Performance-enhancing substance

Performance-enhancing substances, also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PED), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. A well-known example involves doping in sport, where banned physical performance–enhancing drugs are used by athletes and bodybuilders. Athletic performance-enhancing substances are sometimes referred to as ergogenic aids. Cognitive performance-enhancing drugs, commonly called nootropics, are sometimes used by students to improve academic performance. Performance-enhancing substances are also used by military personnel to enhance combat performance.

The use of performance-enhancing drugs spans the categories of legitimate use and substance abuse.

The classifications of substances as performance-enhancing substances are not entirely clear-cut and objective. As in other types of categorization, certain prototype performance enhancers are universally classified as such (like anabolic steroids), whereas other substances (like vitamins and protein supplements) are virtually never classified as performance enhancers despite their effects on performance. As is usual with categorization, there are borderline cases; caffeine, for example, is considered a performance enhancer by some but not others.

The phrase has been used to refer to several distinct classes of drugs:

In sports, the phrase performance-enhancing drugs is popularly used in reference to anabolic steroids or their precursors (hence the colloquial term "steroids"); anti-doping organizations apply the term broadly. There are agencies such as WADA and USADA that try to prevent athletes from using these drugs by performing drug tests. WADA was founded on November 10, 1999 by Dick Pound. The World Anti-doping Agency focuses on establishing and enforcing rules and codes of all sports around the world. Their goal is to make all sports played fairly between all athletes in a doping free organization with the power to prevent athletes from using any form of performance-enhancing drugs. USADA started October 1, 2000 as non-profit and was composed of nine members. Five of which were former Olympic athletes with the other four elected from independent companies. This is the United States Anti-doping Agency and have the ability to test athletes across the nation. Steroids and performance-enhancing drugs are used across all sports organizations around the world.

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