Performance enhancing drugs, or PEDs, are a hot topic in sports media today. There is much controversy surrounding their use. Use of PEDs allows athletes to train harder and gain more strength than fellow athletes, giving them an unfair advantage on the competitive field. There are also drugs used to help cognitively which helps level the field in the academic arena. PED’s have been around for a long time. We typically think of PED use being a new or modern thing. Actually, according to a historic timeline on steroids.com, athletes have been using PEDS in one form or another for many years. Performance enhancing drug can ruin a person’s career, but also can help someone else stay focused, which enhances his career. The first documented instance of PED use was in 1886 when a Welsh cyclist named Arthur Linton died in a race in France supposedly from typhoid fever. Later investigation showed that Linton had ingested trimethyl which is a mix of cocaine, caffeine, alcohol, strychnine, and heroine.(CNN) Before discussing why PEDs are controversial, it is first important to understand what they are. A PED or PID (performance inducing drug) is anything students or athletes take into their bodies to make their performance better. Although people usually think of …show more content…
There are many types of performance enhancing drugs. For instance, PEDs can be synthetic, which means it is a chemical combination made in a lab to imitate a natural product. PEDs can also occur naturally such as green tea, herbs, etc. PEDs can be synthetic which means it is a chemical combination made in a lab to imitate a natural product. An example of a synthetic PED is creatine. PEDs can also be natural such as caffeine like one might find in green tea or coffee. PEDs are used to enhance physical strength and performance, particularly in athletes, which is more well known and discussed in the