A Philosophical Look At Steroids
Steroids. Right or Wrong?
To be bigger, faster, and stronger than your opponent is every athlete’s dream. In order to achieve this, athletes must go through extensive offseason workouts, hours of conditioning, two-a-day practices, and grueling seasons which all take a toll on an athlete’s body. To lessen the pain and to enhance performance many athletes have decided to turn to illegal supplements and anabolic steroids for help. Steroids enhance muscle mass and speed up recovery from harsh workouts and games. All of the major sports now test an athlete for steroids and penalties have been put in place to try and keep an athlete from doing them. Over the past few years steroid use in sports has come in to debate throughout the country with many people discussing the ethics of whether steroids are right or wrong to use.
To understand why an athlete would consider taking steroids you must have insight into an athlete’s mind. I would be the first to admit that I have seen steroid use first hand and that it is not as uncommon as people would like to believe. Even in high school athletics, steroids and illegal supplements were common. Some studies show that 11% of high school athletes have tried anabolic steroids. And according to one study, an estimated 75% of the approximately one million Americans using such steroids are in high school. Any good athlete who wants to be the best at his sport has at one time or another considered using steroids. When you see someone else getting bigger and stronger and you know they are using steroids you feel the need to keep up with them. To be weaker and smaller in a physical sport such as football makes you a loser almost 99 percent of the time.
Steroids have a very negative effect on an athlete’s body. The boost in testosterone levels can also lead to a boost in estrogen level, which causes the testicles to shrink, breasts to enlarge, and voice to change. The skin may change pigmentation and have a yellow tint to it, and acne...
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