Sweat, Sceince,or Shortcut?: Debating Performance Enhancing Drugs

I’m starting to think todays prompt is actually for me because recently I have developed keen interest in the aspect of pharmacology. If you already know me, you’d probably know that I majored in biochemistry in the university and I really love everything I studied because I’m one curious person. During my time in the university, we read some pharmacology courses and they always got me excited. But then, these days I always find myself reading more about drugs and their reactions and you’d always find me talking to people about the mechanism of action of various drugs. Sometimes when I get to sit down with my bosses and seniors at work, I always bombard them with questions they eventually run away from me. Guilty as charged.😂🙏

As we all know by now, a drug is a chemical substance that’s used to treat or relieve pain, diseases and other conditions. There are so many drugs circulating in the system today but then we all know to not go around taking a drug because we want to. Drugs are important in our lives as humans because there’s always a possibility of an external factor affecting us in all aspects. Gone were the days when our forefathers resorted to herbal medicines for treatment of medical conditions. Thanks to technology and evolution, we have evolved from those times and now, we have conventional drugs in so many forms and combinations for different conditions. Isn’t that amazing.

With my line of work and my field of specialization, I would say that I have come to understand so many things about drugs like their mechanism of action, their side effects and all of that. Did you know that taking paracetamol without a prescription is drug abuse? I’m sure all of us are guilty of taking paracetamol for slight headaches or body pains and to some extent, some of us can’t even go a day without it because we have developed some level of tolerance to it which is really bad of you ask me.

Casting an eye on sports and athletes to be specific, I really understand why drugs that enhance an athletes performance are totally banned in the sports sector. As an athlete, there’s actually so many means you can use to develop your body and enhance your performance. We all see how the gym bros take in protein shakes and other supplements. It’s not that they just want to take it for fun, they take it to help their body grow and stay fit because with the kind of exercises they are undergoing, they obviously need some extra nutrients from other sources.

The whole reason of being an athlete is to show people that you’re physically capable on your own and you don’t need any performance enhancing drugs. For athletes, there are some drugs they can take to reduce the side effects of the strenuous exercises they undergo but resorting to anabolic steroids, some hormones and even hard drugs to enhance their activity is actually a no no for me. It’s more like you’re out there deceiving people. To me, any athlete who resorts to all these stuff to be able to prove that he’s good at what he does doesn’t even deserve to be recognized in the sports field in the first place.

If I’m to be honest, I’m totally with the whole idea of restrictions being placed on the use of such drugs by athletes because in an much as it might help to show working to their supporters, the side effects of the excessive use of these drugs is not something to write home about. Every drugs has its purpose and that’s why you don’t see everyone walking into pharmacy to buy a drug just because they want to. Let drugs serve their purpose, and not otherwise.All images belong to me.

all images belong to me.