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Josh Hivner

English 1201

Professor Snell

5 December 2020

PED’s: Worth the Pump?

Have you ever heard of famous athletes being sidelined for failing a drug test because of

steroid use? Surprisingly, high level athletes do not make up the majority of steroid, or PED,

users. There are many different types of performance enhancing drugs, also known as PED’s,

that are commonly used today. Performance enhancing drugs are used by competitors in almost

every athletic event or sport. There is much evidence of what performance enhancing drugs can

do to your body after extended usage. There are many different types of PED’s and they have

different effects on the body. Performance enhancing drugs affect many different sporting

competitions, but they are most common in bodybuilding. There are more and more PED’s

available today, to the average person, than there were in the past. Do the benefits of using

PED’s in bodybuilding outweigh the adverse effects that come with them? Performance

enhancing drugs, specifically anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), are currently not safe for

human consumption because their production isn't controlled, they have many negative side

effects, and they haven't been around long enough to see long term health effects.

Performance enhancing drugs were not commonly misused when they were first created.

The first PED to be misused was testosterone, and it is recorded that Olympic weight lifters were

using testosterone in 1954 (National). It wasn’t until almost thirty years later when more people

began to take advantage of the benefits of using PED’s. In 80’s many more people, typically
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young males, began to use PED’s to improve their physiques and gain strength and or mass. In

1988, 6.6 percent of male high school seniors reported having used steroids (Pope).

PED’s are not made for recreational use, and most are not even approved by the FDA.

For example, testosterone is used medically, but it still has negative side effects and it is not

designed to be used by healthy people. HGH is also meant to be used by people who have

medical needs and not healthy people that want to improve there physique. Since most AAS are

not approved by the FDA, and they are illegal, there is no way to regulate how the product is

made and prepared. The companies that produce PED’s have no accountability to produce a

quality product that contains what they claim it does. They have no standards to maintain the

purity of their product. Greg Doucette talks about SARMs in a YouTube video and how over two

thirds of the product you buy contains less substance than what the dosage is supposed to be and

might not even contain the active ingredients on the label (Doucette).

There are some issues surrounding the legality of SARM’s. SARM’s are not illegal to

purchase, so it is perfectly fine to possess as much SARM’s as you want (Doucette). The

problem with this, is that SARM’s are illegal for human consumption. The dilemma that this

creates is that anyone can buy and obtain SARM’s fairly easily, but they are just not supposed to

ingest them. Obviously, many people use SARM’s to enhance their training session and to help

improve their physique. If the government wants to prevent many people from consuming

SARM’s for performance and image enhancing purposes then they need to change the laws

about the drugs. If SARM’s are going to be illegal to consume, they should be illegal to

purchase, because if people have access to the drugs, they will use them. Tests should also be

performed on SARM’s to find out if they are safe for human consumption, so that it is public

knowledge, since so many people have access to them.

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The main issue surrounding the legality of PED’s, but more specifically SARM’s is the

fact that they are not very difficult to purchase and obtain. These drugs are not safe for human

consumption and have many negative side effects. There are also so many new synthetic types of

steroids that have little to no research done on them. For SARM’s to be legal there should be

regulation of the quality and purity of the product. Before any of the PED’s become legal for

recreational consumption there should be extensive testing on how they affect the body both

positively and negatively. Since SARM’s are legal to purchase but not consume they are not

regulated by the FDA resulting in a low-quality product that doesn’t have to be held to a

standard. This allows companies to use other ingredients that are cheaper to give one the results

they crave, along with terrible side effects.

Contrary to common knowledge performance enhancing drug use is far more prevalent in

non-competitor bodybuilders, than top tier athletes. Most people hear about the use of PED’s

among elite level athletes on the news, but elite athletes are in the minority when it comes to

PED use. There are still many professional athletes that use PED’s to aid their performance, but

there are far more amateurs that use the drugs. Many bodybuilders use PED’s to improve their

physique and strength. The most common type of steroid used by bodybuilders are AAS, also

known as anabolic androgenic steroids. SARM’s are becoming a popular drug among

bodybuilders in today’s society. SARM stands for Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator.

Anabolic steroids, such as testosterone, bind to androgen receptors in tissues all over the body,

whereas SARM’s only bind to androgen receptors in specific tissues. For example, SARM’s bind

to androgen receptors in the muscle tissue specifically stimulating muscle growth, seemingly

having less side effects.

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Many PED users start fairly young with the drugs, in a study quoted by Harrison Pope the

median age to begin use is between twenty-two and twenty-four (Pope). The United states has

the largest amount of AAS users according to Pope (Pope). There are several types of AAS that

exist today and the number continues to increase. Many of these drugs are designed to be

untraceable in drug tests. Androstenedione is an anabolic androgenic steroid that is known to

give athletes the ability to train harder and recover faster in the bodybuilding community

(Mayo). Andro is actually a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, and it is available by

prescription in the U.S. but is not permitted for use as a PED. HGH or human growth hormone is

another common PED, its benefit is improved performance and muscle mass gain (Mayo).

Erythropoietin is a hormone that increases the production of red blood cells along with

hemoglobin, this drug creates an increase in the amount of blood flow and therefore oxygen into

the muscle (Mayo). This is a common drug to be used by athletes in endurance competitions,

such as cycling and swimming. These are just some of the major performance enhancing drugs

that are used today.

Bodybuilding is a major sport in which the participants use different types of PED’s,

typically anabolic androgenic steroids. In a study done in Kerman City, a group of 202 body

builder athletes were questioned about steroid use. If a participant in the study had used PED’s

they were asked to provide what type of drug, and how long they had been using it. The results

of this study showed that nearly twenty percent of body builders use some type of steroid

(Sepehri).
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(Sepehri). This chart shows that overall, the percentage of steroid abusers in each age category

are fairly similar, with the highest number of users being between the ages of 20 and 29

(Sepehri). One statistic that really stands out is the fact the drug abusers in this study had a mean

of almost forty months working out, while the non-abusers only had a mean of just less than 15

months working out (Sepehri). This brings to attention the idea that maybe the longer athletes’

workout, or participate in bodybuilding, the more likely they are to try anabolic steroids or

become a full-time user. In Sepehri’s study, it was found that over eighty percent of the

performance enhancing drug users were introduced to the drugs by someone they consider to be

a friend (Sepehri).

Not only do many athletes use drugs to improve their performance in sporting

competitions, the gym, and their physique, but they also take many dietary supplements and

there is a big difference between the two. Creatine is a dietary supplement used by many athletes

who want to increase endurance, strength, and muscle mass. Creatine is one of the most popular

supplements, and as stated in the article titled “Is Creatine Hydrochloride Better than Creatine
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Monohydrate for the Improvement of Physical Performance and Hormonal Changes in Young

Trained Men?”, Tayebi states that over 80 percent of the athletes that participated in the 1998

Olympics used creatine before or during the Olympics (Tayebi). The main difference between

dietary supplements and performance enhancing drugs is the fact that PED’s are illegal and not

approved by the FDA but dietary supplements are regulated by the FDA and can be purchased at

nutrition stores or even Walmart. Some of the most common supplements among athletes and

non-competitive bodybuilders are creatine, glutamine, BCAA’s or branched chain amino acids,

protein, and EAA’s aka essential amino acids. All of these supplements have different roles and

benefits.

The biggest misconception about PED’s is that they are used exclusively by professional

athletes. In reality, they are used more often by recreational bodybuilders to improve their

physique than by anyone else. Research shows that PED’s and AAS are not safe for human

consumption, and that the adverse effects far outweigh the benefits. One big issue with most

AAS is that there isn’t enough research and data on their use. Since these drugs are illegal, there

isn’t human testing done. Most studies are performed on animals, and the studies that do use

humans have far too many variables to provide quality results. Another issue is that PED use

wasn’t mainstream until the 80’s and 90’s, so many users are still relatively young. Controlled

testing should be performed with anabolic androgenic steroids and SARM’s, so individuals who

are considering using the drugs would know the true effects. A big problem with performance

enhancing drugs in today’s culture is that people are uneducated in the topic. Since many people

are unaware of the effects (many effects are still unknown), they willingly use the drugs even

though they are truly damaging their bodies.

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The negative effects of PED’s are numerous; and a point of agreement for most experts

on the topic. For example, steroid misuse can cause high blood pressure, strokes, and heart

attacks. Steroid use also can have different effects on males and females. Some side effects

specific to males are balding, shrunken testicles, enlarged breasts, and infertility (Mayo). Men

can also have an enlarged prostate gland due to steroid use (Mayo). Some effects specific to

females are deepening voices, increased body hair, decreased breast size, and more (Mayo). The

effects of steroid use are not limited to physical changes but also mental changes. Studies have

proven increased aggression because of steroid use (Pope et al.). Steroid use typically causes

acne as well. Another issue that can arise from steroid use is low levels of HDL cholesterol

(Mayo).

Due to the lack of human research performed with different anabolic androgenic steroids,

the long-term effects are seemingly unknown. Widespread, recreational steroid use is also fairly

new, so many of the users are still alive and may not have faced long term health issues yet.

There is more mystery to the long-term side effects of steroid use than there are answers. Overall

considering long term side effects of steroid use, the consequences are unknown due to the lack

of research and studies performed.

The overarching danger surrounding performance and image enhancing drugs is not

necessarily what we know about them, but what we still do not know. There are many unknowns

about steroids such as long-term health conditions and the actual contents of the drug you are

taking. Much research still needs to be conducted on all of the many types of PED’s and the

information made available and known to the public so that people don’t make blind decisions

without knowing the possible outcome. Some of the more popular steroids are known to have

certain side effects that are very dangerous and unpleasant, while other new synthetic drugs are
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advertised as being “side effect free”. Many of the users are young men, and many start when

they are young as well. The government could limit steroid use much more if they would make it

illegal to purchase SARM’s, which is becoming more and more popular. Due to the known side

effects, the lack of long-term research, or research of any kind for that matter, and the lack of

regulation during production, performance and image enhancing drugs are not safe for human

consumption.
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Works Cited

Chen, Jiyun, et al. “Discovery and Therapeutic Promise of Selective Androgen Receptor

Modulators.” Molecular Interventions, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2005,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072877/. Accessed 9 November 2020.

Doucette, Greg, director. SARMS || 20 Supplement Labs Tested! THE RESULTS!!! Youtube, 14

Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcFrjMeHBO4. Accessed 9 November 2020.

Mayo Clinic Staff. “Understanding the Risks of Performance-Enhancing Drugs.” Mayo Clinic,

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 18 May 2019,

www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/performance-enhancing-drugs/art-

20046134. Accessed 9 November 2020.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Introduction.” National Institute on Drug Abuse, 25 June

2020, www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/steroids-other-appearance-

performance-enhancing-drugs-apeds/introduction. Accessed 9 November 2020.

Pope, Harrison G, et al. “Adverse Health Consequences of Performance-Enhancing Drugs: An

Endocrine Society Scientific Statement.” Validate User, 1 June 2014,

https://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/35/3/341/2354633. Accessed 9 November 2020.

Sepehri, Gholamreza, et al. “Frequency of Anabolic Steroids Abuse in Bodybuilder Athletes in

Kerman City†This Article Has Been Published in the Journal of Rafsanjan University of

Medical Sciences in Persian Language.” Addiction & Health, Kerman University of

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Medical Sciences, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905495/. Accessed 9

November 2020.

Tayebi, M, and H Arazi. “Is Creatine Hydrochloride Better than Creatine Monohydrate for the

Improvement of Physical Performance and Hormonal Changes in Young Trained

Men?” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2020, www-sciencedirect-

com.sinclair.ohionet.org/science/article/pii/S0765159719302011?via=ihub. Accessed 9

November 2020.