When athletes compete for excellence in sports, the use of steroids or other supplements often times may be a cause for disqualification in a sports event. Many athletestoday subscribe to the idea that steroids should be allowedin sports competition. They admit that steroid andsupplement use enhances natural athletic ability andendurance and, thus, promotes athletes to perform better incompetition. These same athletes are convinced thatdoctors and the government advance the “side effect”argument mostly as a scare tactic to preserve the “purityof athletic competition. Is there enough research tosupport the dramatic effects of steroids on sportsperformance and the side effects that could ultimately leadto a death sentence?Congress classifies anabolic steroids as controlledsubstances and report health risks as deadly to justifybasis for legislation. Today, athletes using anabolicsteroids have a more sophisticated pharmacological knowledgebase for using steroids that they believe surpasses that ofthe vast majority of physicians. Therefore, there is acontinual debate on whether athletes should be allowed totake steroids to enhance performance or endurance orappearance. Steroids are chemicals that act like hormones. Thesehormones are normally in your body and regulate bodilyfunctions. Anabolic steroids are used by abusers to buildmuscle mass or prolong intense training. There arechemically engineered versions of testosterone. In otherwords, these use of these anabolic steroids could possiblytamper with the natural maturation of males in the growth oftests and penis, increased sexual drive, more body hair, anda deeper voice. However, the use of these anabolic steroidsalso distinguishes the more muscular physiques in malesversus females. (Kowalski, 44-45)Many nutrition experts and sports medicine physiciansargue that much too little is known about the steroids beingadvertised and sold today. There is an on...
