Dietary supplement use is a common practice among athletes. As a former Division I student-athlete, I am aware of the prevalence of supplement use.

Word of a new "great" product took little time to get around; it didn't take much more time before most athletes either were taking it or being told they should take it. Claims of increased energy, improved performance, gains in muscle strength and quickened recovery times appeal to this population. Furthermore, the athlete's desire to gain any possible edge over the competition, combined with supplement availability due to the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA), fuels a demand for supplements that shows no sign of slowing down.

The DSHEA affirms that dietary supplements are to be regulated as food and not drugs, which means the burden of proof is placed on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to show that a dietary supplement is unsafe before it has to be removed from the marketplace. The act also defines supplements as products intended to supplement the diet and may contain vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, other dietary substances, or combinations or extracts of any of these dietary ingredients.

Diet supplementation might include taking iron or calcium because a person's diet does not provide adequate amounts. What part of the diet is supplemented by products containing pro-hormones (hormone precursors) or ephedrine/caffeine/aspirin stacks? How do these products fall under the DSHEA definition of dietary supplements? Although manufacturers cannot claim their products cure disease or are a type of medication, loopholes exist in the labeling requirements. Claims are made to make the products sound like cures. These types of supplements are not taken to supplement the diet in any way.

Many of the pro-hormones on the market are NCAA-banned substances or are metabolic precursors to NCAA-banned substances, and many of these metabolites also fall under the Anabolic Steroids Control Act passed in

1990. According to the Drug Enforcement

Administration (DEA), the term anabolic steroid is any drug or hormonal substance chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone that promotes muscle growth. The Act includes nandrolone and testosterone, among others.

Two of the dietary supplements that have quickly gained popularity in the athletics world are those containing forms of androstenedione (andro) and/or 19-norandrostenedione (norandro). Andro is a precursor to testosterone and norandro is a precursor to nandrolone, yet these pro-hormones do not fall under the Anabolic Steroids Control Act.

As discussed in an article appearing in the May 22, 2000, issue of The NCAA News ("Latest test results indicate sharp increase in nandolone use"), the number of positive NCAA drug tests due to nandrolone metabolites has more than doubled in the past year. Many of the student-athletes who tested positive claimed they did not know supplements they were taking contained banned substances. This is due partly to the lack of FDA regulation over the supplement producers, as well as the pressure an athlete receives from peers, marketers, fans, parents and coaches to take the newest, greatest product available to enhance performance.

Supplement manufacturers currently have the best of both worlds. Since pro-hormones are not defined as anabolic steroids, they are not regulated by the DEA. However, a large supplement manufacturer advertises 19-norandrostenedione as a legal alternative to the regulated steroid Deca-Durabolin. If supplement manufacturers know the body metabolizes pro-hormones into viable anabolic steroids and can still make claims of their product being safe and effective, the use of pro-hormones will continue to increase -- as will the number of positive NCAA drug tests.

Prescription anabolic steroids are FDA regulated and federal guidelines enforcing purity must be met. However, supplement manufacturers have no such regulations to meet. Many consumers are aware that drugs are regulated by the FDA and unaware that supplements are not equally regulated. This leaves the market wide open for manufacturers to say that their products are safe and effective. If claims like these are made, many feel they must be true because laws would prevent the claim if it weren't.

Steps are being taken to educate people to the dangers associated with dietary supplement use. The National Center for Drug-Free Sport has developed the Dietary Supplement Resource Exchange Center (REC) with support from the NCAA. The REC is a means for athletes and others involved in athletics to get timely, accurate information on supplements. However, despite our best prevention and education efforts, until additional regulations are placed on the supplement market, the trends in positive drug tests and adverse reactions to supplement use will increase.

Supplements being sold that are not true dietary supplements, such as pro-hormones, should be taken off the market and should not fall under the DSHEA. If the FDA cannot accomplish this, it should place much stricter regulations on the labeling requirements such as those placed on over-the-counter drugs.

NCAA members and student-athletes concerned about dietary supplements should contact state and federal representatives to encourage legislation for tighter regulations on supplements and supplement manufacturers. If regulation occurs, the claims of performance enhancement, easy weight loss, or other too-good-to-be-true advertisements might subside enough for the warnings and other educational information to be heard.

Rachel Olander is a resource specialist for the National Center for Drug-Free Sport and oversees the Dietary Supplement Resource Exchange Center.