Do they work?
Athletes look for any advantage possible
By Dr. Rodney C. Wilson
We’ve heard the names: Lance Armstrong (not proven), Floyd Landis,
Lyle Alzado, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds (under
investigation), Marion Jones (false positive), Justin Gatlin, and the
most famous “cheat” of all – Ben Johnson.
We’ve heard the names: Anabolic Steroids including Testosterone and
Synthetic Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), Erythropoietin
(EPO), Beta Blockers and Blood Doping.
It is a misnomer that steroids are instant muscles or a substitute for
athletic talent. They are neither. If you are not talented, forget it.
Steroids are performance enhancing. They are constantly in the news.
Congress is continually investigating and they are against the law
unless they are prescribed by a physician. We’ve seen the newspaper
articles and we know that it is a problem in society. We know that the
side effects include organ (liver, kidney, heart, brain) damage and /
or death. We know that the average lifespan for a Pro Football player
is 51 ½ years old, and that part of that short lifespan is due to
performance enhancing drugs. Professional athletes play and live with
pain and injury nearly every day, even after they’re retired. Some
athletes leave their respective sports crippled for life and the media
does not cover that fact.
Therefore, it’s no wonder that several years ago Brett Favre
(quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) admitted that he was addicted
to pain killers. In his case it was not performance enhancing, it was
“just to be able to perform.” And let’s not forget that athletes used
cocaine to ward off pain, only to become cocaine addicts later.
People have been using enhancing drugs as long as human kind has walked
the earth. For example, early people ate the organs of animals in order
to improve strength, endurance and improve sexual functioning. The
ancient Greeks used Strychnine to help combat battle fatigue in war and
to enhance performances in the Olympic Games. Strychnine? Won’t that
kill you? Yes. Isn’t it poisonous? Yes, but it is a stimulant.
In the 1930’s, the Nazi physicians developed synthetic steroids and
experimented with animal testosterone on Nazi troops because it delayed
battle fatigue, kept troops awake and motivated for several days in a
row and the unanticipated side effect was increased aggression, which
Adolf Hitler really loved. After all, this was Hitler’s superior race
with his superior military with his superior drugs and they would
dominate the world. So they thought. Nationalized sports machines have
been using them ever since.
Today, we’re focused with the professional athlete. Supposedly they
“cheat” and we don’t. But we want them to ‘win’, whatever ‘winning’
means. However, we’re not like them. But I challenge you, are we any
different?
So, why do people use performance enhancing drugs? Glory? Money? To
maintain their youthful appearances and performances? To get stronger,
faster and higher (the Olympic creed)? Immortality?
The reasons are as varied as the numerous hairs on one’s head. Yet, on
the other hand, many of these performance enhancing drugs (over the
counter or prescribed) are also used for real emergencies, real medical
life-saving and life-enhancing reasons, or to perform activities of
daily living.
So why do WE use them? Because WE use performance enhancing drugs
everyday.
Every morning most of us wake up to that steaming hot cup of coffee or
hot cup of tea to get us going. At work, some or most of us drink that
second or third hot cup of coffee or tea to keep us going strong either
in the morning or in the afternoon. Coffee, tea, Mountain Dew, energy
drinks – are they performance enhancing drugs? Yes, because they
contain a stimulant known as caffeine. Historically, in the late 1890’s
and early 1900’s Coca Cola contained cocaine (before it was outlawed)
and was changed to present-day caffeine. Cocaine and caffeine are
stimulants.
Many times we drink coffee, tea, Mountain Dew and etc. or take an
exorbitant amount of vitamins in order to merely “be able to perform.”
They make us feel good. They make us look good. They keep us alert.
Some people still use amphetamines, epinephrine, ephedrine, diet pills
and diuretics to keep alert, look good, feel good and lose weight. Many
of us suffer in pain due to some malady or another and we take pain
killers, just to “be able to perform”, just be able to make it through
the day.
Nonetheless, when we come down, we crash and sometimes we crash hard.
You know the symptoms. We’re not as alert. We become tired and
irritable, and in some extreme cases – irrational or just plain mean.
Most of us are regular working everyday Joes and Josephines, not
amateur or professional athletes, just trying to get through the day.
In the evening, sometimes we like to sit down and have that cold beer
or glass of wine, just to “unwind” from the hectic pace of the day’s
events. And some of us go to the gym and workout hard before sitting
down and having that cold beer; which leads us to the drug that is
used, misused and abused the most – alcohol. For some people, it
prepares them to perform, “loosening the nerves” before giving a public
speech, “loosening the nerves” before or while on a date, and
“loosening the nerves” before winding down from a hard day to deal with
family matters. It makes them feel alert, look good and feel good, or
so they’re fooled into thinking. Alcohol appears to be a stimulant but
it really is a depressant. But these effects are misleading; the
“stimulation” occurs only because alcohol affects those portions of the
brain that control judgment. “Being stimulated” by alcohol actually
amounts to a depression of self-control. A principal effect of alcohol
is to slow down brain activity.
Sleeping Pills are also used to help people relax and sleep. Like
alcohol, they are used, misused and abused. They are a depressant.
Drugs have a word associated with it that does not apply to the
majority of us – addiction.
What we are discussing here is a different word – dependence. As your
regular everyday Joe and Josephine, do you depend on your daily cup of
joe to get you through the day? Do you depend on your nightly beer to
help you unwind no matter what the event is? Do you need your
sleeping pill (mother’s of father’s little helper) to get through the
night? What do you depend on to enhance your performance or help you
perform your daily activities of living?
This article is NOT an INDICTMENT on how we live or how we perform
daily activities. It was written to make all of us take notice and
think, especially when we read and react to those we see in the media
dealing with their performance and performance enhancement issues. It’s
easy to point fingers and blame and indict and blast others: but before
we do, let’s look in the mirror and ask, “Are we really any different?
How can we do better ourselves?” and then go out and teach others to be
better.
WE may be the living examples that the top professional and top amateur
athletes need to emulate and not the other way around. We just might be
able help pull them out of the abyss. Think about it. Are we “cheating”
ourselves? What are you dependent on and what are you going to do
about it? Think about it!!!
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