Doping in sports
Today there are a lot of substances that are used by the sportsmen in order to enhance their sport performance. The most known of them are:
1.- EPO: this are the initials for erithropoietin that is a hormone which function is to stimulate the production of red blood cells. When a sportsman takes erithropoietin achieves to have more red blood cells that lead in more oxygen contribution for his muscles and then he can make more sport effort. On the other hand erithropoietin can produce severe cardiovascular problems.
2.- Anabolic steroids are a class of steroids (natural molecules that are forms for rings structures and that have a lot of functions in the body, for instance sexual hormones) that interact with androgen receptors to increase muscle and bone synthesis. Sportsmen takes steroid to increase their muscular mass. This kind of substances can cause cardiac problems (hypertension, heart attacks...) and liver diseases.
3.- Growth hormone: this is a curious type of doping. It seems not to have any effect in sport performance enhance or, at least, this has not been found yet. However, sportsmen who take this kind of substances are under the placebo effect: the drug is not making any effect, but is the belief of taking something to improve the performance that makes the job. The power of mind, we could say.