Jul 25 2009

No wonder athletes take supplements: testosterone!

I’m not usually an avid reader of the sports pages but a recent article in the New York Times caught my eye.  A couple of over-the-counter dietary supplements adored by high school football players – Tren Xtreme and Mass Xtreme (manufactured by American Cellular Labs) – turn out to contain “designer” (translation: artificially synthesized) testosterone.

Why do high school athletes take this stuff?  Obviously, because it works. Never mind the effects of excess testosterone on bone growth in adolescent boys (not good).

The article sheds considerable light on the murky business of selling such products, the use of illicit drugs in sports, the wink-wink attitudes of everyone involved, and the difficulties faced by federal regulators.

Add this to the reasons why we need Congress to allow real regulation of dietary supplements.

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  • Daniel K Ithaca, NY
  • July 25, 2009
  • 5:36 pm

If these products were banned for use in competitive sports, the message would get out and I bet use would significantly drop.
NCAA, NJCAA, , NPHSAA (Nat’l Pub HS Athletic Association) could get involved with this testing randomly and of course the best teams. This wouldn’t though substitute for better regulation.

  • Janet Camp
  • July 25, 2009
  • 5:53 pm

I would so love to see supplements heavily regulated (by rx only, ideally), but it seems hopeless. People are so “into” them and they are completely ubiquitous at this point.

  • Jon
  • July 27, 2009
  • 7:45 am

Yeah, when I was on the basketball team in high school, everyone knew “supplement” was code for steroids.

  • Jeff
  • August 5, 2009
  • 9:09 am

Marian Nestle consistently gets it wrong whenever writing about regulation of dietary supplements. Even the NYT article had this paragraph:

“But if federal authorities find a supplement to contain an undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredient like a steroid, the agency considers the product to be an illegal, unapproved drug.”

The law is very clear; Any supplement maker that adulterates a product with steroids is committing a serious violation of the law. The problem is not one of regulation. The problem is the FDA’s non-enforcement of existing law. All such adulterated products can be seized. The manufacturer is subject to fines and/or imprisonment. It’s incomprehensible why American Cellular Labs would receive only a warning letter from the FDA.

I doubt if Nestle has ever actually read DSHEA or other laws pertaining to supplements. Before she includes more innacurate information in her columns, she should at least read this explanation of supplement regulation by The Council for Responsible Nutrititon:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:iSAe_YgYkBMJ:www.crnusa.org/pdfs/CRNBackgrounder_DS%2520regulations0609.pdf+Mike+Green+Background+FDA&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

  • Jeff
  • August 5, 2009
  • 9:28 am

Nestle should also read this CRN press release dealing with sports supplements:

http://www.crnusa.org/CRNPR09ResponseSportsIllustrated051909.html

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