The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Public Health Advisory (PHA) warning consumers to avoid using bodybuilding supplements claiming to contain “steroids”, “steroid-like substances”, “steroid alternatives” and “hormone products”. The FDA warning failed to give guidance on the specific product ingredients that were problematic. The extremely broad language cast suspicion upon all “body building supplements” marketed for performance enhancement […]
Supplements
Tren Xtreme Steroid Investigation Leads to Raids of American Cellular Labs and Max Muscle
FDA Special Agent Jeff Novitzky, the agent who has become the face of the federal government witch-hunt against steroid users in professional sports during the BALCO scandal, has move his attention to investigating dietary supplement companies suspected of selling designer anabolic steroids. Novitzky’s latest steroid investigation targeted two popular products sold and marketed as dietary […]
USADA Travis Tygart Urges State Attorneys General to Sue Supplement Companies
Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), urged the country’s attorneys general to start suing supplement companies using consumer protection laws. Tygart made his comments at the 2009 National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) summer conference on June 17, 2009 in Colorado Springs. Tygart wants the attorneys general to take action at the state level […]
ALR Industries Defamation Lawsuit Against NFL Player Femi Ayanbadejo
Former NFL running back Femi Ayanbadejo settled his lawsuit against ALR Industries in a confidential agreement. ALR Industries (ALRI) has NOT admitted wrongdoing. ALRI is proceeding with its defamation lawsuit seeking punitive damages against Ayanbadejo for his irresponsible and false statements alleging that ALRI spiked its supplements. Ayanbadejo tested positive for an ingredient clearly listed on the label of ALRI […]
Did Jessica Hardy’s Advocare Supplements Contain Clenbuterol?
Swimmer Jessica Hardy has withdrawn from the United States Olympic Team bound for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after testing positive for low levels of the long-acting beta-2 adrenergic agonist (LABA) clenbuterol. Hardy maintains that she never knowingly or unintentionally consumed clenbuterol or any other banned susbtance. The question of why and how clenbuterol appeared in Jessica […]
Director Christopher Bell on Muscletech Hypocrisy Regarding Anabolic Steroids
Percy Crawford interviewed Christopher Bell, director of the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster”, in a good piece appearing on Fight Hype. Chris Bell criticizes the hypocrisy and dishonesty of bodybuilding supplement companies like Muscletech in their approach to anabolic steroids (“Christopher Bell: What’s Really the Big Deal About Steroids?,” May 12). I talked to a fitness […]
DEA Identifies 22 Dietary Supplements Containing Anabolic Steroids
The Drug Enforcement Administration (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 2004 (“Classification of Three Steroids as […]
Bodybuilder Falsely Accused of Selling Steroids by Worcester Newspaper
Former NPC Bodybuilder Tom Vigliatura has been falsely accused of selling steroids by reporter Lee Hammel of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette newspaper in Massachusetts. However, I am certain that this false accusation is the least of Thomas Vigliatura’s concerns; Vigliatura has been in prison since August 2005. He was sentenced this week to 51 […]
Football Player Sues Supplement Company for Undeclared Steroidal Ingredient
No sooner than I finished writing an article critical of the supplement industry does a professional football player file a lawsuit against a supplement company for containing steroids in their supplements (due to either contamination or intentional “spiking” of the ingredients). It gives me no pleasure to write this story because the defendant is a […]
Sports Supplements as a Gateway to Anabolic Steroid Use
I asked Dr. Jay Hoffman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the College of New Jersey, about the theory that sports supplements are a gateway to anabolic steroid use. He replied in an email: I do not believe that this is the case. There really isn’t any documented evidence […]