Performance enhancing drugs have always been a big topic among the athletic world. While there are certainly a large number of benefits to these drugs, the downfalls are pretty substantial as well.
The Pros of Doping in Sports
Physical Abilities Improvements
Doping in sports can enhance your physical abilities in a short period of time. Performance enhancing drugs or steroids can increase muscle mass and provide large amount of stamina to enhance your athletic abilities and endurance. Doping can also help you maintain high stamina during sport activities. The short term effects of steroids are the main reasons why athletes use them. Athletes assume that performance enhancing drugs can have long terms effects to their body.
Positive Health Benefits
Performance enhancing drugs are generally designed to provide health benefit. In an instance, steroids can help reduce inflammation that results from allergies or sickness. But, the positive health benefits of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are only provided in certain situations.
The Cons of Doping in Sports
Top 6 Negative Health Benefits
While steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are created for medical purposes, they can bring negative health benefits when abused or used consistently. The health risks of PED vary from person to person and their kinds. Some of the most significant negative health benefits of PED include:
1. Increased Cholesterol Levels
2. Liver Damage
3. Mood Swings or Aggressive Behavior
4. Irregular Heartbeats and Other Heart Problems
5. Mood Swings
6. Hypertension
The exact health risk of PED varies from the person’s situation and the type of drugs consistently used or abused. In an instance, a teenager may stop growing if he/she used steroids at young age. Adults may experience growth of tumors or baldness if they constantly used PEDs. Additionally, the severity of health risks associated with PEDS varies depending on the amount of consumption and its concentration. Regular use of PEDS results in addiction or drug dependence. The risks of hepatitis and other infectious diseases are greater for people using PEDs through needles.
Reduced Athletic Abilities
While PEDs are created to enhance athletics, they can actually decrease the athletic performance of a person. Over many years of consistently taking PEDs, a person can experience diminished athletic performance.
Depending on the PED, a person may experience varied symptoms that cause reduced athletics abilities. In an instance, steroids can cause depression that results to loss of motivations and lose of interest in sporting activities. Stimulants can increase stamina, but it may also cause dizziness or cramping – things that reduce athletic performance during sporting activities.
The health risks and reduced athletics performance are the most obvious downsides of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Knowing their pros and cons can help you decide whether to use or not to use them. If you have deiced to use them, make sure that you do it moderately. You would not want to suffer from its side effects in the future.
