Columnist Peter Keating reveals his ignorance of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in the July 2008 issue Smart Money Magazine which is also reprinted in the Wall Street Journal. He suggests that the “utterly crazy law” DSHEA created an unregulated market permitting physicians at anti-aging clinics to prescribe anabolic steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormone [HGH] (“Antiaging Clinics Are Gaining in Popularity,” July 9).
But we know how [antiaging clinics] work: A doctor typically gives you nutritional advice, various supplements and prescriptions, sometimes for human growth hormone (HGH), sometimes for testosterone or another steroid. A compounding pharmacy mixes the ingredients to create your treatment. And you pay handsomely for the privilege of going anabolic without having to buy HGH at the gym, guess your dosage or inject yourself. The prices charged by antiaging clinics vary, but expect to spend several thousand dollars for an initial assessment, then several hundred dollars per monthly visit.
We also know why these clinics are essentially unregulated. In 1994 the federal government passed an utterly crazy law known as the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), thanks to the work of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whose home state is ground zero for the supplements industry. Under DSHEA, supplement makers don’t have to ensure their products are either safe or effective, and their manufacturing processes and labeling are not held to the same standards as pharmaceutical companies’.
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The truth is that as long as you can get a doctor to certify you have a medical need (such as an alleged preexisting deficiency), you can buy and/or take human growth hormone or steroids without getting arrested.
The only thing that is “utterly crazy” is Peter Keating’s understanding of the law (DSHEA). Dietary supplements fall under the scope of DSHEA; prescription drugs like testosterone and human growth hormone do not.
Is Keating purposely misleading readers about the relationship between between DSHEA and prescription steroids? Or does Keating really think that anabolic steroids and HGH are dietary supplements?
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
Dietary supplements fall under the scope of DSHEA; prescription drugs like testosterone and human growth hormone do not.