Analysis of Usage of Doping in Sport and Its Utility

Steroids has been one of the main performance enhancing drugs that everyone has heard of. However, there are many, many growth hormones and performance enhancing drugs that are being introduced every year to try and stay one step ahead of WADA (world anti doping association). This is not a recent problem and has been occurring for decades.

How Do Athletes Hide The Use Of Performance Enhancing Drugs In Tests?

A large majority of sports and sporting events make all athletes involved take a test that detects performance gets enhancing drugs. This discourages athletes from doping. However, athletes every year get away with taking them. They do this by using masking agents like diuretics. Diuretics increase the rate of urine flow and sodium excretion to adjust the volume and composition of body fluids. These can be abused by athletes because they excrete water for rapid weight loss and to mask the presence of banned performance enhancing drugs. Diuretics aren’t the only drug used for masking there are hundreds of other that use different techniques to mask.

The former Australian modern pentathlete Alex Watson was tested positive for excessive amounts of caffeine in his system. This is because sometimes excessive amounts of a suspicious substance in an athlete does raise red flags for testers and caffeine had been a previous masking agent for some performance enhancing drugs. However, after some further investigation and Watson claiming to not have ever been involved with doping.

How Much Of An Advantage Does Doping Give Athlete?

The definition of doping in sport is all the banned substances, procedures and methods that would be used to get an advantage over other competitors. The reason that they are all banned is because of the fact that they can serve a an advantage. But how much of an advantage do they really offer? Steroids is basically liquid testosterone and it increases the production of red blood cells which improves the repairing of other cells and the distribution of oxygen to muscles, therefore increasing muscle growth. There was an experiment in 1996 where 43 men were placed into 4 groups. But they didn’t know which group they were in because they were ether injected with testosterone or just placebo. This experiment was taken place in 1996 and can be found on the New England Journal of Medicine website.

• Group 1 did no working out over 10 weeks.

• Group 2 took 600mg of anabolic steroids and did no working out over 10 weeks.

• Group 3 took no steroids but worked out regularly over the 10 weeks.

• Group 4 took 600mg of anabolic steroids and worked out regularly for 10 weeks.

They all maintained a consistent diet that was related to their own daily intakes. After the ten weeks this was the results.

• Group 1 had no changes to their body

• Group 2 had gained approx 3kg of muscle

• Group 3 had gained approx 2kg of muscle

• Group 4 had gained approx 6kg of muscle

These results prove that some doping can drastically improve muscle growth, which equals performance improvement. However, what is interesting is that group 2 who took steroids but did no working out surpassed group 3 who worked out regularly without the use of steroids. This really shows the impact that steroids can have on the human. body. Above is a typical one month transformation using Steroids aimed at fat loss.

How Can The Use Of Doping Negatively Impact The Body?

Many athletes talk about the positive impacts that performance enhancing drugs can have on them. They portray the idea that the risk/reward ratio almost always favours in the reward side of things. Many people do not know the impact that some of the drugs can have on the human body both long term and short term. There are few risks that people who use steroids can faced with: a risk of heart attack, stroke and effect on heart size: fn increased risk of liver and cardiovascular diseas: suicidal and aggressive thoughts: shrinking testicles, decreased sperm for men, and deeper voice, excess facial hair for women etc.

Conclusion

Of course, every athlete has the right to decide for himself/herself whether he/she needs to take steroids or not. But knowledge of the possible consequences should be in everyone who is somehow faced with the use of various types of doping as an 'improvement' of their own athletic ability.