Steroids With High School Athletes example essay topic

Steroids Probably one of the biggest stories in the news today is steroids in Major League Baseball. This is one of the reasons that I chose to do my research paper on steroids. I knew that it would not be hard to find information on the issue. I also needed to have a topic that relates to my service learning project. This is helping coach a high school track and field team. And as you will read later, I talk about steroids with high school athletes.

I also wanted to improve my knowledge on the subject, so that if I ever did have a conversation with someone about the issue, I would be educated enough to have an argument, if it came to that. I am also a fan of baseball, so I was just interested in what steroids can all do for you, and what the side effects are. And actually in my research I have found some of the side effects to be pretty interesting. First I will talk about the effects of steroids. Now contrary to many people's believes there are steroids that are good for you too. So I will talk about the advantages of them first.

You always hear steroids are illegal unless they are prescribed. Well when they are actually prescribed. Steroids can come in a variety of medications. I personally have used steroids in a lotion that was designed to protect against dry skin. All that it simply is a stronger medication that you are not able to get over the counter. There are also contraceptive steroids or birth control.

They are called steroid releasing implants. The implant is inserted under the skin. It slowly releases the steroid, which prevents conception. So there are actually steroids that are designed to help you. And most of the time these types of steroids have no negative of long term side effects. If they did your doctor would not prescribe them to you.

It is when you get into the anabolic steroids is when you start getting those negative long term side effects that you always hear about the football players and the body builders have. In the dictionary anabolic steroid is defined as this: A group of synthetic hormones that promote the storage of protein and the growth of tissue, sometimes used by athletes to increase muscle size and strength. Now after reading that there doesn't seem there's anything wrong with anabolic steroids. You may think why don't all athletes take them if they can get an edge.

It does not say anything bad about them. Now this is true but it is when athletes take them in excess that is when they get in trouble and start to have some of the side effects of anabolic steroids. Some the side effects that occur in men are as follows - impotence, shrunken testicles, and breast enlargement. Those are some pretty big side effects for the male. All three of those side effects you would think affect the male ego in a pretty big way. But no many males are taking steroids to feel more macho and more of a manly man.

The side effects in women are different though. Yes women also take steroids; it is actually a growing trend, trying to keep up with the male muscle mass. Some of the side effects in females are as follows menstrual irregularities, growth of body hair and loss of scalp hair, a deepened voice, irreversible enlargement of the clitoris and reduction in breast size. Once again, I know if I was a woman those would be some of the last things I would want happening to my body. And for women who are trying to achieve the more fit and carved look, they sure are sacrificing some of their other qualities. I know for me at least one of the qualities that I like to see in women is that they have hair on their head and not necessarily on their body.

And here are some side effects that effect both genders, acne, increased risk of aggressive acts which may injure self or others, risk of HIV and hepatitis B and C from contaminated needles, decreased sex drive, baldness, water retention, muscle cramps, aching joints, increased risk of tendon injuries, increased risk in muscle tears, increased risk in nose bleeds, insomnia, and infertility. And believe it or not, those are not even the worst side effects of steroids. Some of those are only cosmetic effects, the long term ones are the ones that do the most damage. Some of the long term effects are kidney, liver, and immune system problems. They can also lead to high blood pressure and an increase of chances of getting heart disease; this is because steroids affect the cholesterol levels. Over a period of time the cholesterol builds up and clogs the arteries.

That pretty much sums of the effects of anabolic steroids, now lets move on to the issues with Major League Baseball. One of the biggest stories in sports these days is steroids in Major League Baseball. They became such a big issue when Jose Canseco a former MVP of Major League Baseball published his tell all book Juiced. In it Canseco admits to himself using steroids and also says that many other players when he played also took them. He even went as far as in claiming that he injected some of his teammates. This raised a huge concern with the MLB officials in that the players might actually be cheating and taking illegal substances.

So the implicated a new steroid suspension policy which consists of first time offenders will serve a 10-day suspension, second offense results in a 30-day suspension, third offense results in a 60 day suspension, and fourth offense results in a suspension of one year. Congress does not like this policy though. They would like a tougher, even though they have not proposed one. I disagree with congress getting involved.

I think that it should be up to Major League Baseball. It's not an issue in the white house it's an issue in Major League Baseball, and that is where I think it should stay. One of the reasons that congress called the MLB steroid hearings was because of the effect that the players have on society and in particular kids. This being said there are many high school students now taking steroids to get that extra edge.

According to the Dallas Morning News recently nine Colleyville Heritage High School students have admitted using banned steroids, one of the largest cases of confirmed steroid use at a U.S. high school. Showing that there are actually high school students out there using these drugs. According to bridgesforkids. com steroids soared in popularity among high school students in girls and boys after Mark McGwire hit a major league-record 70 home runs in 1998 while using the supplement androstenedione, a steroid precursor. But high schools do not have the funding to test athletes for steroids like Major League Baseball does. Once again according to bridgesforkids. com, at Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp CA, all student-athletes and cheerleaders take urine tests for marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs each season, costing the district about $9,000. Checking for steroids would cost an additional $44,000.

It then went on to say that would be enough money to pay for another teacher and their priority at this moment is keeping staff. At this moment I do not think that steroids are a huge problem in high schools, but I could see it escalating into one if something is not done about the problem. But I still do not think that you can blame the athletes for them. Besides Jose Canseco no big name athlete has come out and admitted to taking steroids. So with that you can not say that the younger athletes want to mimic their heroes, because they do not know that their heroes are taking these substances. Also instead of always blaming the athletes and movie stars and TV how about the parents taking some responsibility.

One thing people might ask is "how can you buy steroids if they are illegal". Well that question can pretty much be answered in one word, and that word is "internet". All you have to do is do a search and it will bring up many anti-steroid sites and sites that inform you about the dangers of them. But there is a very big amount that also sells them, and tells you that there is nothing wrong with them. There are also many magazines, I actually signed up for a free issue hoping that it would help me with this paper, but it did not arrive in time. But I'm sure that it is very easy to order them out of the magazines also.

In conclusion I think I made it pretty obvious that anabolic steroids are bad for you, but I also wanted to show that whenever you hear the word "steroids" you can not automatically think bad and illegal, because there are steroids out there that help you and are good for you. Pretty much all that I wanted to do was to educate you the reader and myself about the subject of steroids. We always hear about them but never really know what they are about. Well now we both have a better understanding..