Friday, November 15, 2013
As I watch baseball superstar, Alex Rodriguez's legal woes grow and the debate about whether he used performance enhancing drugs, I wonder, why can't people put whatever they want in their bodies in the name of athletic excellence? Students have been known to take Ritalin to help them focus and be better students. Zoloft is handed out like candy to people suffering from depression and anxiety to help them perform day to day. A Canadian, Dr. Anthony Galea, was charged and sentenced recently for his cutting edge work in PRP, or platelet rich plasma. Everyone from Tiger Woods to Olympic Gold Medal winners went to him when they were injured. He uses your own blood, spins it and injects it back into your body to where the injury is. The success rate is high. Yet some think it should be illegal. Galea believes he can help not only athletes, but every senior citizen with aching knees and hips with his simple procedure. This is crazy that he is treated as a common criminal. Cyclists use EPOs because it makes them do incredible, beyond- human feats like the Tour de France. Let's take a closer look on what's illegal in sports so athletes can become stronger and more resilient.
LUKE SAUNDERS
The need for the labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms is a growing concern in today's markets. On average, roughly 60 percent of food products lining the shelves at local retailers contain some type of genetically engineered organism. The issue would not cause rise to as much alarm if the companies were to incorporate labels that highlight the potentially harmful ingredients. It is unfair to the average consumer to be blindly purchasing products to feed to their families which could contain ingredients engineered in a laboratory to withstand pesticides containing know carcinogens; ingredients for which the long term side effects are virtually unknown and untested. There needs to be a stronger push for local legislature to enact regulations that require more honest labeling. Seeing as Chattanooga is such a progressive community that has made strides over the past few decades to rid the haze of the once smoggy skyline, it makes sense for the progression to continue to clean up the haze surrounding the unknowns of the ingredients in this city's foods.
MATTHEW HOPKINS