Is it your goal to obtain a competitive edge by using performance enhancing drugs such as steroids? Anabolic Steroid Use In Athletics is such a common method for obtaining this edge, you’ve probably already considered it, but, have you acknowledged the harmful effects anabolic steroid use in athletics can have?

Many younger athletes will tell you that the drive to win in competition can be strong. Despite personal gain and the satisfaction that comes with it, pursuing lofty goals in any sport whether collegiate or professional can be difficult. Anabolic steroid use in athletics has become increasingly common for this very reason.

For a large number of athletes, winning no matter what the costs often times includes anabolic steroid use in athletics. But what is the cost of this? Truth be told, long term effects of anabolic steroid use in athletics have not had rigorous studies applied to them. However, short term damages and side effects can be listed rather easily as many are aware of the short term damage anabolic steroid use in athletics can have.

Depending on the risks involved, you personally may not see anabolic steroid use in athletics as a worth while venture.

The basic physiology of athletics

In many sports, whether professional or amateur, the athletes who win are the ones with the greatest abilities, skills, endurance, speed and strength. Those who perform with this level consistently set the bar for what an elite athlete should be.

Pure strength is often determined by two dominating factors, the amount of muscle the athlete has, and the ability of their nervous system to stimulate the contraction of muscle tissue. A few athletes perform exercises that are especially specific to the sport in which they compete with the goal of honing in their personal skills in their respective sport. Some athletes even take hormones, supplements and drugs that push their bodies into putting on even more muscle than they could normally gain through exercise alone.

The amount of muscle you have and the ability of your nerves to stimulate muscle contractions also play a big role in determining your speed. A larger muscle mass allows you to generate more power, which helps you perform short bursts of activity — a sprint or short swim race — faster.

Anabolic steroids

Athletes in some specific sports tend to take anabolic steroids to build their muscle mass and strength at a rapid rate that could not otherwise be achieved through exercise and diet. The core anabolic steroid hormone produced within the human body is testosterone.

The testosterone hormone has two main effects on your body:

1. Anabolic

2. Androgenic

Anabolic steroid use in athletics is commonly a synthetic variation on testosterone. These synthetic hormones were originally created in an attempt to catapult the anabolic effects and minimize the androgenic effects of the testosterone hormone. Unfortunately, these effects cannot exist without the other when dealing with testosterone.

Ingested orally, injected intravenously or absorbed through the skin, these synthetics have a number of medical uses other than anabolic steroid use in athletics. Some of these uses can include therapeutic replacement of naturally occurring test in men. Also, in cases where there is muscle wasting, such as AIDS patients or cancer treatments, synthetics can increase or help keep the muscle weight in patients.

Why is anabolic steroid use in athletics so appealing? Other than increasing the size and density of muscle tissue, they can help athletes recover faster from devastating muscle loss. Additionally, some athletes tend to harness the aggressive tendencies that are attributed as a side effect of synthetic testosterone replacement.

However, many athletes take anabolic steroids at doses that are much higher than those prescribed for medical reasons. The effects of taking anabolic steroids at very high doses haven’t been well studied.

Gaining the competitive edge

Although athletic performance tends to have more reliance upon the natural physiology of a competitor, anabolic steroid use in athletics will always dominate as the quick, go to method for a competitive edge. There are many doctors within the United States that have found loopholes in giving their athlete patients prescribed dosages to assist or enable them to remain competitive in their sports. Anabolic steroid use in athletics will remain an aspect being an athlete, no matter how competitive the sport.