Performance enhancing drugs in sports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Performance enhancing drugs in sports - Essay Example The use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs has become an all too common occurrence in sports today at all levels, from high school to professional. These substances have the effect of enabling athletes to achieve somewhat superhuman levels of strength and endurance. The pressure on today’s athletes to perform and compete at very high levels is intense, and performance enhancing drugs are a very tempting way to easily push one’s natural performance capabilities to otherwise impossible levels. Unfortunately, they exact a tremendous toll on the athlete’s physical wellbeing, as well as on the integrity of the sport in which it is being utilized. The health ramifications of performance enhancing substances are staggering. They have the potential to wreak havoc on many of the systems in the human body; and have been known to lead to severe and irreversible physical damage to the body, and even death. The drugs constitute substantial risk to any athlete who chooses to utilize them. The peer pressure and other stress to perform in today’s sports environment nevertheless lead many to take that risk. Certainly, the short term potential rewards, often including fame and fortune, can be quite tempting. After all, those athletes in many professional sports who really perform at the top of their game are certain to eventually command unimaginable sums of money. The impact of performance enhancing drugs on the integrity of the game is also a major problem, as those who play clean and push their natural performance levels as far as possible still are often unable to compete with those utilizing these substances.

Sleep and Dreams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Sleep and Dreams - Essay Example In the earlier stages of human evolution, man needed sleep at night in order to protect him from predators and to conserve energy to find food and shelter during the day. (Huffman, 2008) Both these theories carry scientific weight. It may be that sleep initially developed as a way to conserve energy and protect humans from predators but with the passage of time evolved to allow for repair and restoration as well. (Huffman, 2008) As far as the biological basis of dreams is concerned the theory about it is called the activation-synthesis hypothesis and it claims that dreams are a by-product of random stimulation of the brain during REM (Random Eye Movement) sleep. It should be noted here that although most dreams occur during REM sleep, some occur during NREM sleep as well. Another theory about dreams is called the housekeeping theory and it claims that dreams help us sift and sort out our everyday experiences and thoughts. This theory helps explain why dreams are important for our psychological well being. (Huffman, 2008) Freud’s believed that dreams are â€Å"the royal road to the unconscious†. His theory about dreams states that dreams serve a purpose of wish fulfillment i.e. they serve to bring to surface the repressed and personally unacceptable desires of the human unconscious in the form of symbols. A gun may, for example, represent a penis etc. Freud believed that the human brain disguises forbidden thoughts as symbols and interpreting them correctly may lead to the cure of mental illnesses. His theory has however been criticized widely and little or no scientific evidence has been found in support. Even Freud once said about his beloved cigars that: â€Å"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar†. (Huffman, 2008) Although Freud’s theory is not accepted in its current form by modern scientists, they have however, discovered that many of the aspects of dreaming Freud talked about in his theory were accurate. For example: Freud’s claim