#17. The Perks and Potential Hazards of Supplements Monday, October 19, 2020 Children are much more playful than adults. Adults never feel oppressed by parental prohibitions ("no roughhousing!") or rules posted at public pools ("no running!") or sedentary commandments ("sit still!" and "wait your turn!"). Children, left to their own devices, have little difficulty getting adequate physical activity. Who needs a treadmill when you have tag? Exercise, like taxes and talk radio, is an adult thing. It's for those who have given up physical activity so completely that they must now supplement their daily routines with structured movement (when is the last time you climbed a tree?). Nutritional supplements are similar. If we simply ate a diverse diet of whole foods, we wouldn't need bottles of antioxidants, fish oil, calcium, fiber, protein, probiotics, vitamin D, and so on. But the more we expel nourishment from our dinner plates, the more we must compensate with supplements. Most grocery stores now have an entire aisle filled with bottles of isolated compounds. Pills, powders, syrups, an occasional lozenge. No matter what your diet lacks, there's a bottle just for you! All of that said, exercise and supplements are both vital components of a holistic and wholesome (adult) life. But they require some understanding before participation. Since the theme of this blog is supplements, let's explore that subject a bit. First, the FDA's distinction between supplement and drug is a bunch of ambiguous legal gibberish, totally indecipherable by chemists, pharmacologists, and food scientists... let alone consumers. The one meaningful statement is this: "A drug is intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease" (FDA, 2015). That sentence, in combination with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, has permitted enormous freedom for supplement manufacturers (distinct from drug manufacturers) to package and market nearly anything. They can bypass FDA regulation as long as they don't trespass into any "drug" zones. "Guaranteed fat loss!" is okay because it doesn't address a disease. Same with: "Grow your hair two inches in ten days!" Or: "Increase brain power 500% with pulverized leprechaun spleens!" If the claim maintains a safe distance from disease, and it is punctuated with an asterisk informing the reader, *These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, then it's fair game. More concerning than the ludicrous claims on supplement bottles are the contents within them. The FDA isn't evaluating those contents any more than the slogans. So the ingredients reported on the label aren't necessarily the ingredients contained in the capsules. Sometimes it's harmless placebos, but other times it's illegal stimulants (Cohen et al., 2014) and anabolic agents (de Hon et al., 2007). For example, a study sponsored by the International Olympic Committee found 14.8% of non-hormonal supplements (e.g., vitamins, minerals, amino acids) to contain anabolic-androgenic steroids (mostly prohormones of nandrolone and testosterone). The U.S. was one of the naughtiest countries in the world: 18.8% of the supplements tested contained unlisted anabolic agents (Geyer et al., 2004). In future blogs, we'll discuss specific supplements for specific goals. For now, let's have us some tips. Tip 1) If you are taking medications, if you have a known health condition, or if you exhibit risk factors for a health condition, don't cannonball into the supplement pool. Speak with a knowledgeable medical professional first. Then do some reading of your own to be doubly sure you will not be subjecting yourself to unnecessary risk. Tip 2) With the exception of a few goals (and a few supplements that can reliably assist in their achievement), it's not a bad idea to simply eat your nutrients. High quality supplements are more expensive than anything at the farmers' market. And local, organic produce is a more satisfying meal than a motley lump of pills. Tip 3) If you'd rather go to a gym than climb trees, and you prefer pills and powders to balanced dinners, that's okay. But before you buy any supplements, do your reconnaissance work. Make sure you're getting reliable bottles from reputable brands. There are plenty of resources available to review independent lab testing (e.g., ConsumerLab.com), and the NCAA regularly updates its comprehensive list of safe supplements.