News about
athletes and steroids
pop up constantly in the media.
Athletes
engaged in diverse sports careers have been implicated of using
steroids. There are rare cases when athletes have openly admitted of
using steroids. And it’s not only professional athletes that are prone
to use steroids. Some amateur and younger athletes, such as those in
high school and college sports associations, are also resort to
steroids to gain competitive edge.
Why is it that athletes
and steroids seem to be an inseparable tandem?
Steroids are synthetic
drugs that resemble the chemicals structure of the male
hormone
testosterone.
Testosterone is responsible for the musculoskeletal growth of the human
body. Thus, when steroids are introduced into an athlete’s body the
result is dramatic increase in muscle mass, which can translate to
increase in strength and endurance. This is why athletes and steroids
seems to be the team to beat in sports, in which an athlete should be
bigger, stronger, or faster in order to win.
Steroids
are banned in most sports organizations, yet many athletes insist on
using them despite the risk of being detected and banned from the
sports. Athletes find ways to evade detection, such as using
fast-acting steroids when there is imminent
drug screening and/or using
masking agents to cover up steroid metabolites in their urine samples.