In the last 20 years, there has been a lot of controversy over the use of anabol

Question

In the last 20 years, there has been a lot of controversy over the use of anabolic androgen steroids in athletes to boost muscle mass and enhance athletic performance (think baseball). Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid to read about the mechanism of action of these hormones. Do you think we ought to ban the use of these drugs in amateur athletes? Does your answer change if the question is asked about professional athletes (people who are being paid to do their sport)? Use what you have learned about the physiology of these hormones to support your answer.

Explanation / Answer

The use of any drug to enhance physical performance comes under doping, and it should not be allowed in any sport at any level, amateur or professional, because if a doping amateur athelete decides to go professional, he would anyways be caught and his choice of sports career would be over before it began. Anabolic steroids artificially increase performance by increasing the muscle mass and the BMR, leading to a huge boost in performance not explained by just training. Any change in BMR can be bad for the body, and combined with atheletic activity, a new BMR pushed on to the body while it is undergoing strenous activity can be fatal, while totally being ethically and morally wrong at the same time.

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