing drugs, particularly if safer drugs are developed. The ethical debate over whether or not athletes should use performance-enhancing drugs is one of the issues discussed in At Issue: Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Other issues include the effectiveness of drug testing, the rise of steroid use among teenage athletes, and the dangers of dietary supplements.
In total, there are around 20 amino acids that the human body uses to build proteins.
Each protein is a large complex molecule; these molecules are made up of. of a string of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids that occur naturally to form proteins and they all have the same basic structure. The. The 20 amino acids the body needs can be linked in.
Multiple amino acids can be strung together to make a protein, just like multiple bricks can be assembled to build a house. There are 21 different amino acids, and each one is a little different from one another. However, all amino acids have the same molecular backbone. When two amino acids are joined together, a dipeptide is formed. A special chemical bond called a peptide bond holds together two amino acids. Proteins usually consist of multiple amino acids that are held together by peptide bonds. So, the bigger the protein, the more amino acids and peptide bonds there are. Proteins consist of one or more polypeptide chains. Each polypeptide chain consists of smaller sub-units or amino acids that are linked together. Amino acids serve as the building blocks of polypeptides, and polypeptides serve as the building blocks of
Kayser, Bengt, Alexandre Mauron, and Andy Miah. "Viewpoint Legalisation of Performance-enhancing Drugs." The Lancet. The Lancet, Dec. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.
Proteins are considered to be the most versatile macromolecules in a living system. This is because they serve crucial functions in all biological processes. Proteins are linear polymers, and they are made up of monomer units that are called amino acids. The sequence of the amino acids linked together is referred to as the primary structure. A protein will spontaneously fold up into a 3D shape caused by the hydrogen bonding of amino acids near each other. This 3D structure is determined by the sequence of the amino acids. The 3D structure is referred to as the secondary structure. There is also a tertiary structure, which is formed by the long-range interactions of the amino acids. Protein function is directly dependent on this 3D structure.
Plant and Animal Research Paper By: Connor Logeman A performance enhancing drug is any substance taken by athletes to improve performance. Some athletes take straight testosterone to increases their muscle mass and strength. Other forms allow athletes to train harder and recover faster, or increases the amount of red blood cells, resulting in more oxygen to your muscles. There are many more types of performance enhancing drugs, but they all work very similarly.
Performance enhancing drugs are substances or methods that can be used to improve the performance of humans during any physical activity. According to WADA, a substance is prohibited when it has any of the following characteristics: the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance, it represents an actual or potential health risk to an athlete or that it violates the spirit of sport. (USADA (2017) WADA Prohibited list, Available at:https://www.usada.org/substances/prohibited-list/ ) During the Essendon Football Club’s supplements program in 2012 that became one of the sports longest running sagas. Many of the clubs players were found to be injected with banned peptides. Peptides are natural biological or artificially manufactured short