It is a truth unveiled that in athletic performance, some athletes are using booster to improve their performance. The booster consists of chemicals that able to change some mechanism within one’s body. Despite the effects of the chemicals, some athletes still depend on it even though in athletic competition surely such use will be immediately ruled out from the event.
To know why some booster can work in certain way is to know its chemical. Below is the list of chemical used to enhance athletic performance.
- Erythropoietin
The chemical belongs to non-steroid one that can enhance athletic. Erythropoietin can enhance the produuction of red blood cells. The red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body. Therefore, when the production of blood cell increases, the more oxygen delivered to the muscle.
As the result, the athlete can enhance and use their muscle more in athletic performance just like mentioned in the Common Uses for Oxygen the Element in everyday life. However, if this chemical is not used wisely, the increase of blood cell production will increase the pressure, and a blood leakage may occur.
- Bromantan
Another performance enhancing chemical is bromantan. Bromantan is a stimulant that helps people to be more alert and less fatigued. The chemical is originally intended for soldier but it was used wrongly by athletes.
The reason why Bromantan is permanently blacklisted is it was used for athlete not to compete fairly as normal body should feel tired after certain time of performance. There are also some dangerous side-effects and addiction and that are way bromantan should not be used by athletes.
- Ephedrine
Ephedrine is a stimulant that can supress appetite. Some athletes who wish to perform in lower weight class usually consume this so they will not gain weight from excessive eating. The drug is also available in weight loss product in over the counter medicine. However, there may be some side effects that can lead to death for the worst case.
An athlete died from overdose of ephedrine ever since he keep consuming the drug everyday. The vital organs are damaged as it makes them function abnormally. Thus, this drug is not advisable for athlete to consume.
- Diueretics
Another non-steroid chemical in performance enhancing drug is diuretics. Diuretics is a chemical that often used wrongly by athletes to hide the fact that they are using steroid and play unfairly. It suppress the kidney function and make steroid harder to detect.
By this way, some irresponsible athletes hope that they will not get caught of using steroid. Even though the chemical is good for those who have high blood pressure, long term use of it will damage the kidney and it can even lead to death when the addiction overcome the body. For other organ damaging chemicals, see List Of Banned Food Additives in many countries.
- Albuletrol
Athletes use albuletrol to deal with ashtma. The drug is populer among marathon runner who wish to complete the race without having to deal with the danger of getting asthma attack. It allows more air to flow in the lung and relax the muscle in bronchial part.
Therefore, it helps for asthma patients to have longer breathing sustenance. There is still debate whether this drug is actually allowed or not during sport competition.
- Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen generally is used to relieve pain as well as anti-inflammatory drug. However, later research also found the chemical to be able as performance enhancing drug. It should be noted that ibuprofen works only for certain chronic use and there certainly will be side effects following the use.
It can damage the gastrointestinal lining if it is used too frequently. Thus, it is better to treat ibuprofen as pain reliever only. Consult with doctor if there is any pain or side effects coming from the use of ibuprofen in general.
- Beta Blockers
Another famous drug to enhance athletic performance is beta blockers. Beta blockers such as propanolol is found to be an enhancer for archery or pistol shooting. It controls the hypertension within one’s body. When someone consume this, he or she will have lower heart beat and steadier posture and movement.
In contrast with enhancer for other sports, bleta blockers focus on making the body more focused and less anxious. Since this is used wrongly for unfair competition, beta blocker is banned from any competition.
- Tamoxifen
The next chemical to enhance athletic performance is tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is normally used to treat people with breast cancer to fight List of Chemicals Known to Cause Cancer. But for some reason it works as PED as well because it can mask the use of steroid.while tamoxifen itself does not cause any enhanced performance, the drug can mask steroid use and suppress the unappealing estrogen hormone. Since it is used unfairly, tamoxifen is among the banned chemicals for athletic performance.
- Creatine
Unlike other chemicals that are considered as drugs, creatine is considered as food supplement by FDA that also published the list of FDA List of Approved Cosmetic Ingredients. Creatine is actually produced daily by kidney to enhance the muscle tissue so it is still allowed in some competition to use creatine. However, the creatine works for short period only with slow burn effect. Thus, one can only hope to add a little enhancer by using this instead.
- Steroid
Steroid is the most popular performance enhancing drug that often misused by athletes. It produces extra testoterone, the hormone of male body and enhancing the aggresiveness, muscle mass and performance in general. Steroid is very famous as many athletes had been caught of using it.
There are some malignant side effects that people can get by taking too much steroid such as failed internal organs, high blood pressure, and for the worst case, can cause death. Athletes who use it will be immediately banned from the competition.
Other Chemical To Enhance Athletic Performance
Here are more chemicals used to enhance athletic performance:
- Methylphenidate
- Bupropion
- Amphetamine
- Human Growth Hormone
- Beta-2 Agonist
- Caffeine
- Diazepam
- Cannabis
- Ethanol
- Glycol Epoetin Beta
- Clomiphene
- Albumin
- Mannitol
- Dextran
- Testolactone
- Toremifene
- Cyclofenil
- Furosemide
- Amiloride
- Metolazone
Athletes should not use any performance enhancing drug as it means they are cheating in competition. Moreover, the chemicals on those drug can be very dangerous. Indeed, there are 30 list of chemicals used to enhance athletic performance.
Also read: List of Chemicals That Get You High