Athletes, Drug Testing, and Deer Antler – The Real Story

The sporting media is up in antlers with reports that allege Ray Lewis used a deer antler spray in his injury comeback.  The questions as to whether deer antler is banned and whether its use could lead to a doping violation are indeed complex.  We felt it was time to peel back the velvet to answer those questions and review the facts on deer antler.

Deer antler has a long history of use in Chinese medicine and is used ‘to decrease fatigue and improve sleep and appetite. In animal tests, deer antler has been shown to increase oxygen uptake in the brain, liver and kidneys, and increase red and white blood cell production.’  Traditionally it is available in the form of antler slices, powders, and extracts.  In its natural form, it is likely a legal dietary ingredient under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA); it has been sold at herbologists and various natural product stores for some time.

Deer antler has gained popularity as a dietary supplement over the last few years.  Some manufacturers, like LuRong Living Essential, grind the actual antler into powder form and encapsulate it in ingestible capsules.  (For the record, our company Banned Substances Control Group has certified LuRong Living Essential to be free of methyltestosterone [see below] and other contaminants.)

Other manufacturers sell the deer antler as a concentrated extract in a spray form.  The sprays, often with names like IGF-1+, are marketed as anti-aging and/or performance-enhancing agents and are offered with different dosages of IGF-1.  The sprays carry claims that the IGF-1 is delivered to the body through liposomal absorption, meaning it would be absorbed through membranes, such as those in the mouth, as opposed to having to enter the body through digestion.

Whether the spray forms are legal under U.S. law is unclear.  If deer antler is chemically altered to standardize the amount of IGF-1 present or to make it absorbable, then the spray form of deer antler is likely illegal under DSHEA.  However, we will let the FDA sort that out; we are here to examine issues related to drugs in sport.

In the realm of sport, the hoopla started with a spray form of deer antler called The Ultimate Spray, marketed by Sports with Alternative to Steroids (SWATS), that was involved in David Vobora’s NFL positive drug test for the steroid methyltestosterone in 2009.  During the course of the civil action following Vobora’s suspension, Vobora had the spray he used tested and it was found to be contaminated with methyltestosterone.  Vobora won a $5.4 million ruling as a result.

As the article notes, we tested the spray at our nonprofit/NGO Anti-Doping Research for The Post Game in 2011 and did not find methyltestosterone.  This highlights an important point: that one batch of a product can be contaminated and another batch clean, something that athletes need to consider.

All this attention prompted MLB and NFL to issue warnings to players regarding the use of deer antler.  Interestingly, the MLB warning did not focus on the IGF-1 issue but rather on the issue of methyltestosterone contamination.  The NFL warning meanwhile concentrated more on the IGF-1 issue and questioned the appropriateness of its players or coaches representing such a product.

Confusion has swirled ever since culminating in Super Bowl fashion with allegations that Ray Lewis used the very same SWATS spray in his triceps recovery.  ESPN ticker reports are now alleging that the Alabama football team may have used the spray as well.

Whether deer antler is banned in sport and whether its use would be considered a doping violation comes down to whether it is ingested or absorbed and whether it has been certified to be free of potential contaminants like methyltestosterone.

Is deer antler a banned substance?

No, deer antler is not listed as a banned substance today in any sport.  It is true that deer antler naturally contains IGF-1, a substance banned in sport.  However, so do animal food products like red meat, eggs or milk and other common dietary supplement ingredients like colostrum.  Many food products contain IGF-1 or other growth factors that are banned in sport yet consuming them does not constitute or lead to doping violations.  The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) supports this notion but does not exactly provide clarity with their confusing note on colostrum: “Colostrum is not prohibited per se, however it contains certain quantities of IGF-1 and other growth factors which are prohibited and can influence the outcome of anti-doping tests. Therefore WADA does not recommend the ingestion of this product.”

Would using deer antler be considered use of a banned substance in sport?

In our opinion, the answer comes down to the form used.  Scientific publications agree that when IGF-1 is ingested in the form of colostrum it is not absorbed by the body and would ‘not elicit positive results on drug tests.’  Assuming the same is true of the IGF-1 in deer antler or other food products, ingesting the IGF-1 is unlikely to be construed as a violation of drug testing regulations since no banned substance is absorbed by the body.  Therefore, ingestible deer antler products should be acceptable for athletes to use under current rules.  Conversely, using a spray form of deer antler concentrated to contain certain amounts of IGF-1 that is delivered through liposomal absorption would likely constitute a doping violation, because if the product works as claimed the banned substance IGF-1 would be absorbed by the body.

Is IGF-1 detectable in the current sport drug testing system?

As the abstract of a recent publication states: “Currently, there is no test for the detection of IGF-1 introduced worldwide”.  This is not to say that the anti-doping community can not detect it as there are numerous publications that demonstrate the ability to do so.  IGF-1 is used as an important marker in the Sonksen test for human growth hormone that has been slowly gaining traction in the WADA community.  That said, we are not aware of a complete detection method for IGF-1 in use in sport drug testing today that can unequivocally determine if exogenous, or foreign, IGF-1 has entered the body.  So, if the deer antler sprays work as intended and IGF-1 is actually absorbed by the body, that may be a violation of drug testing policies but we do not believe it would result in a positive drug test in the current system.  Unfortunately, IGF-1 in general remains a major challenge for anti-doping authorities and is a huge potential loophole in the current doping control system.

Is there a way for athletes to protect themselves against the potential for methyltestosterone or other contamination to occur in deer antler products?

As with all dietary supplements, we would recommend that athletes only use batches or lots of products that have been certified by a reputable independent testing body to be free of banned substances.  We operate a program called BSCG Certified Drug Free® that offers testing services to manufacturers, teams and athletes to ensure that products are safe and free of banned and dangerous substances.

It is our view that if you are an athlete using a spray form of deer antler be aware that you are likely in violation of drug-testing rules even though the IGF-1 at issue may not be detectable currently.  If you want to use deer antler without violating drug-testing policies, you should be careful to use only an ingestible product that has been tested for potential contaminants like methyltestosterone.

This is a perfect example of the extremely complex issues we all face when considering the connections between dietary supplements and banned substances in sport.  We feel it is the responsibility of the leagues, the players associations, the anti-doping authorities, the FDA, supplement industry representatives, and scientific organizations like ours to come together to address the broader issues in some fashion.  As deer antler does not wander the forests alone, we owe it to the athletes to provide a concrete yes or no as to whether something is prohibited, as their careers and reputations are at stake.  We have the ability and the knowledge; we just need to make the effort.

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Amazon sellers trafficking steroids, some classified as Schedule III Controlled Substances

With the attention paid to anabolic steroids and the threat they pose to sport and public health, it is amazing to discover that such products are for sale today at Amazon.com.  We focus here on Amazon.com and on methasterone and madol, two drugs that appear in two products for sale there, but it is important to realize this marketplace is only the tip of the iceberg.  Although some suggest that we should continue to allow free access to these products, our contention is that products like these that can cause liver failure and other significant harm should not be a mouseclick away from unsuspecting consumers, especially our youth where the harm can be greatly magnified.

The first drug is methasterone, otherwise known as methyldrostanolone, which became known under the name Superdrol in late 2005. Don helped expose it as a new designer steroid in an article by Amy Shipley published by the Washington Post Nov. 2005. Methasterone has been connected to cases of liver failure in several publications.  The chat rooms on the topic provide the user accounts and hammer home the issue; check out this graphic example, if you want.  The FDA issued a warning and took action against marketers of the product in March 2006.  The World Anti-Doping Agency added the compound to the Prohibited List for 2006.

Despite inclusion on the FDA and WADA lists, the DEA does not yet have methasterone on its list of Controlled Substances as of Sept. 15. M-Drol caught the eye of the FDA in late 2009 when the product was included on a list of 65 steroid products that Bodybuilding.com was distributing.  The FDA took action against some of the products and against Bodybuilding.com resulting in voluntary recall of the products from the site.  Nonetheless, methasterone appears to be widely available in the marketplace today in many forms including Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol.

This dangerous non-FDA approved drug can still be purchased from many mainstream retailers including through 7 Amazon Sellers at Amazon.com, as of Jan. 17.  Included in the marketing heading for the product is, “M-Drol-Anabolic Muscle Building Formula, 90ct (Compare To Superdrol).”  We decided to go ahead and do the comparison.

Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol was purchased through Amazon.com on Nov. 15 in an order fulfilled by Amazon Seller Surplus-Supplements.  We analyzed it in our ISO 17025-accredited lab and compared it to a reference standard of methasterone, or Superdrol, and in fact M-Drol does still contain methasterone.  The sale of methasterone or a drug like it would likely qualify as sale of an unapproved new drug, according to the FDA’s recent letter to industry from Dec. 15: “These products are illegal because they are unapproved new drugs under 21 U.S.C. §§ 321(p) and 355(a) and/or adulterated dietary supplements under 21 U.S.C. § 342.”

There is more clarity in the case of the second product, Competitive Edge Labs P-Plex, which contains the anabolic steroid Madol.   Madol is classified as a schedule III controlled substance by the DEA under the name desoxymethyltestosterone (no other names listed).

Madol was the second of two designer steroids discovered during the BALCO doping scandal in 2003. During the federal BALCO investigation, vials of the seized drugs were analyzed and characterized by Don and his team, then at the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory.  The drug that received the most notoriety was THG, short for tetrahydrogestrinone, a modified version of the already prohibited anabolic steroid gestrinone.  Madol was characterized later in 2004 and received much less publicity.  Madol was added to the Controlled Substance list Jan. 4. 2010 after a nearly two year process.

Madol has a proper scientific name of 17α-methyl-5α-androst-2-en-17β-ol.  The compound can be found under the following names; Madol, DMT, desoxymethyltestosterone, 17a-methyl-5a-androst-2-ene-17b-ol, 17a-methyl-etioallocholan-2-ene-17b-ol and other variations.

Despite its involvement in a high-profile case such as the BALCO investigation and inclusion on the controlled substance list, Madol appears in the dietary supplement marketplace in many forms.  It became popular under the name Phera-Plex and continues to be marketed in many products today.  Numerous options can be easily purchased on the Internet, including through Amazon.com.

Today at Amazon.com you will find Competitive Edge Labs P-Plex.  P-Plex was also included in the FDA action against Bodybuilding.com, yet it remains in stock and available through two Amazon Sellers as of Jan. 17. The marketing headline for P-Plex on Amazon.com reads, “P-Plex-Anabolic Muscle Building Formula 10mg, 90ct (Compare To Phera-Plex).”  We purchased the product on Jan. 6 through Amazon.com in an order fulfilled by Amazon Seller MMMPower and have identified Madol in the product.

The FDA considers this a serious matter and in a powerful letter to industry on December 15, 2010 wrote, “Responsible individuals and companies should be aware that the government may initiate criminal investigations to hold accountable those who violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and endanger the public health. Responsible individuals, even if the individual did not participate in, encourage, or have personal knowledge of the violation, can be criminally prosecuted under the Act, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 331. See United States v. Park, 421 U.S. 658 (1975). When the evidence warrants, felony charges may be appropriate.”

Knowingly or not, Amazon does appear to be providing a marketplace for selling steroids, some classified as controlled substances.  Amazon was willing to withdraw the pedophile’s guide in three weeks, as we pointed out in our blog post Nov. 12.  Hopefully, Amazon will hear the FDA on this matter and also voluntarily withdraw these steroid products from their website, sooner rather than later.  We stand ready to help Amazon or other retailers in maintaining a safe marketplace for dietary supplements in the future.  ##

FDA’s significant action is already reducing the number of steroids at some retailers

The Food and Drug Administration’s letter to industry sent Dec. 15 is one of the most important and commendable actions against the proliferation of anabolic steroids in the United States since the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, as it comes with the promise of significant enforcement action.  Unfortunately, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act did not stem the widespread availability of steroids it merely ushered in a new era of designer steroids.  By providing a list of those that were “illegal,” it pushed the prohormone manufacturers to find new compounds or name old ones using obscure nomenclature to confuse the authorities.  This recent forceful FDA action has the potential to change the landscape and it is already seeing evidence of its effect, but there is a great deal of work to do.

The letter began as follows: “This letter addresses the significant public health problems posed by products that are marketed as dietary supplements but that contain the same active ingredients as FDA-approved drugs, analogs of the active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs, or other compounds, such as novel synthetic steroids, that do not qualify as dietary ingredients.”

It goes on to commit to serious enforcement. “Manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and distributors should not expect that a warning letter will be issued if FDA discovers potentially harmful violative ingredients in products marketed as dietary supplements. FDA recognizes that active ingredients at meaningful levels do not appear by accident in a product marketed as a dietary supplement – somewhere in the supply chain, the active ingredient is incorporated into the ingredient or the finished product. Actions that pose a risk to public health should expect a swift and strong agency response.”

The threat of significant and immediate action without any warning is what is needed to finally control the flow of these dangerous products.  This action is just in time as the situation was truly getting out of control.  An example using one retailer of such products demonstrates the problem and the effect of the FDA action.

When we first mentioned nutritionarsenal.com on Sept. 15 in our blog post, Despite numerous efforts to the contrary, prohormones remain widely available today, we found 84 products listed as prohormones.  As we noted on Dec. 12 in our blog post, New designer steroids appearing at an alarming rate, 15 new products in two months!, the explosion of such products was astounding as the number of prohormones listed had ballooned to 99!  We visited nutritionarsenal.com again today and were quite pleased to see the evidence of the FDA activity.  Today the number of prohormones offered is at 75 and dropping three weeks after the FDA letter, a clear sign that it is being taken seriously.

As we say, however, much work remains.  One of the most blatant examples comes in Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol product.  Although it was included in the FDA’s action against Bodybuilding.com in late 2009, it has remained for sale at a number of retailers since that time.  At nutritionarsenal.com, a new label has been added on the sales page for M-drol: “This item has been discontinued. All sales are FINAL,” another sign that the FDA letter, and perhaps our posts, have been effective.

FDA warns that tainted products marketed as dietary supplements are potentially dangerous – Anti-Doping Research’s Dietary Supplement Survey – A strategy in response

The Good, the Bad, and the Dirty in the Dietary Supplement Industry – Anti-Doping Research’s (ADR) Dietary Supplement Survey

Despite being widely available today, dietary supplements can contain unsafe and illegal substances that pose significant health risks to consumers.  Novel designer steroids, stimulants like ephedrine, pharmaceutically active ingredients like sibutramine, and other untested or unsafe ingredients continue to slip into the dietary supplement marketplace.  The FDA has responded with a significant and laudable new effort to work with the industry to combat the issue as described in, “FDA: Tainted Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements Potentially Dangerous.”  We would like to assist the effort through ADR’s Dietary Supplement Survey, for which we are currently raising financial support.

In ‘Tainted Body Building Products,” the FDA issued a warning that, “FDA cannot test all products on the market that contain potentially hidden ingredients.  Enforcement actions and consumer advisories for tainted products only cover a small fraction of the tainted over-the-counter products on the market.”  The numbers of tainted products are vast and the problems real.  According to the press release, “In recent years, FDA has alerted consumers to nearly 300 tainted products marketed as dietary supplements and received numerous complaints of injury associated with these products.”  Yet this is just a small fraction.  We would like to use our experience to help test and expose more, one of the primary goals of our Dietary Supplement Survey.

In the words of the FDA Commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, “These tainted products can cause serious adverse effects, including strokes, organ failure, and death.”  The dangers, as we know first-hand, are all too real, as we have dealt with numerous cases of acute liver injury in young adults who have used such products.  Colleagues such as Don Hooton have had lives forever changed by the suicide of a son using steroids to pursue athletic advancement.  Unfortunately, the issues are not isolated to body-building products as they span other categories like weight loss and sexual enhancement as well.  If such products are manufactured in the same facilities as legitimate supplements, the potential for contamination is also a concern.

In the FDA Letter to Industry, a fine point is made. “These products not only pose risks to consumers,” it states, “but undermine confidence in legitimately marketed dietary supplements in these and other categories.”  The majority of the dietary supplement industry produces products that do not contain illicit ingredients or contaminants and that should also be showcased.  In the letter, the “FDA is also seeking continued input and collaboration from the trade associations to educate the industry about this problem and to develop strategies to combat it.”

We believe that ADR’s Dietary Supplement Survey initiative could be such a strategy.  To sum up our goals:  We aim to explore which products are good, which products are bad, and which products exhibit contamination with low but potentially harmful levels of illicit ingredients.

More specifically, we will perform focused testing on problem categories to expose dangerous new products.  We will also conduct testing on a variety of randomly selected products to evaluate the prevalence of contamination and to demonstrate that the majority of products are indeed clean.  In the process, we will help audit the current retail environment to assist with enforcement and will characterize new supplement ingredients that have the potential to cause harm or lead to a positive drug test.  The results of our work will available via an interactive website portal complete with testing data, public service announcements and more.

As a public charity, Anti-Doping Research, a leader in performance-enhancing drug and toxicology research and testing, is working to raise $1.5 million to conduct the Dietary Supplement Survey.  We hope to gain broad support from a variety of sources to provide for a collective solution.  We have reached out to our friends in the dietary supplement community, the sporting community, anti-doping, collegiate and high school athletics, sporting sponsors, pharmaceutical companies and others in pursuit of support.  We would also welcome the involvement of the general public through volunteer activity or small contributions.  All donations are tax deductible.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 310-482-6925 or by e-mail at dcatlin@antidopingresearch.org or ocatlin@antidopingresearch.org.

Consumers, athletes and other elite professionals deserve a marketplace offering legitimate and safe dietary supplements.  With your help, we are confident that we can help make this happen.   Please join us and help support this important initiative with your contribution today.

Dietary supplement manufacturing and why designer steroids should matter to the general public

Perhaps you might think that you are far removed from the issues related to designer steroids.  Some see it as a problem for professional or Olympic sport to deal with but don’t see the issue influencing their daily lives.  Well, if you take dietary supplements on a regular basis, as more than half the population of the United States does, according to a recent Nielsen survey, designer steroids should matter to you.

Why, you might ask; I only take vitamins or herbs?  Well, the answer comes from the manufacturing process, which often occurs in co-packing facilities in the case of dietary supplements.  Co-packers simply mix and package the formulas provided by various supplement manufacturers and turn them into final products.  If your vitamin, protein powder, amino acid supplement or other product is processed in the same facility as one of the many designer steroids that continue to be produced you may have a problem.

A quick tour of a co-packer manufacturing facility illustrates the potential for contamination…

First, the raw materials are obtained and are warehoused for use.

The raw materials

The ingredients for a particular formula are then gathered and sent for measuring.

Gathering raw materials on pallet

The ingredients are weighed out according to the formula for the product.

Weighing the ingredients

The ingredients are combined in a huge blender to be mixed for hours.  If the blender is not completely cleaned and sanitized between mixes of different products, one can see how cross-contamination between products can occur.

The giant blender

If your protein powder is produced just after a designer steroid, one can see how cross-contamination might occur.    Many co-packers in the industry make an ethical choice not to participate in the manufacturing of dangerous products like designer steroids, but not all.  O.K., so there are regulations in place to protect against possible contamination of the finished products with potentially harmful unlabelled ingredients right?  Wrong.  (In fairness to the many competent and capable co-packers we should mention that we test products regularly from the facility shown above and have yet to find any contamination)

Certainly dietary supplement industry regulations have come a long way.  The phase-in of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) for dietary supplements over the last few years is likely to significantly improve quality of products as manufacturers are held to the new standards that CGMP dictate.  All manufacturers are now subject to CGMP, although the industry recognizes that the benefits will only be as good as the enforcement and auditing of the CGMP.

The new CGMP requirements, however, DO NOT include the need to test finished goods for contaminants such as designer steroids.  This is surprising given the prevalence of such compounds still today, even though they should be illegal to put in supplements.  CGMPs do require raw materials to be tested for purity prior to being formulated in the product and they also require testing for adulterants like arsenic or lead.

Some argue that purity checks will ensure that contaminants like designer steroids do not enter the marketplace.  However, if you explore the concept of purity testing and you realize that purity checks are often done at the microgram level, the problem is exposed.  Microgram testing is done at parts per million, testing for contaminants like designer steroids is usually done at the parts per billion level (nonograms).  Say you do a purity check on an ingredient and it comes back 99% pure after testing at the microgram level.  Well, how do you know the other 1% does not contain a hidden steroid, stimulant or otherwise unlabelled pharmaceutical ingredient? 

Is it O.K. if your protein powder, amino acid, or vitamin contains microgram quantities of a steroid or stimulant?  How does that magnify itself in your body with daily use of a protein powder where a serving size might be 100 grams, three times daily?  We don’t think that such contamination is acceptable as it could reach levels significant enough to lead to harm for a consumer.  Certainly, such levels of contaminants could cause positive drug tests for elite professionals like athletes or police officers; in fact, even contamination in the low parts per billion can lead to positive drug tests.

We would like to evaluate how prevalent contamination is in today’s supplement marketplace.  Nobody knows the scope of the issue since there are no requirements to test.  We want to survey the industry to characterize the issue through random sampling of a variety of products.  We also want to work to expose the bad products in the industry, like the new designer steroid options that continue to pop up daily.

If you are interested in such issues and would like to support our efforts to conduct a survey of products from the industry, please reach out to us at info@antidopingresearch.org or explore our Dietary Supplement Survey concept, which we are currently raising funding to conduct.  All contributions to our 501c3 public charity Anti-Doping Research are tax deductible.  We would welcome your support of this public-health initiative as we believe it will lead to improved consumer protection, better regulations, and much-needed improved quality control of dietary supplements.

Another positive drug test related to dietary supplement contamination

Sadly, another positive drug test related to use of a dietary supplement surfaced yesterday, this time in equine sport, http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/302201.html.  Don’t let this situation happen to you; there are ways to protect yourself.

According to the story, a British endurance rider, Christine Yeoman, had her horse test positive for ractopamine, a potent beta agonist, at an event on August 9, 2009.  She had been giving the animal Neigh-Lox, used to prevent gastric ulcers.  Neigh-Lox was manufactured in the United States by Kentucky Performance Products.  Traces of ractopamine were found in the product in subsequent testing, and the company has admitted to the contamination.

For those who are not aware, drug testing usually works according to strict liability, meaning if a drug is detected resulting in a positive test, the individual is responsible for the presence of the substance in the body regardless of where it might have originated.  If the issue is related to a contaminated supplement, the athlete or rider still faces possible sanctions.  The human sport system considers supplement use to be voluntary, and thus even if supplement contamination is the source of a positive drug test the athlete is usually held responsible.

In this equine case, the rider had to spend more than €200,000 to clear her name and win an unprecedented ruling from FEI.  The ruling stated: “Even ordinary feed is often mixed and includes several additives which may be contaminated. Even feed without additives may be contaminated.  Equestrian sport on a high level can be said to require the use of feed supplements to care properly for such elite horses.  In the tribunal’s opinion, PRs [persons responsible, i.e. the rider] are not the proper party to bear the risk of supplements contaminated at the manufacturer level.”

Unfortunately, testing for banned substances in dietary supplements is not mandatory and the risk of contamination remains an issue.  Testing options that can protect against these issues are available to the general public, athletes, and the dietary supplement industry.  We operate our own such program at Banned Substances Control Group.  For more details, please explore http://www.bscg.org/.

Despite numerous efforts to the contrary, prohormones remain widely available today

The supplement industry, sporting groups, the FDA and more have been combating the issue of prohormones, or steroid precursors, for years. Prior to 2004 these substances were available at practically all retailers. They were available in many forms and made by many different manufacturers. This grew to be quite a concern and forced additional regulatory action to be taken.

In 2004, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act was passed, which added many prohormones to the list of controlled substances illegal for sale in the dietary supplement industry. The language included in the act stated, “The term ‘anabolic steroid’ means any drug or hormonal substance, chemically and pharmacologically related to testosterone (other than estrogens, progestins, corticosteroids, and dehydroepiandrosterone).” It goes on to name more than 43 drugs by name that were now controlled and illegal to put in dietary supplements.

Enacting new regulations is one thing but enforcing them is a different story. Even after the act passed in 2004, prohormones remained widely available for years to come. These products continued to have controlled substances boldly listed on the label. These were things like Superdrol, Halodrol 50, Madol, Turinabol, Androstenedione and more.

At Anti-Doping Research, we helped expose the sales of several designer steroids in a story for ESPN.com in September of 2007, http://www.shaunassael.com/pdf/made-in-china.pdf. Again, in March of 2009, we worked on a two-part story for CBS that exposed a new designer steroid, ‘Tren’, that was being unknowingly used by high school athletes, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/18/earlyshow/health/main4874182.shtml. These examples demonstrate the harsh reality that despite the new legislation, the pipeline of designer steroids and prohormones was still healthy long after 2004.

In late 2009, the FDA finally began to get more assertive in their attempts to curtail the sales of these products. They approached one of the largest retailers of supplement products, Bodybuilding.com, and informed the company that they were selling 65 products that were currently classified as steroids. This resulted in a voluntary recall of the products http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ArchiveRecalls/2009/ucm188929.htm.

You might think that his was the beginning of the end for these products, but a quick Internet search today demonstrates that this is not the case. Amazon.com, in fact, is still selling several of the products that were part of the Bodybuilding.com recall, http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Edge-Labs-CEL-tren/dp/B002W2X8BM/ref=pd_sim_hpc_6. A quick glance at the bottom of the page shows that more like M-Drol and H-Drol are also for sale. The problem doesn’t stop with Amazon. Nutrition Arsenal is also selling Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol and H-drol today, with a note that the manufacturer has discontinued the product and supplies are very limited, http://www.nutritionarsenal.com/Search.aspx. There are 84 products available on this site listed as prohormones. Another site where prohormones are widely and publicly available is BuySupps.com. They only have six prohormones listed, one CEL’s H-drol is at least no longer available. The five other products, however, are marketed as new clones of old favorites like Halodrol, Superdrol, Tren, and more.

More time spent searching the Internet will find more of the same issues. Certainly, the efforts of the FDA to curtail the sales of these products at major retailers should be applauded and the voluntary response by the retailer to recall products is commendable. That several of these products are still available at a retailer like Amazon.com, however, demonstrates that huge holes remain. Why is it not possible to stem the sales of these products at all retailers? If it is a resource issue then hopefully the resources can be found to address this concern. If not, then we must continue the process of clearing these products from the marketplace completely.

Unfortunately, it is not only products labeled with prohormones or steroids that cause problems. At Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG), we test products on behalf of manufacturers for banned substances to assure that they are not contaminated. The products we test do not have any banned ingredients on the labels but at times we do find contamination of these products. Even manufacturers that try to make products responsibly fall victim to raw material contamination that leads to finished product contamination. There is no requirement to test raw materials for banned substances so it is not surprising that this occurs. The reality is that prohormones and steroids continue to be present as contaminants in supplement products and this too must be addressed and curtailed.

We will continue to work on such pressing supplement issues. They are not only important to elite athletes and professionals such as police and fire people, but also to the general public who use these products widely and with more and more frequency.