The Effects of Performance Enhancing Drugs on Athletes

The Effects of Performance Enhancing Drugs on Athletes The risks of taking performance -enhancing drugs to improve an athletes’ performance outweighs the benefits. Along with the fact that all performance-enhancing drugs are illegal to use in sports, there are also serious side effects and addiction risks to the drugs. Athletes may choose from a variety of drugs and each may achieve different benefits. However, most of the time, athletes are uneducated in their decision to take the drugs, which can cause short term and long-term problems. Athletes may choose from many different types of performance enhancing drugs. Anabolic steroids are the most common performance-enhancing drug used by athletes. Anabolic steroids are†¦show more content†¦Taking diuretics and stimulants do not have as many serious side effects as steroids. However, there are still serious side effects involved with these drugs as well. Diuretic side effect risks are dehydration, muscle cramps, exhaustion, and dizziness (Monroe 5,6). Other serious side effects include heart arrhythmias and drop in blood pressure (Monroe 6). Stimulant side effect risks are dehydration, heat stroke, insomnia, tumors, weight loss, hallucinations, and convulsions (Mayo Clinic Staff). Using any type of performance-enhancing drugs in organized sports by an athlete is strictly prohibited. Therefore, athletes who take these drugs are doing so on their own and not in a clinical setting. Athletes get their information on what drugs to take from other users, not from doctors (Hoffman). They tend to take doses that are much higher than what a doctor would prescribe for a medical reason. Many use a â€Å"stacking dose† to achieve greater benefits and they are uneducated on what side effects may occur (â€Å"Steroids (Anabolic)†). 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