February 20, 2009 at 4:37 pm | Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
General Nutrition Centers (GNC) expressed feigned outrage in a statement released to Newsday. Alex Rodriguez made the allegation that dietary supplements that have been sold in the past at GNC could have triggered false positive steroid results in athletes subject to anti-doping procedures. A spokesperson did not directly deny the claim as false but made a strong effort to cloud the real issue rather than acknowledge it (“GNC not happy with A-Rod’s steroid saga,” February 19).
“GNC does not sell illegal anabolic steroids. GNC is always troubled when an athlete who cheats himself and his profession attempts to implicitly or explicitly scapegoat another person or organization for his gross lapses in judgment, even if he was ‘young and stupid’ when it happened. GNC is confident that the public understands the difference between unlawful drugs that one’s cousin has to inject into the body and the legal, safe products for sale in its stores.”
спалниAlex Rodriguez referenced GNC in an interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammon where he admitted his own use of prohibited substances. Rodriguez never claimed GNC sold “illegal anabolic steroids”. Many statements made by A-Rod regarding his own use of anabolic steroids may not have been true, but everything he said about GNC was true. The only unfair characterization of GNC was any implication that dietary supplements caused A-Rod’s own positive steroid tests. mach zehnder modulator
May 3, 2008 at 4:22 pm | Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) identified 22 dietary supplements containing anabolic steroids that are marketed and sold on the Internet in proposed rules published last week in the Federal Register. According to the DEA, the following three steroids meet the criteria for “anabolic steroids” under the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004Â (“Classification of Three Steroids as Schedule III Anabolic Steroids Under the Controlled Substances Act,” April 25).
- Boldione (aka androsta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione)
- Desoxymethyltestosterone (aka DMTÂ and 17a-methyl-5a-androst-2-en-17b-ol)
- 19-nor-4,9(10)-androstadienedione (aka 19-norandrosta-4,9(10)-diene-3,17-dione and esta-4,9(10)-diene-3,17-dione)
Apparently, this is a shocking surprise to supplement industry lobbyist Loren Israelsen. Israelsen recently forwarded the following remarks (written by Rob Eder) to members of the United Natural Products Alliance. Read the rest of this entry »
March 10, 2008 at 6:36 pm | Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Uber-lobbyist to the supplement industry, Loren Israelsen, recently forwarded selected remarks from an editorial by Rob Eder of Drug Store News to members of the United Natural Products Alliance. I was dismayed to see Rob Eder (and by extension Loren Israelsen) rave about the good job the supplement industry does at policing itself.
“As I have previously suggested, perhaps the Congress should examine whether the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act–DSHEA, as it is commonly known–is being adequately enforced,” Fehr said [...]
I have got some news for Donald Fehr: They don’t sell steroids in the supplement aisle. They don’t sell the “cream” or the “clear,” either. That’s because this industry does a better job of policing itself than Major League Baseball ever could.
Clearly, Fehr was disingeniously trying to blame DSHEA for the problem baseball was having with anabolic steroids. He tried to use the supplement industry as a scapegoat for MLB’s problems and it deservedly failed.
But the supplement industry needs to pull their heads out of the stand, stop patting themselves on the back for a job well-done, and respond honestly to criticisms of their industry. Read the rest of this entry »
February 6, 2008 at 3:25 am | Steroid Commentary, Steroid Health, Steroid Law, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
Several blogs have been discussing Neil Levin’s criticism of inaccuracies reported by CNN.  Levin strongly criticized CNN for “preposterous,” “erroneous,” and otherwise “false claims” that dietary supplements are “unregulated” and/or free of “government supervision.” His blog entry goes on to cite the many ways that dietary supplements are regulated by the government. The lengthy entry, with several quotes from regulatory agencies gives the impression that the dietary supplement industry is tightly regulated.
While CNN is technically inaccurate, it is closer to the truth than Levin’s advocacy would suggest. From a consumer standpoint, I feel it is safer to assume that dietary supplements are unregulated. Most regulations are actually “post-marketing” measures i.e. very little prevents a new supplement from being sold in the marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »
December 6, 2007 at 2:28 pm | Steroid Commentary, Steroid Health, Steroids in Sports
- Posted by Millard Baker |
A recent study revealed approximately 25% of popular dietary supplements in the U.S. were contaminated with low levels of steroids; 11% of supplements were contaminated with stimulants, most commonly ephedrine. These steroidal and stimulant ingredients were not declared on the product label.
The study was done by Informed Choice, a nonprofit coalition of dietary supplements, and the analysis was conducted by the British company, HFL, to investigate levels of steroid and stimulant contamination in popular supplements available on the US market. The names of the supplements that were tested were not identified. This is most likely out of fear of legal action against them by any company should it be named in the study results. Read the rest of this entry »
