The New Breed of Steroids

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's February 2008

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

Dear Grandfather, I would be happy to explain and to help you understand the news article that you have sent to me. I understand that news paper articles can have misleading headlines in order to interest the reader into reading that article. In this letter I will discuss; what is the definition of steroids and explain how they are used to enhance athletic performance, explain what scientists have actually found that has been misrepresented in the headline, and describe the current situation in which rogue chemists are creating designer drugs to escape detection by scientists developing new technologies to identify drug users. Lastly, I will give you my opinion as to what I think should be done about the use of performance enhancing drugs.

        In sports steroids are commonly used by players in order to have an edge on the competition. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (2005) the scientific name for the commonly used term steroids, is anabolic androgenic steroids.

Anabolic is associated with the building of muscles and androgen is related with the male sex hormone.         During the 1930’s is when steroids were first produced. These drugs were developed in order to treat a condition known as hypogonadism. Hypogonadism is a condition in which the production of hormones from the testes is minimal. Since steroids produce testosterone they help with other conditions also, like delayed puberty, impotence, and diseases. It wasn’t until scientists found that mice given steroids would show signs of significant muscle growth that bodybuilders and athletes began to use them. There are many different types of performance enhancing drugs on the market right now and some that have not even been cleared for human use. Each drug has specific uses and characteristics that are desirable for athletes. For example, the designer steroid known...