Performance Enhancing Drugs

What Exactly Are “PED’s” and How Effective Are They ?

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) known various substances, or chemical agents designed providing an advantage in athletic performance. Performance-enhancing drugs affect the body in different ways, such as enlarging muscles or increasing the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity.

Despite the obvious benefits, use of such drugs, considered both competitively unethical and medically dangerous. Most performance enhancing drugs commonly outlawed by organizations that govern major amateur and professional sports.

Some common PED’s include:

• Creatine. Creatine, a naturally occurring compound in the body that’s also sold as an over-the-counter supplement. Used to improve performance during high-intensity bursts of activity and  helps increase muscle mass and strength.
• Anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids, synthetic versions of the hormone testosterone, used to build muscle and increase strength.
• Steroid precursors. Steroid precursors, like androstenedione (“andro”) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), substances the body converts into anabolic steroids. Used to increase muscle mass. Most steroid precursors,  illegal without a prescription. DHEA, however, still available in over-the-counter preparations.

Use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), also known as “doping,” isn’t just a problem among elite athletes like Lance Armstrong. Unfortunately, PED use is widespread in high schools, colleges, and gyms across the United States. Many young people may feel pressured – by their peers or by their own ambitions – to use these drugs to improve their competitive performance, lose weight, or improve their own body image. Doping may raise the risk for a number of serious health-related problems, including increased risk of heart-related death and long-term cardiovascular damage.