Over time, steroids have increased in popularity and have turned their hosts into addicts leaving them pumped and with many diseases which couldve been prevented if they wouldve just trained more than doped up.
Sports have turned into a business for most athletes. Today, other rewards for the winner can be enormous, in terms of status, fame, adulation… and of course money. Sports have become more stressful with the increased pressure to succeed. Steroids have been the easy answer to turn to if someone is looking for an extra edge.
One hundred runners were asked if they would take a drug that would make them Olympic champions, even if they knew they would die from the effects of the drug within a year. Half of the athletes said they would gladly take the drug!
An athlete will usually get out of a sport what he or she puts into it. If one would push themselves real hard and fail, they could end up with some problems.
They could drive so hard as to cause or worsen injuries. They might ignore school, friends, family or work just to train on winning. They develop an aggressive training style which would lead to drugs such as steroids.
There are many reasons why people use steroids. But the two main ones are to excel in athletic competition and to look more like ones ideal of a perfect body. Many athletes are representing their school, state, or territory they come from at the competitions they are involved with.
Most of these competitors dont want to let down their fans in fear of rejection of being classified as a loser. Athletes might turn to drugs if they are looking to run faster, longer or to obtain a higher stamina. They might want to become tougher or grow larger muscles. Even sports that dont require much physical activity, such as billiards or shooting, are affected by steroid use. Competitors in these sports are looking for steroids to calm their nerves or steady their reflexes.
Some younger athletes work out in a gym where they might want to mimic the gyms biggest builder. They dont want to stop until they look like him. Firemen, bouncers, or police officers are using steroids to increase their physical strength in order to do their jobs. High school athletes also feel they need to take them in order to secure a spot on a college team or for a scholarship.
The word steroids was hardly heard in the news until the 1988 Olympics. It was announced that Ben Johnson from Canada had taken steroids to help him set the new world record for the 100- meter dash. Now many young athletes realized that they too could use steroids to help their physical appearance. Everyone saw what steroids did for Johnson. He set a new world record.
This was not the first time steroids have been used in a professional event. Some studies estimated that up to 80 percent of professional football players, half of all world-class athletes, and 20 percent of college and high school athletes used steroids to help them perform better. One million Americans were estimated of taking steroids. Most of them were athletes and bodybuilders. Not many people realize how easy it is to obtain steroids.
A vast black market across America guarantees kids ready access to steroids in big cities and small town alike. An estimated one third of all steroids bought on the black market are counterfeit steroids. Selling steroids is like smuggling cocaine or any other illegal drugs. They can be purchased though the mail or even at health clubs. All ages of people, including kids, are selling steroids. Minimum wage is only a few dollars per hour. That is one reason why youngsters are selling them. They want the big bucks. Kids can make an average of $900-$1000 a week. Its all about making easy money. Selling steroids is an easy way to do it.
Although steroids have been banned from sports, it is still easy to get a hand on them from almost anywhere. Ordinary doctors can write a prescription for these drugs and it is not illegal for pharmacists to dispense them. All an eager patient has to do is convince the doctor to write him or her a prescription for steroids.
The cause of societys use of steroids is its addiction to bigger, faster, stronger. The win-at-all- costs mentality leads to cheating and unethical behavior. People who use them have heard the reports of all the dangers in using them, but they are quick to point out that they cant be harmful since that are produced within the body. The problem is, most users are taking up to and over 200 times the
amount of testosterone that the body produces. This high dosage can stunt the growth of teenagers and can lead to high blood cholesterol. In men, it can result in baldness, acne, shrunken testicles, feminized breasts and infertility. Some steroids that are addictive have been shown to been damaging to the mind. They have produced wild aggression and delusions.
Teenage steroid users realize the dangers with using steroids, but kids have the idea that they will never be the ones who will be affected, that they are invincible. The problems are down the road, the affects are now.
Stimulants have a problem where they speed you up too much. This can make one feel dizzy and make his or her heart race. A persons body wont be able to calm down if the steroids are taken at high dosages. This could lead to fainting and brain damage. Testosterone affects the development of bone, muscle, skin, and hair, in addition to producing emotional changes. Steroids can also affect, in addition to the users muscles, the sex organs and the brain.
There are also psychological addictions where the user feels depressed when he or she doesnt use the steroids. This will cause the person to go back to the drug in order to get high and feel confident.
When steroids are digested, they pass through the liver where they are broken down into less harmful agents. The liver cant break down steroids when they are taken in such high amounts. The liver becomes over worked and can not secrete bile throughout the body. This means the users body has a high percentage in contracting a tumor.
Painkillers are banned from sports and most Western countries. Athletes can push themselves over what their body can take and not even know they are in severe pain. They could end up with a severe body injury and not know it.
Some athletes that use steroids say they use them to prevent injuries. Most experts believe that steroids help cause injuries. As the muscle grows rapidly, the growth of the tendons and ligaments tends to be a lot slower. It seems likely that their use may expose athletes to the risk of injury to ligaments and tendons and that these injuries may take longer to heal.
Although there isnt solid proof on the rate of change of the steroid problem, it is believed that the problem is increasing. As the competition to grab a college scholarship increases, more and more teenagers will start using the drugs. There is also the stereotype of males that they have to be macho and not a wimp.
Steroids dont make sports more fun. They make them more competitive, dangerous and mostly pointless. In no cases will a person who takes steroids turn out to be the winner. A competitor cant say he or she is a champion when they didnt finish all by themselves. They needed steroids. If an athlete wants to do good at a sport, they have to put in a lot of hours of training.
To become good at a sport, the participant usually has to be involved in a training program. An experts advise is very important in knowing how to train. Weight lifting and bodybuilding are healthy for individuals, physically and mentally, until steroids enter the scene.
The keys to building a healthy body, whether you want to improve your performance in athletic events or just want to look good, are proper training, a healthy attitude about yourself and your training goals, good nutrition, and plenty of hard work. Studying the skills of the game and practicing will give an athlete an extra edge. The person who uses drugs to improve his or her athletic ability will end up living a life of deceit and health problems.
With the goal of being bigger, stronger and faster, many American teenagers are playing a risky game of chemical roulette. Their credo: Die young, die strong. Taking steroids as a short-cut to skill and training will never pay off. There is more in doing good in sports than taking steroids. And there is a lot more to sports than always winning.
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