Testing It Up

After raids on drug supplement companies who were suspected of having added steroids to their over the counter supplement products congress is revaluating the laws associated with supplements. The FDA has already warned consumers against using supplements which claim to boost testosterone or which contain steroid like substances citing kidney and liver damage among other side effects of using the products. Congress is trying to validate if manufacturing guidelines, law and agency resources are really providing enough protection for the public they set out to serve.

Dietary supplements are defined as products that come from or contain natural foodstuffs such as herbs and minerals that don’t have the ability to make clear claims of mitigating, preventing or curing specific illnesses or conditions. When they contain drugs (as with the steroids in this case) the FDA considers them misbranded illegal drugs.

The chief executive of the US Anti-doping Agency estimates that there are hundreds of products available on US shelves that contain products that fall under this violation. Supplements aren’t required to undergo the same sort of quality control standards that other drugs are and so the addition of steroids went unnoticed until cases of liver and kidney damage made it clear.

In recent years, health food stores have attracted quite a following even among ordinary people. The use of supplements has ceased to be exclusive to athletes and bodybuilders and has become part of the mainstream. It is no longer that of a surprise to see an executive in an IT firm, for instance, sporting a buffed body that one might think belonged to a professional athlete. With the emergence of consumer demand for bodybuilding supplements, these products have increasingly become more accessible to the greater majority.

The question now is: as ordinary citizens, how much understanding do we really have about these supplements and the ingredients that they contain? When we as parents purchase these products for use by our up-and-coming 16 year-old who is a shining star in his high school football team, are we sure that what we are giving him is safe?

A recent investigation by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs regarding the availability of banned substances in health food stores has been conducted. It seems rather paradoxical that a store that is supposed to sell products that contribute to a person’s overall well being may actually have shelves upon shelves of products that contain illegal substances.

Apparently, certain health products that do not undergo review and approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration are finding their way into the market, and eventually into some high school athletes’ diets. These physical appearance and performance boosters reportedly become a part of what is now a $24 billion industry in the United States alone.
Some of these “health supplements” contain anabolic steroids. One can find them in health food stores at the local mall or on online retailers, some of whom claim to be unaware that such ingredients are part of the products that they are selling. After all, these stores do not manufacture them. For the industry, the realization only comes after investigations and raids. For the consumer, these realizations may either never come or become a surprise after the conduct of random steroid testing.

So, check out your pantry; are you absolutely sure about that health supplement you are taking?

The NFL’s drug testing program may no longer be enforceable; thanks to a federal court ruling and they might not be the only U.S. sport that will be facing the backlash. The NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA have all begun programs in an effort to discipline players who’ve been found to be using illegal steroids. Now thanks to the ruling these players will be able to use state courts to challenge suspensions made based on doping charges from their sports leagues.

The ruling made in the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals of Minneapolis upheld the ruling of a lower court prohibiting the NFL from suspending two Minnesota Vikings who were being punished for violating the anti-doping policy. Stating that state level courts could be used to contest suspensions of this type, the court made the ruling on the basis of laws barring employers from suspending or firing an employee on the basis of an initial positive drug test.

The NFL like most sports leagues had been making suspension policies that penalized players for positive tests not considering these laws that exist in Minnesota and several other states. The ruling is viewed as a major change in the overall bargaining process for players, potentially opening new doors for players who hadn’t previously been able to lay claim to rights that regular employees experienced every day.

Athletes abusing steroids is old news in sports like baseball. There is always a rumor that there is some baseball player using performance enhancing drugs. However, you may be surprised to find out stories of steroid abuse among athletes in sports that do not seem to require performance enhancers.

In tennis, players do not seem to need to pump iron to boost their performance, but former champion John McEnroe said in 2004 that he took steroids without knowing what they are. In skiing, ironically another sport that does not seem to require performance enhancers, a team from Finland tested positive for the drug.

Golf is not spared from news of steroid abuse. Golfing legend Gary Player claimed knowing about some players who took steroids to improve their performance on the green, but this claim was refuted by Tiger Woods. NASCAR driver Ron Hornaday tested positive for steroids in recent years.

For full version of this article, please visit “Steroid Abuse in Tennis, Skiing, Golf and NASCAR Racing“.

Anabolic steroids are hormones that help induce growth through an increased rate in cell division. The use of anabolic steroids is surprisingly popular among the athletes of ancient Greece. Though the practice was forgotten for most of ancient history after the fall of Greece, the use of anabolic steroids was rediscovered accidentally in Germany in the 1930s. Twenty years later, usage of anabolic steroids gained popularity when it was approved by the FDA.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, there were doubts about whether or not there are any benefits to using anabolic steroids. Tests conducted in 1972 showed that people who took anabolic steroids did not really show any significant changes in their bodies. This, however, was disproved in the 1990s through more controlled tests. At the same time, the US Congress put into place the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990, which classified anabolic steroids as a controlled substance. The Act was modified in 2004.

For full version of this article, please visit “History of Anabolic Steroids – How It Started?“.

The FDA has posted a public health advisory warning against use of any supplements that claim to contain steroids or steroid like materials. This report came five days after a raid of American Cellular Labs in California looking for proof that the company sells actual steroids under the guise of supplements. Products that were under investigation are: MASS Xtreme, TREN-Xtreme and six others. Over the last two years five reports have been made related to these drugs and more from other companies citing liver damage. These reports prompted the investigation along with concerns that high school athletes, who are not generally required to undergo steroid testing, may be using them.

Such supplements are readily available in malls and retail outlets across the country which spreads their use and side effects across a wide area of consumers. Steroids and other drugs that are intended to build muscle mass aren’t the only supplements that should require this level of caution. Many supplements make health benefit claims that are simply unfounded and are often outright lies to market the product. Caution should always be used when taking any sort of supplement for health reasons whether it’s for mental or physical results. Discuss the supplements you’re looking into with your doctor before using them, it could lower your risk for side effects and improve your knowledge of the product.

It’s not just the professional athletes who have to deal with the pressure to perform. The college athlete is now accorded almost the same level of exposure as his or her professional counterpart, with their games now beamed across the globe through cable networks such as ESPN. It is not too uncommon for someone in Asia, for instance, to root for the Buckeyes football team.

This means that they are as much exposed to the temptation to resort to performance-enhancing drugs as are the pros. Athletic coaches in the different colleges, though, are pro-actively trying to keep their players away from steroids. Methods such as random testing are being employed by schools across the country to ensure that everyone is playing clean.

Known steroids are not the only things that college athletes should watch out for. Certain over-the-counter supplements are also known to generate positive results in random tests, so athletes should be careful about what they take. Since the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate supplements very well, consumers are not sure about what they are taking in. To be safe, college athletes should actively consult with their respective coaches before taking anything, even if they are ‘just supplements’. Trainers generally have a list of everything that is legal and illegal and would be able to give the proper advice.

The good news is that college athletes do not normally go down the steroid route due to financial constraints. Performance-enhancing drugs are rather expensive, and there are very few college athletes who have that kind of money to splurge.

The other factor that will discourage the college athlete from touching steroids would be dreams of a career with the pro leagues. In the pros, the most a player who gets caught using steroids would suffer is a suspension – a slap on the wrist – and then he or she will be allowed to play again. The environment is not as forgiving for college athletes. A violation may very well mean the end of a career, and not just with the college team. It can also squash any chances of making it to the pros.

Whether these factors will be enough to keep college athletes away from steroids is really difficult to ascertain.

The whole brouhaha about steroids has gone so widespread and over the top that it is difficult to figure out where it started and where it will end. A few posts ago, we were regaled with the baseball community’s call for reformation, but then we ask, is it really time to move on? And more importantly, perhaps, we may need to ask – can we?

Despite all the controversy surrounding it, anabolic steroids, when stripped down to the core, is basically a good thing. They are actually a class of hormones related to testosterone, and can help increase protein production at the cellular level. This, in turn, helps build up cellular tissue, especially in muscles. Medically, it is used as a therapy to speed up bone growth, bring about male puberty, and treat cancer and AIDS.

Ironically, the very properties that make it so helpful and useful for fighting disease and saving lives has placed it in a bad light. The drug that can make miracles happen is now also a temptation to go over to the “bad side”.

See the YouTube video showing ‘how much is too much?’ with steroid use.

Can we really point a finger at who is to blame? Can we really blame the athletes and the professionals who are dangled with the chance to be bigger, better and faster for taking a stab at being great? Are fans and spectators equally to blame for being partial to bigger, better and faster stars for entertainment purposes?

At some level, anyone and everyone have dreams of being the best. We can probably say that this is the ultimate goal of many; but it seems that everyone needs to reevaluate the reasons behind our dreams, as well as how we are to go about achieving them. Maybe we can make out what it is that needs to be done to get rid of what we may already call as the “steroid menace” – and then we can re-tame that good thing that has gone wild.

Enough is enough. After weeks and weeks of moving back and forth and gaining a lot of media attention, the world of baseball is saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to move on’.

No less than Donald Fehr, the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, declared that the steroid era has come to pass. He made a statement to that effect last Monday during the spring training tour in Florida. And he is not alone; he was but voicing out the sentiments of everyone about leaving what is past in the past and moving forward. Maybe it is, indeed, time to leave A-Rod alone and stop pestering him about steroids and his relationship with a certain trainer from who-knows-when all the way to his native Dominican Republic.

The spring games, after all, are about to begin. The grass is turning green in sunny Florida and Arizona, and its time to focus more on the game than on the controversies surrounding it. No one has the time to talk steroids now. It is time to play ball, and aim for that pennant!

Now that the big guy himself has declared the steroid era as over, the expectation is that everyone should rest easy and stop thinking about who is and who isn’t. It may not be that easy, though, for everyone to move on from this big blow. They had, after all, insisted in the beginning that nothing was afoot. Which was why testing, and random testing at that, did not happen until 2002. And it took three years as well as a lot of pressure from Washington before consequences were spelled and handed out to those who were caught “red-handed”.

And it certainly will not be easy for the fans to forget. Even if A-Rod has said that he has been clean since 2003, his credibility is still shrinking as the days go by.

Testing in baseball may be better this time around, but it is doubtful that it is already good enough. There are simply not enough tests, random or otherwise. Baseball has been tainted, and no matter what anyone will say, people will be looking at its 103 stars with a shadow of doubt.

Florida Health Screening

Last year, the state of Texas tested about 29,200 students for steroid use, and the good news is that only eleven students are using performance-enhancing drugs. Some lawmakers are now suggesting that they downsize the program, which reportedly costs the state $3 million per year.

The students who tested positive were mostly either football players or wrestlers, and all of them were male. The test pool consisted of randomly selected student athletes from a cross-section of sports, numbering nearly 740,000 from all over Texas.

Texas lawmakers may propose to modify the random steroids drug testing program to a statistical sampling as opposed to the current widespread testing method, or they may opt to limit the testing to certain sports. Regardless of the outcome, the program seems to have produced a positive result in that it increased parents’ awareness about the dangers of steroid use and inspired coaches to be more proactive about monitoring and protecting their athletes from steroid use. The program mandates a thirty-day suspension from competition for a first-time offender.

A spokesperson for Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that the governor will be open to the idea of scaling down the testing program. Athletic coaches across the state have also suggested that it may be more effective and beneficial to resort to increased awareness and education among students instead of the more expensive random steroid testing, although they do not believe that the same concept should hold true for other illegal drugs. A number of high school coaches now believe that the money for steroid testing may be better spent on other programs.

All things considered, the results seem to have given lawmakers and coaches alike a positive outlook. An ideal figure may have been zero violators but the low numbers are comforting. The clamor for testing stemmed from the need to find out whether Texas students are doing the right thing; and by the looks of it, it seems like they are.