Persuasive Essay On Steroids

First a little background info, what are PEDs or Steroids? PED’s are a performance-enhancing drug that is any substance taken by athletes to improve performance. This term is referenced often and typically refers to anabolic steroid use in sports by professional and amateur athletes. However PED’s can be anything from caffeine in a energy drink to sticking yourself with a needle. Steroids is the broad term used to represent all but steroids are a synthetic hormone that resembles the sex hormone testosterone which is produce in the testes of males. Testosterone is the male hormone that stimulates development of sexual characteristics and promotes the growth of muscle. Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, performance enhancing drugs have

To name one among these famous athletes is Lance Armstrong, the famous biker who won multiple titles of Tour de France. As the use of PEDs in all of professional sports rises controversy over the legalization has become present.

For most athletes, winning at all costs includes taking performance-enhancing drugs.

The general public has to now realize that the use of performance-enhancing substances in athletics has increased at every level of competition and should not pose a serious problem in today's society. Although most people think that by taking performance-enhancing drugs, one poses health risks to their bodies. The real problem with performance-enhancing drugs has nothing to do with the substance itself, it is has to do with the public and how they are influenced by the media. When people hear the word steroid the average person thinks steroids are more dangerous and addictive than heroin. The uninformed forget that these are not drugs made in someone's bathtub but are used for legitimate medical purposes and work. Despite what people think, the highly popular supplements consumed by most athletes are exceptionally

When most people think of performance-enhancing drugs, the first thought that comes to their minds is the illegal ones, like steroids, but today, more non-illegal drugs like creatine and androstenedione are highly used today. Legal or illegal everyone is trying to get a edge, to name one is Creatine, the most popular performing-enhancing drug is a chemical produced by the kidney and found in meat products. It helps muscles recover after a workout, which in turn helps athletes bulk up faster (Gerdes 5). Creatine is used by many of the nation's top college sports teams like Nebraska and Northwestern (Rosen 3). The "Husker Power" strength program uses creatine, where it is constantly measured and poured to the contours of the designated athlete (Gerdes 1). It is also consumed by 25% of professional baseball, basketball and hockey players and 50% of the NFL players also (Gerdes 1). With that in mind, performance-enhancing drugs is big part of athletics and sports today. Erythropoietin commonly referred to as EPO stimulates the body's production of red blood cells which carries oxygen to muscles and all other parts of the body much like nitric oxide (Mayo). Another one is growth hormones, which help muscles recover faster after a workout (Mayo). Athletes