Steriods versus supplements

[willbrothers]

I have been doing a great amount of reading on steroids and supplements that do similar things, such as elevating testosterone levels. I wondered, when does a person "cross the line" I know many organizations look for certain ratios to determine if a person passes or fails a drug test. Where is the line drawn? What defines a truly natural athlete? Just some food for thought.

[willbrothers]

My thinking is that eventually, the lines will become increasingly blurred. It's a scary perspective.

[Doug Parrish]

Excellent questions, Will. I'm hardly the expert. My supplements include protein and vitamins. My energy drink is Mt Dew. So take this for what its worth.

If you have a funny, "not-quite-right" feeling about a supplement, avoid it. If you are unsure, look up everything you can about it. There are supplements that don't contain testosterone, but cause you to give off more testosterone. Once upon a time there was a supplement that caused the body to produce excess amounts of trembolone (sp?). And so on. If you want to be pure-to-the-bone, pass any test drug-free, stick with nutritional supplements, and avoid the ones that may cause positive tests.

It's not quite that easy, either. Creative marketing can blur a lot of the lines FOR you.

As far as I know, protein, creatine, glutamine, arginine, those kind of supplements are not banned by anyone. For a better resource than I am, try the WADA list of banned substances. Then avoid any supplement that contains OR AIDS THE PRODUCTION OF any substance on that list.

Please, especially watch that THC. We don't need any pastors with red eyes and the munchies. :')

Hope there is at least something here that's helpful.

God Bless!

[willbrothers]

Good points Doug. There's so much out there now it's hard to tell what's what. You could literally make a library out of all the different products that are available.