ARE THE CONSUMERS OF DOPING SUBSTANCES TAKING A RISK? (by Mati Bolaños)

At first sight, doping is an efective and external way of improving an athlete’s performance. Particular substances provoque better results in a competition when consumed, but are the consumers of doping substances taking a risk?

First of all, the ingestion of doping substances is conflicting the original idea of the Internacional Olympic Comittee, founded in 1894 in order to promote ethic and pedagogical values in sportsmen and sportswomen. The aim was clear: stimulating the practise of sports and maintaining close links between the different countries.

In 1866, people could see how a cyclist, Linton, from Wales, died during a competition in France due to a overdose of cafeine. In the 50’s the use of dooping substances increased suddenly. And that’s why, timidly, federations started to make anti-doping tests in the 60’s. Sportmen must be concious that the benefits of doping substances do not exceed their negative effects.

Anabolic asteroids ar the most famous substances use in this field. Men create them naturally, since they make the difference between a man and a women during the teen’s. In fact, the anabolic asteroids are used in some fertility treatments. But there are secondary dangerous effects:

In women, they have virilizations and hirsutism effects, change of voice, and menstraul disorders.
In teenagers, they interrupt the growth of bones (this is the main reason why most gymnasts-girls, specially from the former URSS, are so short).
In men, they increase the size of the prostate, cause libido alterions and change the consumer into an agressive man. And, in a long term, anabolic asteroids may force the male body to create female glands and provoque the growth of breasts.
In general, other well-known are high blood pressure (hypertension), heart attacks, hemorrgafe cerebral or sudden death. Moreover, injures in the liver are huge most times.

Anyway, most times, when proffesional sportmen take doping substances, they are more or less concious of what they are doing. However, there are lots of amateurs training in gyms that are exposed to these substances. As one of them (I actually am a Spinning Instructor) I can assure that, in gyms, there are magazines that mainly offer different substances to increase the size of the muscle and guides about the use of them. Once, I stopped to read one of them out of curiosity, and, when I wanted to read about the secondary effects, the explanations were vage and imprecise. In fact, it is extremely easy to get these ‘magical’ pills, most gyms offer them, and most times the gym-owners do not even advise about the using of them. Actually, I have met some gym-owners that are staunch consumers of doping substances. Fortunately, just some of them are!

As a conclussion of this essay, I just want to pint out all the records-breaking sportmen and sportwomen that are nowadays in Beijing (just like Michael Phelps, Federica Pellegrini or Isinbayeva). We can all turn on television and watch how a new world-record is broken everyday! I feel specially delighted, but not for the record itself, but because it has been broken without the use of doping substances.