Study finds steroids in some supplements! - Fight Forum - MMA - UFC - Boxing - K1

Saskabush · 12-05-2007, 01:27 PM

Quote:

By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY
Pro and amateur athletes and weekend warriors who consume supplements to get in shape or stay there might be getting more than what they paid for — such as small amounts of steroids and illegal stimulants including ephedrine.

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A study scheduled to be released Wednesday and obtained by USA TODAY reports that 13 of the 52 supplements (25%) purchased at various U.S. retailers contained small amounts of steroids and six (11.5%) had banned stimulants.

The study was overseen by Informed-Choice, a non-profit coalition of dietary supplements. Testing was conducted by HFL, a lab approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency and located in England.

"We were very surprised by these results," said Dave Hall, CEO of HFL.
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A study by the International Olympic Committee conducted from 2000 to 2002 showed 18.8% of the 240 supplements purchased in the USA contained steroids.

Officials from Informed-Choice and HFL declined to reveal which supplements were tested or where they were purchased, but Hall said some of best-selling brands were randomly selected, mostly from mall-based stores.

"We didn't go after products that appeared to be dubious," Hall said. "We wanted to test products that were standard and mainstream, something a high school kid would be attracted to."

John Barnes, the football coach at Los Alamitos (Calif.) High, was alarmed at the results.

"It's not good if a kid can find these things in a health-food store," he said. "As a father and a coach, you think anything they'd find there would be perfectly fine, and then you find out that it's banned. This is something I'm going to start talking to my players about right away."

Of the 10 categories of supplements tested, testosterone boosters were flagged the most often. Six of the nine boosters contained androstenedione, a steroid precursor used by Mark McGwire en route to setting the single-season home run mark in 1998.

Andro was made illegal nearly three years ago.

Kelly Hoffman, executive director of Informed-Choice, said most banned substances are finding their way into products inadvertently — for instance, when manufacturers fail to properly clean equipment. She said raw materials imported from Asia, India and Eastern Europe also can be contaminated.

The Food and Drug Administration is taking on a more active role in policing supplements, including taking reports of adverse effects of the products starting Dec. 22.

Source: Study: Steroids found in supplements - USATODAY.com

Could Sherk really be innocent? This is an interesting twist to the whole debacle.

Crashsti · 12-05-2007, 01:32 PM

This is'nt shocking to me at all. Adds weight to Sean Sherk's claims as well.

Ring_Raider_07 · 12-05-2007, 07:45 PM

They said small amounts were found. I'm sure he didn't consume enough via suppliments to have that much found in his body

Kurtis636 · 12-06-2007, 01:13 AM

I don't know if that holds weight for Sherk considering how elevated his levels were, but it certainly adds some weight to claims of other athletes. On the other hand, Sherk was taking something like 70 pills a day in addition to shakes, bars, etc.

It certainly proves that every pro athlete really needs to know exactly what is going into their body.

theEmpiric · 12-06-2007, 09:27 AM

Thanks for the article Sask! Definately interesting... what a bummer that would be if Sherk actually IS innocent.

fullonshred · 12-06-2007, 04:48 PM

Sherk was so far above normal levels there is simply no way he got those results from tiny amounts in supplements. And androstenedione is pretty much worthless no matter how much of it you take.

Use some common sense here. If a Positive could result from the amounts found in widely used supplements we would have a Nationwide epidemic of people failing drug screens. We would see dozens if not hundreds of fighters testing positive. Smokescreen, smokescreen, smokescreen. And I am not talking about a test for pot.

lwbfl · 12-06-2007, 07:31 PM

Very few steroids are viable for oral ingestion. The digestive process breaks down too much of the product and intake into the bloodstream is diminished greatly. For high amount to show up would be nearly impossible from this alone. This is nothing new however, as may supplement companies have been known to add some extra ingrediants to a new product so that it "works sooooooooo great!" Then, they drop the secret ingredient, suckers are already hooked and convinced, and they make millions for nothing!

Crashsti · 12-07-2007, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwbfl

Very few steroids are viable for oral ingestion. The digestive process breaks down too much of the product and intake into the bloodstream is diminished greatly. For high amount to show up would be nearly impossible from this alone. This is nothing new however, as may supplement companies have been known to add some extra ingrediants to a new product so that it "works sooooooooo great!" Then, they drop the secret ingredient, suckers are already hooked and convinced, and they make millions for nothing!

This is something i have read about as well. With the supplement market so diverse some manufacturers resort to extremes to get their product noticed. Which is why its a good idea to use established brands and stick to the basics which are less likely to contain unusual and unwanted ingredients. As a comparison. Look on the back of your food packages. More often or not you'll see a notice stating that "this product is manufactured on equipment that also processes eg. nuts, soy, wheat etc..". It points out that food processing equipment is not specific to any one brand food product.