Steroids
Introduction
Playing sports in Hon Kong is an excellent approach for young individuals to be physically active, have fun as well as make friends. Games could also assist one to build pivotal life skills that include discipline, and perseverance. However, some athletes have pressure to make the team win, and have a competitive advantage. The desire to succeed in athletics makes them use steroids. These are drugs for improving performance, and in Hong Kong, they are commonly used by athletes who play football, baseball, among other sports. Also, females use these drugs to improve their performance. The act of the athletes using steroids is considered as cheating and could lead to an athlete being banned from participating in athletic activities. Fundamentally, the use of steroids to enhance sports performance could lead to long-term health risks. The effects could be physical, mental as well as against the spirit of sports. Therefore, it is pivotal to examine whether Hong Kong athletes should use steroids.
Steroids refer to the human-made version of the chemical referred to as hormones. They are naturally made in the human body. Steroids are intended to act like the hormone to reduce the inflammation. Steroids could be used for medicine. However, some individuals illegally use them in the sport setting. According to the Loland, (2018), athletes use them to boost muscle mass, performance, as well as endurance and also to shorten the time for the recovery after workouts. Also, bodybuilders use steroids to strengthen their muscles. The steroids have detrimental effects on the athletes’ human body. Thus they should not be used by the Hong Kong athletes
Steroids have an advantage to athletes. For instance, they attract young individuals as well as adults, who take them to improve their performance on athletics and also enhance their body image. Every Hong Kong athlete wants to have a great body that is characterized by good physical appearance. Some athletes, instead of working out, they instead use steroids to have a great body. Also, steroids are essential to the Hong Kong athletes. They could use them to improve their performance. However, the steroids have long-term negative impacts, which make them be banned in Hong Kong sports since they are dangerous to the athletes.
Physical effects of steroids
The use of steroids by athletes has both physical, mental, and health effects. Athletes who use the needle for injecting steroids could have pain in the site of the injection, and also could develop an infection. Also, since the drugs enlarge muscle, it could lead to voice deepening to the female athletes and males, it could lead to premature hair loss. In the process of expanding muscle, also scar or even stretch marks could be developed on the body of the athletes, which could lead to an ugly appearance in aspects of the physical looks. Moreover, the use of the steroids could make one have pimples on the face, as well as excessive body growth and facial hair in women.
Furthermore, steroid use could interfere with the sexual development, and performance of an athlete (Kozman, 2017). In the female, it could lead to irregular periods that are dangerous since one could not predict when to receive her period. Therefore, one could be unprepared for this and could not be pleasant when it comes to competitions. Because steroids lead to muscle enlargement, it could lead to the expansion of breasts in both males and females. A male athlete having a large breast is an awkward appearance. The use of steroids also in men leads to the shrinking of the testicles. Also, steroid use could lead to erectile dysfunction, as well as infertility. These side effects are dangerous, since being not able to sire could lead to severe problems in someone’s life. Erectile dysfunction could promote cheating among couple athletes that is against community ethics in Hong Kong.
Mental effects
Individuals who use steroids could become aggressive or even develop violent behavior, a disorder known as “roid rage” (Chan et al., 2018). The uncontrolled aggression could lead some of the athletes using the steroid to be quarrelsome with their families, and friends. Sometimes, this could lead them to end up in trouble with the law.
Moreover, McHale et al. (2018) link depression with the use of the steroid. Athletes who use the steroid for enhancing performance are more likely to commit suicide compared to athletes who don’t use the steroid. Performance-enhancing steroids are addictive once an athlete uses them, they will always want to use them, and hence if they do not use them, they would have problems with their performance. Individuals using steroids are said to have mood swings, whereby sometimes they feel happier, and some other times sad. This affects how they relate with their families, friends, and other athletes. Therefore, steroids should be banned in sport in Hong Kong.
Health effects of the steroid use among athletes in Hong Kong
Individuals who use steroids develop serious health problems. Some athletes use a syringe to inject the drug, and they may share the needle among many athletes. Therefore leading to transmission of HIV/AIDs, since sharing of need is one of the ways of transmitting HIV/AIDs. The virus causes AIDs, and it is dangerous because there is no cure for the virus. HIV attacks the defense system of the body, making the body to be weak to fight for other infections. It is not possible to tell if someone is sick, since individuals may stay for a long time without showing any sign of the virus. Therefore, steroid use among athletes could lead to the transmission of HIV/AIDs, which is a severe health issue.
Some adverse effects of steroids use are a nuisance, while others are life-threatening. For instance, individuals who use steroids could be associated with stroke, cancer, blood clots, liver problems, as well as heart disease. Therefore, coaches and parents need to assist young athletes to understand that excelling in sports does not mean one should use the steroids. One could excel without using them. Also, since athletes use steroids to enlarge their muscles and shorten the healing time between the workouts, there are alternative approaches for doing so. For example, healthy eating, having enough sleep, as well as having excellent overall mental and physical health.
Steroids use against the spirit of sport
According to Evans (2004), the majority of individuals who take steroids assume that they have minimal risk, and therefore there is no big deal in using them. However, the drugs go through someone’s brains, organs, and reproductive system. An athlete who does not sleep, eat a balanced diet, and miss workouts make up for these by taking steroids (McPherson, 2016). This is against the spirit of sports. The sports’ spirit is the celebration of the human spirit, the body as well as mind. These are reflected in values found in and through games. Ethics includes fair play, honesty, and health, fun, joy, character, and education. Teamwork, respect for the laws and the rules, and commitment are also part of the ethics. The use of the steroid by the Hong Kong athletes is against the spirit of the sports since it is cheating, and games require one to be honest (De Hon, 2017). Also, the sense of sports is concerned with the celebration of the body, and not working out does not mean that one is celebrating his body. Therefore one needs to adopt a healthy lifestyle to excel in sports rather than using steroids. They should be banned from sports activities.
Conclusion
The use of steroids is high among high schools, athletes, and college individuals. Since steroids are linked to severe effects, it should be banned in Hong Kong sports. The effects include physical, mental, healthy, as well as against the spirit of sports. Athletes should be educated on the impact, and alternative methods to help them excel in the competitions. Some effects of steroids use are a nuisance, while others are life-threatening. Therefore, sports organizations should ensure that athletes do not use drugs. They should develop a healthy lifestyle, which includes proper diet, getting enough sleep, and having physical exercise. These could help them to excel in sports.
References
Evans, N. A. (2004). Current concepts in anabolic-androgenic steroids. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 32(2), 534-542.
Kozman, C. (2017). Use of steroids in baseball primarily sports stories. Newspaper Research Journal, 38(1), 46-61.
McHale, T. S., Gray, P. B., Chan, K. C., Zava, D. T., & Chee, W. C. (2018). Salivary steroid hormone responses to dyadic table tennis competitions among Hong Kongese juvenile boys. American Journal of Human Biology, 30(6), e23190.
Chan, D. K. C., Tang, T. C., Gucciardi, D. F., Ntoumanis, N., Dimmock, J. A., Donovan, R. J., … & Hagger, M. S. (2018). Psychological and behavioral factors of unintentional doping: A preliminary systematic review. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1-23.
Loland, S. (2018). Performance-enhancing drugs, sport, and the ideal of natural athletic performance. The American journal of bioethics, 18(6), 8-15.
McPherson, S. S. (2016). Doping in Sports: Winning at Any Cost?. Twenty-First Century Books.
De Hon, O. (2017). The redundancy of the concept of ‘spirit of sport’ in discussions on the prohibited list of doping substances. International journal of sport policy and politics, 9(4), 667-676.