The Triangle

Issue date: 1/7/05 Section: Sci-Tech

Early in December 2004, the suspicions of many sports fans around the country were confirmed; the owner of the hallowed single season home run record and seven-time Major League Baseball MVP, Barry Bonds, has been using steroids.

Media Credit: The Triangle

Bonds testified in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) grand jury trial in December 2003, saying he received "the cream" and "the clear" from his personal trainer. Bonds thought he was taking flaxseed oil and other natural supplements, but the substances actually contained steroids.

The Bonds admission is just one of the many stories involving athletes and performance enhancing drugs to hit the national spotlight. In more unfortunate cases, players have died as a result of using these drugs. In February 2003, Baltimore Oriole pitcher Steve Bechler suddenly collapsed and died in spring training.

It was found that Bechler was taking an herbal supplement, Ephedra, to try and gain an edge. While Ephedra wasn't banned in the baseball then, Bechler's story led to a nation-wide FDA ban on the product. In Olympic competition there are many athletes who have had medals stripped from them. Cross-country skier Johann Muehlegg had two gold medals taken from him after testing positive for banned drugs during the 2002 Winter Games.

Media Credit: http:// www.dagbladet.net He didn´t keep those, thanks to steroids.

By using these substances, athletes hope to improve their performance. Some are used during game time to improve on the field performance. Stimulants, like amphetamine and caffeine, compromise good judgment for increased alertness and aggressiveness. Many narcotics, like morphine and heroin, are used by athletes to increase the pain threshold.

However, the user risks causing more damage to the original injury because he is ignore the body's signals to stop activity. Narcotics do not include local anesthetics like novocaine, which work to mask pain in a particular part of the body over the short-term and do not impair mental ability. However, the athlete still risks aggravating their injury.

In sports where weight matters, like wrestling or rowing, diuretics are often used. They increase the activity in the kidney and increase the production of urine. They can cause dizziness, cramps, dehydration, kidney damage, and heart damage. Since they also reduce the concentration of other drugs in the blood stream, they are sometimes used to mask the presence of other illegal substances when it comes time for drug testing.

Many athletes use anabolic steroids to increase mass and strength. Steroids are chemical substances that come from cholesterol and exist naturally in the human body. Catabolic steroids will break down tissue, while anabolic do the opposite. They are similar to the hormone testosterone found in males. These substances include "the cream" and "the clear" and Bonds and former baseball MVP Jason Giambi have admitted using.

Media Credit: Sports Illustrated

These substances enable athletes to trainer harder, recover more quickly, and build more muscle. However, when taken externally, athletes risk complications that range from excessive hair growth to liver damage to the growth of tumors.

Human growth hormone (hGH), works in a similar way to steroids. hGH is naturally produced by the pituitary gland and is important for normal human development. A lack of hGH leads to dwarfism. An excess of it leads to muscle development through stimulating the processing of protein in the body and an increase in bone mass. Olympic sprinter Marion Jones has been accused of using hGH as part of the fallout from the BALCO investigation. Its use is connected to heart damage and enlarged internal organs.

Media Credit: Sports Illustrated Bonds has obviously bulked up since his younger days; was it just hard work or did steroids help?

Even with all the risks, athletes feel the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs. In the highly competitive nature of sports, it is easy to overlook long-term risks for short-term gain. The reward for shattering a record is multi-million dollar contracts and all sorts of endorsement opportunities.

Sports, after all, is part of the entertainment business. Actors and actress will undergo almost any surgery or procedure in order to maintain a youthful glow. Athletes using drugs to perform better could be seen the same light, finding a way to better their product.

How many times have you used caffeine to improve your ability to study or stay alert at work? Isn't steroid use the same thing? Aren't athletes trying to find a way to their job better?

While it may be the athlete's personal choice to risk long-term injury in order to bulk up for the season, the message they send to rest of the public should also be taken into account. Whether professional athletes like it or not, they are role models countless young adults.

The use of these drugs in professional sports has driven young athletes in high school and college look for this edge. The danger to younger athletes, with bodies that are not fully developed, is greater. Has competition and the fans need to be wowed grown so much that the quality of human life for athletes needs to sacrificed?

There is also something to be said for the purity of sports. The Olympics and other sports exist to test one athlete's competitive ability against another's. Isn't it better to test an athlete's dedication to training and preparation rather than their pharmacist's ability to come up with a better concoction to increase muscle mass?

Should the hallowed records set by the likes of Ruth and Mantle be shattered by some kid with half the talent, but twice the trainer?

In the coming year, player's unions and the government will figure out how to regulate the use of performance enhancing drugs. However, we are already beginning to feel the effects of their use.



Kaushal Toprani is a sophomore majoring in information systems.

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