Understanding the Effects of Smoking, Sedentary Lifestyle, and Doping in Sports
Smoking
- Physical dependence: Caused directly by nicotine withdrawal.
- Psychological dependence: Smoking becomes a companion in all types of situations, such as after meals, with coffee, or while talking on the phone. It seems impossible to change this relationship.
- Social link: Smoking remains a social act. It is done in groups, at certain leisure meetings, after dinner with friends, and, above all, remains a habit that distinguishes certain groups of adolescents, giving it a social value of rebellion and misunderstood maturity.
Withdrawal Symptoms
Cravings, headaches, dizziness, irritability, internal trembling, poor concentration, trembling hands, loss of appetite, eye pain, nausea, vomiting, changes in taste, anxiety, increased eating, muscle twitching, tiredness, weakness, sweating of hands, and tingling in the skin.
Sedentary Lifestyle
- Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by muscles that requires energy expenditure.
- When the movement is scheduled, structured, repetitive, and performed to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness, we call it physical exercise.
- When the amount of physical activity does not reach the minimum required to maintain a healthy state, we speak of inactivity.
Why is it Recommended to Practice Exercise?
- Reduces the risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease.
- Prevents and/or delays the development of hypertension and lowers blood pressure values in hypertensive patients.
- Reduces the risk of non-insulin-dependent diabetes.
- Improves weight control.
- Helps to balance and improve sleep quality.
- Improves self-image.
Reasons to Start a Program of Physical Activities
- First, we must insist on the numerous physical and psychological benefits derived from the practice of regular physical activity and, on the other hand, on the risks of inactivity.
- We must also make clear that to obtain these health benefits, strenuous efforts are not necessary.
What are Designer Drugs?
The term was introduced by Henderson to refer to certain substances produced in the laboratory that have a great similarity in chemical structure and effects to certain illegal drugs.
Doping
From the sports and social context, doping should be considered within the overarching concept of “sports cheating.” The sports cheating is violating the existing regulations, both in letter and spirit, of any sports race. Pharmacology is the science that studies drugs in every aspect. A drug, in the conceptual sense, means any substance acting on living beings.
Concept of Doping
Doping is believed to include certain methods, such as blood transfusions and all pharmaceutical manipulations that are capable of altering the result of the athlete in competition. The IOC states that doping is a major ethical violation, both in sports and in science.
Why is Doping Prohibited?
Ethical reasons:
These are supported by the very philosophy of sport. Doping, as a model of sports disloyalty, attacks the very heart of this philosophy, as it ultimately becomes more important than the means.
Medical reasons:
There are many, but all revolve around two basic aspects: the assault itself and aggression instead.