One of the most interesting blogs I've come across is Sports Scientists. The blog is written by Ross and Jonathan, who met in Cape Town while obtaining their PhDs. They both are indulged in sports including rubgy, cycling, running, swimming and other endurance sports. A couple of days ago, the pair wrote a few articles obtaining to the cyclist vs rugby players doping incident.
Doping typically refers to take performance enhancing drugs- there is also "blood doping" which is another method of enhancing athletic performance. Since doping is used to get ahead in competitive sports, it is typically viewed as unethical; however, the severity of the punishment differs from each sport. I will be blunt and admit I am not for steroid use or any enhancing drugs, but the arguments about the subject cause questions to arise. Why is it unethical if people have the same access to these drugs? Isn't the purpose of competitive sports to try every method to better yourself against the competition?
In my opinion, the main focus of anti-doping is not the ethics behind the drugs- it is ultimately the health factor. Since there is a range of different types of substances, the side effects vary, and in some cases contradict themselves. There is a great article titled "Principal doping substances and their side effects" by Laurent Rivier, Martial Saugy and Patrice Mangin that discuss each doping mechanism; however, I will only discuss the side effects of steroids.
"Steroids" are the most well known, and the most readily available type of performance enhancing drugs on the market. They belong to the Anabolic Substances group- a fancy way of saying the chemicals target muscle mass. The main side effects for steroids include: liver tumors, excessive blood cholesterol, prostate cancer, diabetes, sleep apnoea, behavioral modification, addiction, irreversible masculinization in women, and feminization in men.
These side effects are due to the chemical imbalance steroids induce. When taking steroids, you are emitting high levels of testosterone into your body. At the same time, the steroids trick the body into creating more protein, and the excess amount of testosterone help process the protein. This is the main reason why muscles are built quickly when taking steroids. Because of this, steroids can be helpful sometimes, especially when recovering from an illness or accident where muscle is lost. With that being said, a body has a certain threshold for steroid use/muscle growth, and once that threshold is broken, the negative side effects begin occurring. There are no quick fixes when it comes to weight loss or creating muscle mass. The best answer is to monitor your diet and exercise. Working with a fitness trainer can help target your areas of interest, and keep you true to your workout. If that is too expensive, find a friend who wants similar results and find a workout schedule. There are thousands of work out schedules and articles online magazines include: Men's Health, Fitness, and Men's Fitness
2 comments:
This is interesting, to me it seems like there's almost a contradiction occurring within different sports. On the one hand you have these drugs, that are regulated, and have many negative heath impacts. On the other in some sports such as dance and gymnastics diet manipulation is commonly used to improve performance and aren't regulated, but also has many negative health impacts. What I think is particularly interesting though is the fact that these athletes are doing something to get "ahead" but in the end really only hurting themselves.
I agree with Bre--the line between what counts as plain old competition and what counts as illegal "enhancement" is hard to determine. But thinking about the long term impacts on these athletes' health is pretty mind-blowing. I think the same thing about NFL players and concussions.
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