performance enhancing drugs :: essays research papers

I’m pretty sure you all have engaged in some sort of athletic competition that could be classified as a sport. If you can say that you have, most of you could not keep up with some of the more naturally athletically gifted people you were competing with or against.. If you are sitting there remembering that feeling of being inadequate, thinking back when your parents told you all that mattered is that you tried your best, was a huge crock. No matter how hard you tried you failed, you felt like the scum of the earth, and everyone was laughing at you. You let everyone down, if this has ever happened to you. You are not alone you share the same feelings of many amateur and professional athletes who feel that the only way to reach their goals, to be in the limelight, to make the winning score, they need that edge. The edge that puts them ahead of the rest, to be on a level that most can only dream of achieving. The edge some athletes use is steroids. There are many types of stero ids. To many to name, so they are talked about in groups. These groups are as follows: Stimulants, Narcotic Analgesics, Cannabinoids, Anabolic Agents, Peptide Hormones, Beta-2 Agonists, Masking Agents, and Clucocorticosteroids The most commonly used is called Anabolic steroids. A anabolic steroid is a chemical similar to the male hormone testosterone. Steroids are taken by pill, or injection. They enter the bloodstream they are distributed to organs and muscle all over the body. After reaching the organs the steroids surround individual cells in the organ, and then pass through the cell membranes to enter the cytoplasm of the cells Once in the cytoplasm, the steroids bind to specific receptors and then enter the nucleus of the cells. The steroid-receptor complex is then able to alter the functioning of the genetic material and stimulate the production of new proteins. It is these proteins that carry out the effects of the steroids. The types of proteins and the effects vary dependin g on the specific organ involved. Steroids are able to alter the functioning of many organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain. They can also have a profound effect on reproductive organs and hormones. Steroids were first experimented with in the 1860 by Brown-Sequard, although he did not know what he was using.