Performance-Enhancing Substances: Risks and Effects

Classification of Doping Substances

Doping substances are classified into several categories based on their physiological effects:

Stimulants

The use of these products in competition is supplementary and illegal. Common examples include amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, and ephedrine.

Benefits

• Mental: Improvement of selective attention, increased competitive spirit, and euphoric behavior.
• Physical: Decreased sense of fatigue, increased heart rate, and longer exercise duration at the same intensity. It facilitates glycolysis, promoting fat utilization as an energy source, which provides the athlete with more power and better breathing.

Negative Impacts

These include physical and mental dependence, thermoregulation changes leading to heat stroke, tachycardia, arrhythmias, and potential liver and kidney dysfunction.

Narcotic Analgesics

Used in physical activity to mask and reduce the psychological and physiological response to pain generated by high-intensity muscle activity. Morphine is typically reserved for severe pain and postoperative situations.

Negative Effects

They generate high dependency, requiring strict medical prescription. Side effects include decreased testosterone levels, hypotension, decreased heart rate, respiratory depression, and digestive tract alterations such as nausea and vomiting.

Anabolic Steroids

These products are derived from testosterone and focus on the development and consolidation of muscle tissue.

Anabolic Effects on Performance

• Enhanced recovery after exercise.
• Improved protein synthesis.
• Increased glycogen stores.
• Increased bone thickness and injury prevention.
• Increased muscle hypertrophy and aggressiveness.

Adverse Effects

Excessive aggressiveness, decreased testosterone and sperm production, hair loss, acne, and an imbalance between muscle and tendon size, which can lead to tendon injuries. Other risks include high blood pressure, elevated liver enzymes, liver malfunction, and an increased long-term risk of liver cancer.

Peptide Hormones

Types

• Growth Hormone (GH): Widely used in sports for its benefits, including faster recovery, improved fat metabolism, strengthened tendons and bones, and increased muscle fiber count.
• Erythropoietin (EPO): A substance naturally produced in the renal medulla, stimulated when oxygen pressure in the blood drops. It is responsible for red blood cell formation, which transports oxygen to tissues, benefiting endurance athletes like cyclists and runners.

Negative Effects

Anemia, stimulation of visceral tumor growth, thickening of flat bones, blood clots, hypertension, and headaches.