Performance Enhancing Drugs

Doping is well known to be the leading cause for downfall of any athlete. In the whole of the world, doping is considered to be the biggest act of self misconduct on the part of the athlete. On November 10, 1999 in Switzerland, the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) was founded . The Agency's main objective is to raise promote, coordinate, monitor and fight against doping until every single enhancing drug is banned from sports entirely. All athletes train as a way of improving on their performance levels, but when effective training fails to give that athlete the boost he or she needs to excel in the sport, performance enhancing drugs get introduced to the athletes and they therefore use these drugs. The life of an athlete is based on the stages

Despite the fact that the World Anti-Doping Agency is making headway in the fight of banning all drugs from sports, the truth is that athletes will forever use these drugs as a means of success. In sports, there are activities that require more training than others such as soccer, basketball , football, running, swimming, tennis and so on. Due to the excessive training or practicing these athletes go through, they decide to use enhancing drugs as a way of performing at high levels without any practice. The use of performance enhancing drugs may lead to serious health risks or even death. PED’s included in the prohibited list has its own risks or adverse effects.These substances that are given to athletes are usually manufactured and sold illegally because the are not allowed in sports and may include impurities. When the substances are used, they cause severe health problems. Some athletes may use a combination of drugs when only one does not seem to work, this will be much more serious and thus increasing the risk of a fatal outcome. As complex interactions can occur among various types of drugs. The side effects of taking a combination of drugs are likely to be severe and serious and thus increase the risk of an even more fatal

With the availability of these drugs at the disposal of the athletes, they easily get addicted when they notice major improvements in their performances far better than they normally perform. Different drugs have different substances that have the addictive sensation in them. When these athletes start using the drugs and realize sudden changes in their athletic performances, the athletes decide to keep using these drugs so they be at the top of their games. Drugs can create physical and psychological dependence and when the drugs are discontinued, withdrawal symptoms may occur as a result of dependence. The prolonged use of large dosages of performance enhancing substances may also cause permanent and irreversible side effects. Some of these drugs are stimulants, cannabis and steroids. Steroids are the most known drugs that get abused by athletes and this is because, of all drugs, steroids are known to have the substances with the most effective results when athletes take them and that is why they are most used in sports. Research shows that people who suffer from addiction often have one or more accompanying medical issues, which may include lung or cardiovascular diseases, stroke, cancer(depends on what drug is being used) and mental disorders(Volkow, 2016). These diseases