Untested supplements could
prove dangerous
By Dave Stephens
Assistant
Campus Editor
They claim they will make you stronger, thinner
and maybe even sexier.
They are endorsed by athletes, supermodels and
professional wrestlers.
But they don’t have to prove they actually
work.
Dietary supplements, such as creatine, protein
powder and fat burners are used by thousands of college students each
day, yet little is known about the safety of these drugs and even less
is known about their long-term effects.
"One of the real dangers is that these supplements
are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration," said Nick
Popovich, associate head of the department of pharmacy practice.
The 1994 Dietary Supplements Health Education Act
allows vitamins, herbs and supplements to be sold with very little regulation.
Popovich said the law calls for supplements to
be tested only when problems are reported for them. "Even if no
problems have been reported, that doesn’t mean the product is safe,"
said Popovich.
Popovich said the current regulations hold the
company that makes the supplement responsible for testing the drug to
see if it works, or if it's dangerous.
"Why should the company do clinical testing?
(The supplements) are already flying out of the stores," said Popovich.
"God forbid they do a clinical trial and they proved it didn’t
work."
Levon Clements started taking creatine, a protein
supplement that is supposed to increase muscle mass, as a sophomore
in high school.
"I started taking creatine because my football
coach encouraged the use of it," said Clements, a freshman in the
School of Liberal Arts. "It helped me gain weight and made me stronger
and faster."
Popovich said some high school coaches try to get
students to use supplements such as creatine because the coaches get
kickbacks from the supplement company.
"My football coach suggested we use it because
he used it himself," said Clements. "He didn’t sell it
or tell us where to buy it."
Clements said he didn’t do much research before
he started taking creatine because "everybody was taking it."
After taking it for a while, however, he did some more research.
"I read a lot of stuff in muscle magazines
about the effects, and I also read other research on it," said
Clements. "I didn’t find anything that said it was bad."
Popovich said that although creatine had sales
of more than $200 million in 1998, it has never been proven to be effective.
"To date there’s been no clinical proof
that creatine works," said Popovich. "In fact, it can be very
dangerous. The only way there is going to be any real research done
is when someone dies."
To show the possible dangers of creatine, Popovich
cited a report of a healthy 20-year-old man who died from kidney problems
associated with too much creatine use.
"Creatine increases the amount of water retained
in the muscles," said Popovich. "If students have been taking
creatine, they should get their blood pressure tested. If their bodies
are retaining a lot of water, they may have high blood pressure."
Popovich said many students take creatine and other
supplements because they see professional athletes endorsing the products.
"If some young kid wants to be like Mark McGwire,
who’s admitted to supplement use, why wouldn’t that kid go
out and buy the supplements?" said Popovich.
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