We are in the early days of trumpeting the risks of purchasing over the counter supplements. Because these substance are completely unregulated, the user is totally at risk of purchasing substances that are laced with anabolic steroids and/or stimulants.

This article posted in this weekend’s Boston Globe is worth reading in its entirety.

Don

October 17, 2009 – Megan Woolhouse

Eighteen-year-old Fidah Salem did not know anything about the ingredients listed on the 4 1/2-pound container of Cell-Tech Hardcore, but he liked the nutritional supplement’s promise: “packs on muscle strength.”

So he persuaded his mother, Paula Smith, to spend $100 on it and other products last week at the GNC store at South Shore Plaza in Braintree.

Smith said she and her son did not know the US Food and Drug Administration recently warned against the use of some bodybuilding supplements – though not Cell-Tech Hardcore specifically – saying they might contain anabolic steroids, which are illegal.

“A bunch of my friends use [supplements], so I thought I’d try,” Salem said. “It gives you muscle and gets you bigger without shooting steroids.”

While much attention has been paid to steroid use among professional athletes, teenagers are often drawn to sports performance products that advertise similarly dramatic results. There are hundreds of over-the-counter items available locally, such as Anabolic Halo, a powder touted as promoting “chilling gains in muscle size and strength,” and Jack3d, which is said to induce “ultra-intense muscle-gorging strength.” Those and other supplements are sold with virtually no oversight by the FDA.

PLEASE TAKE 5 MINUTES AND READ THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE

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