For many years professional athletes, as well as those striving to become professional athletes have turned to supplements. According to an Article in the Journal of Romanian Sports Medicine Society, the use of natural herbs has been traced back to the Ancient Olympic games of Greece, where competitors consumed infused herbs and mushrooms in an effort to enhance their performance (Mazzeo, Filomena; Ascione, Antonio 2013). The promise of enhanced performance, greater power, and super natural strength has driven many to the dark side of the ergogenic world. The use of ergogenic aids of any type, brings about many differences of opinion and is the topic of great debates the entire world. Ergogenic aids may in fact be one of the few topics that raise eyebrows worldwide. So what exactly is an Ergogenic aid? In laymen's terms an ergogenic aids is any substance, technic, mechanism that is designed to enhance a person naturally occurring abilities to give the user a competitive edge. The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (JISSN) describes an ergogenic as "Any training technique, mechanical device, nutritional practice, pharmacological method, or psychological technique that can improve exercise performance capacity and/or enhance training adaptations This includes aids that may help prepare an individual to exercise, improve the efficiency of exercise, and/or enhance recovery from exercise. Ergogenic aids may also allow an individual to tolerate heavy training to a greater degree by helping them recover faster or help them stay injury-free and/or healthy during intense training" (Richard B Kreider, 2010). The use of ergogenic aids dates back to the very origin of the Olympic Games. The negative stigmatism ... ... middle of paper ... .... . Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview Gordon, A. (2002). Steroids: The hard truth. School Library Journal, 48(6), 60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview Mazzeo, F., & Ascione, A. (2013). Anabolic androgenic steroids and doping in sport. Medicina Sportiva : Journal of Romanian Sports Medicine Society, 9(1), 2009-2020. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview Richard B Kreider. Retrieved from Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2010, 7:7 Williams, M. H. (1996). Ergogenic aids: A means to citius, altius, fortius, and olympic gold? Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 67(3), 7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview Wilmore, J. Costill, D. Kenny, W. (2012). Physiology of Sport & Exercise (5th ed.) Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
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Jost, Kenneth. "Performance-Enhancing Drugs: An Overview." Performance Enhancing Drugs. Ed. Louise Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Rpt. from "Sports and Drugs." CQ Researcher 14 (23 July 2004): 616-622. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
This essay will explain the hormone Erythropoietin, its effects and its role in the professional sporting industry. Explaining what Erythropoietin is, the process Erythropoiesis, its role in the body, its side effects vs. benefits and its role in modern sport will form the basis of this essay. By the conclusion of this essay my point of view will be that naturally occurring Erythropoietin is integral to homeostasis and synthetic Erythropoietin should only be used for specific medical conditions rather than as a performance enhancer in professional sport.
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.
Sweat. Blood. Tears. Fruit punch Gatorade. Many people all around the world play sports whether it is Football, Baseball, Tennis, Swimming, Wrestling or Track. People have come together and played sports since the begging of time; the Olympics unites people all over the world. However, once in a while shocking and sometimes fatal injuries can occur. Although sports teams prior to sports medicine have employed team physicians for numerous years, the field of sports medicine did not arise until about the 20th century. The first textbook on the subject of sports medicine was published in 1910 to help athletes avoid fatal injuries. Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness, treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. There is danger in almost any sport and athlete participated in; sports have caused many life altering injuries and sometimes even death. Due to sports medicine becoming a new and growing health care profession, many injures have went undocumented. The common athletic trainer may deal with minor cuts and bruises, muscle cramps, ACL sprains, ankle sprains, shin splints and maybe even a broken bone; but once in a while they can experience extreme injures. There has been various outrageous and gruesome injuries throughout sports medicine history.
There are three main classifications of drugs in athletics. The first class is performance continuance drugs, which is the only accepted class in athletics. This class contains such drugs as aspirin, ibuprofen, and asthma inhalers. The se...
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of an 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. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the sports world did not allow anabolic steroids as well. With the use of steroids no longer permitted athletes began to look for other alternatives. On the rise is two substances called creatine and androstenedione, both of which are sold over the counter. These two performance enhancers have only had minimal testing done on them, excluding the long-term effects, simply because they haven't been around long enough. Creatine and androstenedione have been said to produce results like steroids without the side effects. The truth is they do produce side effects and irregular muscle growth. By banning the use of performance enhancing drugs, just like steroids, sports competition will have a much healthier and fairer environment to participate in.
March 8th, 2004 was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive and action packed regular season hockey game between feuding rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks. The game slipped away from the Canucks, with the Avalanche up 6-2 heading into the third period. The heated contested already had its fair share of fighting majors, but an incident that happened late in the third period shocked the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at Rogers Arena, the hockey community, and North America. After failing to instigate a fight with Avalanche forward Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks grabbed the back of Moore’s jersey, landed a vicious punch to the back of Moore’s head, before slamming him face first on the ice and falling on top of him. Moore had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher, and has never returned to the NHL. Bertuzzi, on the other hand, was suspended for 20 games by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and is still playing in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. This is one of many examples of deviance in sports, and how a win-at-all costs mentality can drive athletes to act in extreme manners. As a result of the growing commercialization of sports, athletes are socialized at young ages to believe that winning is everything, and that stopping at nothing will help you succeed. Athletes will do almost anything to gain the upper hand in their respective sports, whether it is through engaging in excessive on-field violence or through the use of performance enhancing drugs, excessively committing themselves to their sport, or by violating league rules and policies. In sports, deviance is viewed in a different light than in the outside world. As professional athletes strive towards conforming to spor...
The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).
With the concern of becoming bigger and stronger rising among athletes, the focus of the game has drifted out of sight. It is almost as if it is more important to be bigger rather than better than the other team. As more and more athletes use the muscle enhancing drugs and other forms of steroids, the athlete's performance and health comes into question.
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In today’s age, performance enhancing drugs have become more advanced than just some special herbs and spices. Scientists today have found ways to manipulate elements to help provide muscle mass and stamina. Some types of performance enhancing drugs are human growth hormones (HGH), testosterone boosters, anabolic steroids etc. When taking HGH, a person might experience results such as an increase in muscle mass, an increase in bone density, and a reduced fat content in the body (Freudenrich). The same results could be found when you take anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids have been sought after to athletes and bodybuilders because they increase the size and strength of muscles. They also increase aggressiveness and competitiveness, which can be desirable traits in sports (Helmenstine). On different occasions such as a cyclist or a long distance runner, these athletes will store some of their red blood cells when their hemoglobin is high. The athlete will then train and work as usual, but right before the athlete competes they will transfuse the blood they took out back into their body therefore creating more red blood cells to ...
Doping is a practice that has been going on since the time of "ancient Greek athletes, who supposedly ate herbs, sesame seeds, dried figs, and mushrooms for this purpose" (Hoberman, 1992, 104). Likewise, athletes have readily consumed such drugs as caffeine and alcohol to improve performa...