Performance – Enhancing Drugs in Basketball: Latest Review and Analysis

Performance-enhancing substances, also widely recognized as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are drugs used to advance human activity performance in whatsoever form. Substance categorisations as performance-enhancing substances are not completely transparent and objective. Specific prototype performance enhancers (such as anabolic steroids) are ubiquitously categorised as such, whereas other drugs (such as vitamins and protein supplements) are almost never categorised as such, despite their performance-enhancing properties. 

As a result, athletes are held in high regard in today’s society, which is why some athletes feel additional stress, with some resorting to drug and alcohol use to improve their performance. Athletes believe that they must always perform better for a variety of reasons, including earning more profit and not disheartening fans. Some athletes appear to believe that performance-enhancing drugs are necessary to improve their abilities. Even if athletes are aware of the risks of using performance-enhancing drugs, some do not believe this is sufficient to discourage them from using them.

In this article we will look at five power enhancing substances that aren’t steroids and are also widely recognised as non-steroid PEDs:

• Erythropoietin (EPO)

Because red blood cells transport oxygen throughout the body, it stands to reason that if an athlete can boost their red blood cell count, they will distribute more oxygen to their muscles and perform better. One method is blood doping, which involves removing and storing a supply of blood so that it can be returned to the body via transfusion just before competition. But it’s inconvenient and time-consuming. EPO, or erythropoietin, tends to increase red blood cell production without requiring transfusions.

• Human Growth Hormone (hGH)

Human growth hormone (hGH), like EPO, is produced naturally in the body. The pituitary gland, a pea-sized organ at the base of the brain generates hGH to encourage growth in adolescents and children and to boost muscle mass in adults. Athletes can now obtain hGH from a variety of sources, including doctors who will write off-label prescriptions, online pharmacies, illicit websites for performance-enhancing drugs, and clinics that use the hormone to reverse the effects of ageing. Several athletes have even turned to black-market dealers who obtain hGH from human cadavers.

• Bromantane 

Bromantane, a psychoactive drug and masking agent consolidated, was another performance-enhancing drug that rendered the 1996 Summer Olympics lasting impression for the wrong reasons. Several Russians tested positive for the drug, which was not on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) list of banned substances at the time. That didn’t stop the IOC from disqualifying several Russian athletes, depriving two of their medals, and eventually blacklisting bromantane due to its performance-enhancing effects. 

• Ephedrine

Bromantane became popular because it appealed to people on multiple levels. However, stimulants work fairly well as performance-enhancing drugs on their own. Athletes use psychoactive drugs to boost stamina, decrease fatigue, and increase aggression. In addition, someone attempting to meet the criteria for a lower weight class may rely on stimulants’ ability to inhibit hunger.

• Diuretics

Diuretics, like bromantane, have long been used to mask steroid use. Diuretics are any medications that affect kidney function and lead to a rise in urine output. Chlorthalidone, a “water pill,” for instance, precludes fluids and salts from being absorbed back into the kidney tubules and returning to the bloodstream. As a result, the body loses more water.

Also Read: Do Elite Basketball Athletes Deserve their High Salaries? (sportsdigest.in)

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