Table of ContentsIntroductionBodyConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionPerformance-enhancing drugs have existed in sport for centuries, which has inevitably led to positive and negative impacts on the health of athletes and the sport. The sport has been directly linked to the use of performance-enhancing agents since the first Olympic Games in Greece, a spectacle that took place between 776 and 393 BC. It is widely speculated that "the origin of the word 'doping' is attributed to the Dutch word 'doop', which is a viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks. » (Bowers, 1998). Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have become a public issue since their ban in most sports, but they have continued to be used widely, leading to both positive and negative impacts on sports, physical health and psychological well-being. Doping drugs or PEDs are dangerous to the health of users and must be banned in all levels of sport. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayBodyPerformance-enhancing drugs have been used in sports to improve an athlete's strength and speed, thereby increasing their overall performance but has consequently led to an unfair advantage for users, harm to the classic values ​​of sport and negative influences on young athletes. As elite athletes use performance-enhancing drugs, the entertainment factor of watching live sporting events would increase, as it allows athletes to unlock a new level of potential. There are also cases in which the non-use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes could mean that they refrain from participating in serious competitions. An extremely competitive sport such as professional bodybuilding requires constant muscle growth from athletes. An athlete who participates in professional bodybuilding activities has almost no choice but to resort to performance-enhancing substances if he wishes to compete. It has been stated that "many people involved in bodybuilding competitions believe that they cannot compete without using steroids in order to achieve what they describe as their potential" (Redwood, 1995). Therefore, in this case, performance-enhancing drugs may be perceived as necessary. Allowing elite athletes to use performance enhancing drugs to enhance their performance would significantly increase entertainment at live sporting events, particularly in sports such as rugby, basketball, boxing and football. Fost (2005) suggests that the concept that performance-enhancing drugs provide an unfair advantage presents no consistent evidence or argument to support it. He adds: “Which is fairer: the use of a team of sports specialists or a simple pill? What is the difference between training at altitude and taking erythropoietin to achieve a similar effect? (Fost, 2005). Legalizing PEDs in sports would increase the entertainment factor. However, the use of PEDs in sport would cause sport to lose its spirit of fairness and become a competition for access to the best substances, while providing negative role models for children and adolescents. For centuries, the spirit of sport has evolved around “ethics, fair play and honesty” (AMA, 2003) and the legalization of steroid use.would eradicate these values ​​in sport. Since their introduction into elite-level sport, PEDs have been used not to ensure fairness to the user, but to provide a physically unfair advantage, with expectations of their use by the athlete unknown” (Pound, 2008). The revelation of its unfair nature was first recognized when “the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) became the first organization to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs” (Mottram, 2010). The ban first by the IAAF and later by other organizations was intended to ensure that the sport would remain a challenge of talent and skill, as well as a test of the athlete's dedication and character. If organizations decide to legalize the use of performance-enhancing drugs, "sporting events would increasingly become tests of rivals' access to good pharmaceutical technology" (Dixon, 2008) rather than skills or abilities in sports. If the use of performance-enhancing drugs became more prevalent in sports leagues, fans and viewers of professional sports would perceive the role of skills replaced by substances and would therefore lose interest in the sport, financially harming the leagues and sports competitions. -(Dixon, 2008). It is well known that young athletes imitate elite professionals. Therefore, steroid use by professional athletes will lead young athletes to assume that PEDs are normal and part of the life of an elite athlete. -(Schwab, 2002). In order to uphold the classic values ​​of sport and ensure that young athletes do not perceive drug use as normal behavior, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport must be banned and condemned as a serious crime. Performance-enhancing substances provide physical benefits to the user, but also introduce risks to physical well-being (Navidinia and Ebadi, 2017). Athletes use PEDs in order to utilize their effect of increasing exercise capacity, allowing athletes to endure excessively large amounts of resistance training as well as cardiovascular exercise, resulting in increased lung capacity , overall strength, muscle mass and density. Athletes also use the effects of performance-enhancing drugs to combat injuries and speed up the injury healing process (Mayo Clinic, 2019). In 2004, a group of anonymous scientists selected 12 websites and published an anonymous survey of PED users. The survey results showed that more than 75% of survey participants were non-professional athletes” (Evans and Parkinson, 2006). This indicates that the main purpose of steroid use is aesthetics. Most people who exercise regularly for extended periods of time have difficulty achieving the body aesthetic they desire due to genetic disadvantages. Research has shown that muscles need a minimum of 24 hours of rest to recover for them to return to full health - (white, 2019). Performance-enhancing drugs allow athletes to shorten this "recovery time" and begin the next exercise regimen almost immediately, meaning they will allow both professional and amateur athletes to achieve the athletic performance or body that 'they want in a shorter period of time. This would give them time to focus on other important aspects of life, such as progressing in their studies or their ambitionsrespected professionals. However, although the (chemicals) contained in PEDs cause changes in the body, such as faster recovery after exercise in muscle cells, other effects of these substances indicate a large amount of effects secondary and short-term and permanent and irreversible long-term impacts on physical health. The anonymous survey further found that "99.2% or 496/500 participants reported subjective side effects" and that "70% (355/500) experienced three or more of these complications" (Evans and Parkinson, 2006). Research has clearly shown that steroid use introduces a high likelihood of experiencing at least one immediate negative side effect and a very large number of short-term health impacts. Short-term physical impacts on men involve changes in glucose concentration, sex hormones, liver enzymes” (Navidinia and Ebadi, 2017), as well as reduced sperm count, impotence and shrinkage. testicles in men. As for women, menstrual disturbances and the development of masculine characteristics are frequently experienced after short-term use. After a prolonged period of use of performance-enhancing substances, both men and women are susceptible to liver toxicity and liver cancer (Iliades, 2009). the range of negative health impacts is alarming. The most worrying effects are not limited to blood clots, fluid retention, high blood pressure, swelling, tremors, decreased sexual function in men and women, and infertility. In addition to this, long-term use of performance-enhancing drugs can lead to baldness, gynecomastia, prostate cancer, and cardiovascular disease. (NIDA, 2018). Therefore, among all the possible repercussions associated with the use of performance-enhancing drugs, it is very clear that the negative impacts far outweigh the positive changes that PEDs bring to the human body. It is therefore definitely in the interest of the physical health of professional athletes competing at the highest level as well as amateur athletes to prohibit the consumption of performance-enhancing substances in sport and to strongly condemn their use. Athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs feel more confident. , and have higher self-perception and self-esteem than non-users, but are also at risk of becoming victims of different psychological health disorders. An athlete's perceived levels of self-confidence and self-esteem increase when using performance-enhancing drugs (Vassallo and Olrich, 2011) and experience an amplification of positive emotions during the PED cycle. Using performance-enhancing drugs increases a person's energy and motivation levels, self-esteem, and social confidence (CISUR, 2015). It may be helpful for an athlete whose performance has declined, or for an ordinary individual who participates in a recreational sport, to use the positive mental effects of performance-enhancing drugs to recover from low self-esteem or a lack of social or sporting confidence. . Although performance-enhancing drugs boost positive psychological emotions and functioning, research has indicated that performance-enhancing drugs are strongly linked to mental disorders. The use of performance-enhancing drugs carries a high risk of anxiety and depression after their use, which can lead to the adoption of different illicit substances or harmful behaviors. The two disorders., 54(3), 215-226.