Whether you're a serious athlete or simply trying to reach your own personal fitness goals, the pressure to perform well can sometimes be immense. The desire to gain that extra edge in competition, or to provide your body with an even better means of energy production than a healthy diet and lifestyle, might lead you to look beyond your local grocery aisle for ways to get that extra boost. If you do, you'll find a dizzying array of options, some falling under the category of performance enhancing drugs and others nutritional supplements. Each has its own definition, regulation and risks.
Performance Enhancing Drugs
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, the independent international agency charged with coordinating anti-doping activities worldwide, a performance enhancing drug is any pharmacological substance listed in the World Anti-Doping Code, or that has not been approved by a governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use. Substances listed in the World Anti-Doping Code, the internationally agreed upon rules and regulations regarding performance enhancing drugs, that are banned at all times include: anabolic agents; peptide hormones, growth factors and related substances; beta-2 agonists; hormone antagonists and modulators; and diuretics and other masking agents.
Nutritional Supplements
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a nutritional supplement is an orally consumed product that contains an ingredient intended to supplement the diet. Dietary ingredients include: vitamins; minerals; herbs and other botanicals; amino acids; enzymes or tissues from organs or glands; and concentrates, metabolites, constituents or extracts. Nutritional supplements can be in tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders, according to the FDA, as well as in food-like products, like bars, though in those cases their label has to make clear that they are not in fact food. The FDA regulates nutritional supplements, but only after the fact. Manufacturers don't register supplements with the FDA, they're just required to not offer false claims about what their supplements do or to produce harmful products. The FDA steps in when either of these two requirements are not met.
Products to be Wary of
The FDA has issued a public health advisory warning consumers to avoid body building products that claim to contain either steroids or substances like steroids. These are marketed as nutritional supplements to avoid FDA regulation, but don't meet the required definition and are instead unapproved drugs. These products can be found online and in some stores that sell supplements, and claim to either enhance or diminish androgen, estrogen, or progestin-like effects in the body. In other words they claim to do what steroids do, but as a legal alternative. Their sale is illegal because any product containing steroids or steroid alternatives has to be regulated by the FDA prior to production, not after like nutritional supplements, in order to ensure it is safe for use.
Risks of Nutritional Supplements and Performance Enhancing Drugs
There are a whole host of nutritional supplements available, some offering proven health benefits and some of dubious quality. If you are considering taking nutritional supplements remember that their market is not as regulated as food or drugs, so do your research and consult your doctor before adding them to your diet. In the case of performance enhancing drugs, use may lead to the growth of breasts, baldness, shrunken testicles and infertility in men. In women it may lead to a deeper voice, an enlarged clitoris, increased body hair and baldness. In both men and women, use can lead to liver injury, stroke, kidney failure and pulmonary embolism, as well as increased risk for a heart attack and stroke.
References
- World Anti-Doping Agency: 2011 Prohibited List
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Overview of Dietary Supplements
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Warning on Body Building Products Marketed as Containing Steroids or Steroid-Like Substances: 2009
- Mayo Clinic: Performance-enhancing drugs -- Know the risks: Dec. 23, 2010
Member Comments