PEDS – Performance Enhancing Drugs The history of performance enhancement follows a timeline as widely rooted in our history as sports themselves. These taboo substances belong to the most completely misunderstood category in modern medicine, and will remain so until the nebulous and illusion-filled veil that surrounds them is torn down. The use of performance-enhancing "substances/drugs" for sporting spurs dates back to ancient Greek times. competitions of yore, where contestants often chewed cocoa leaves or a wide range of other “potions/mixtures.” Although understanding the full effect of what we now know as Testosterone had yet to be developed, the knowledge base of the substance can be traced back to the original ancient Olympic Games which were the first testing ground for performance enhancement trials through testosterone. Athletes often chose to ingest animal testicles, often in large quantities over time, before going to compete. The modern revolution, or renaissance, could be said to have truly begun in the heat of the deadliest war to date. These experiments and clinical trials began to reveal that a hormone located in the testicles was the real catalyst powering these experiments. The synthesis of these hormones, especially testosterone, in the 1930s marked the turning point in the real world of performance enhancement. A true revolution came in early 1931, a German chemist, Adolf Butenandt, found a way to identify and purify the powerful hormone Androstenone. This was a catalyst for another German chemist, Leopold Ruzicka, who was expanding on Butenandt's findings/work, to develop a revolutionary means of synthesizing the hormone to make it safe for human use. Shortly after his previous......middle of paper......seas, and many others. These benefits they boast of can be used to treat a wide range of diseases/disorders such as muscle wasting, HIV, sports injuries and are also applicable to many cancer patients. In conclusion, it is clear that once we lift the veil of myth and tradition that has vilified all performance enhancing drugs, we gain a true understanding of their real basis. Putting all the fallacies aside, it is clear that, of the substances abused without our book on chemical dependency, steroids and most performance-enhancing drugs are least likely to cause derogatory effects. In fact, these “drugs” are often the miracle needed to save a life or simply improve one's sense of physical well-being. Clearly it's time to shed all these myths and actually reveal the realm of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs for the wonder that they truly are..