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Culver 1
Evan Culver
Stephanie Hobbs
Honors English TAG
27 April 2009
Performance Enhancing Drugs
“Athletes should compete fairly. Remind your son or daughter that using a
performance-enhancing drug is similar to cheating, but even more importantly, could
lead to serious health problems or even death ("Performance-enhancing drugs and
your"). Your liver produces 0.07 ounces (2 grams) of creatine every day ("Performanceenhancing drugs: Are they"). Creatine causes water weight, so when usage stops,
wanted weight gain will be lost. ("Performance-enhancing drugs: Are they"). Even
though creatine is not illegal, it is still considered by some as a form of cheating
because it adds water to muscles faster causing better and faster results. It takes three
positive steroid tests before the user gets banned from the MLB for life. Even though
performance-enhancing drugs make the user stronger and more competitive,
they destroy the body, the immune system, and have many long-term effects.
Performance-enhancing drugs destroy the body and stunt a person’s growth.
“The use of some steroids can possibly stunt the growth potential of people who have
not finished growing. This is only possible with certain steroids, and not with others.”
("Side Effects of Steroids"). People should be able to use steroids to a certain extent.
For example, steroids can be used to help people grow, but never should steroids be
used to help athletes excel. These drugs can cause psychological and personality
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changes especially in males because the body produces testosterone. Some people
refer to a steroid personality change as “Roid Rage”. According to ("Side Effects of
Steroids") “Although it’s highly rare (less than 5%), significant psychiatric symptoms
have been found in some steroid users, including aggression and increased violence,
mania, and even psychosis”. A dose fifty times less than a common dose of steroids
greatly increased the susceptibility to viral infections and cancer.
Performance-enhancing drugs are harmful to the user’s immune system. High
doses of creatine can lead to kidney and liver damage. The liver automatically removes
any excess creatine that it does not need, so the use of creatine substances is
questionable among people. Creatine draws water from all areas of your body to your
muscles, which can lead to dehydration. According to ("Performance-enhancing drugs:
Are they"), “You are gaining more water weight than muscle weight. The demand of
water to the muscles pulls all of the water in the body to them putting the user at risk for
dehydration.” High doses of steroids reduce the amounts of immune globulin A, G, and
M in the blood. These proteins in the immune system circulate in the blood and attack
any invading bacteria. Having fewer of these important proteins puts the steroid user at
risk for increased sickness.
Performance-enhancing drugs have many long-term effects. There is a higher risk of
depression for retired steroid users. Many researchers and doctors have found that
there is a higher depression rate among people who have stopped using steroids. They
are not sure if this depression is being caused from the absence of steroids or if there
was a pre-existing depression problem. Once a person stops using creatine they will
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lose most of their gained weight because creatine causes water weight. While using
creatine it keeps the water weight on, but as soon as the user stops taking it, they start
loosing body weight. Retired users are more likely to have joint and ligament
injuries. "Retired professional football players who used performance enhancing drugs
appear to be more likely to have suffered certain types of joint and ligament injuries than
their contemporaries who did not take such substances, according to a new study.”
(Study shows steroid). There are so many outstanding professional athletes that do not
or have not taken performance-enhancing drugs. Hank Aaron for example, hit 755
home runs in his career and still holds the home run record today without the use of
steroids.
Restatement of thesis—Performance-enhancing drugs destroy your
body, harm your immune system, and hurt you in later life. According to
("Performance-enhancing drugs and your"), “Athletes should compete fairly. Remind
your son or daughter that using performance-enhancing drugs is similar to cheating, but
even more importantly, could lead to serious health problems or even death”.
Performance enhancing drugs are becoming more and more popular every year. There
are more cases of steroid abuse in professional athletics than ever before. If all this
information is available to the public, why do people still use them? They care about
their outer appearance more than what is being destroyed on the inside of their bodies.
All the information is available for the users to see what they are doing to their bodies,
all they have to do is look.