The US Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the Department of Health and Human services. The agency is responsible for regulation and safety standards related medications and sustenance. Cosmetics and medical devices are also subject to regulation. The FDA has the power to stop untested products from reaching the public. Stopping harmful or dangerous products is the goal of the agency. This is not always accomplished. Limitations are placed on the FDA due to interstate commerce. Corporations have lobbies that get congress members to act on their behalf. This means a reduction of regulations or getting products approved by the FDA that should not be. Supplements have become a major business over the past two decades. The FDA issued a warning in 2017 that certain dietary supplements contained anabolic androgenic steroids. Instead of the FDA trying to improve regulation and enforcement, they give a few recommendations. The agency is corrupt and the discovery of performance enhancing drugs is evidence of this. Consumers must be suspicious of the products sold and the FDA itself.
The FDA claims that enforcement has become harder due to e-commerce. Websites and online stores according to the FDA are difficult to tack. The assertion is that names of online stores change, which means they can evade the FDA. This is a deflection of the failures of a federal agency. The government must keep up with the advances in information technology and e-commerce. The FDA’s ineffective solution is to have customers and healthcare professionals report to either MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, the Safety Reporting Portal, and the FDA online reporting system.
Steroids in Supplements and Warnings
The US government is not supportive of consumer protection. The reason online stores or corporations are not prosecuted rigorously is due to business having influence over government. It makes no difference if there is a Republican or Democratic administration. A consumer will have to do careful research when buying supplements.
Supplements are not given approval by the FDA. They are regulated, but even the scope is limited. Supplements are according to the FDA classified as a food, not a drug. The FDA does not have the authority to approve supplements due to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. This law allows for supplements to become more of a risk to consumers. The law helps the corporations make bigger profits at the expense of the public.
As stated on the website ” The agency does not review dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they can be marketed; thus, products that are unlawfully marketed as dietary supplements are generally not discovered until after they end up on the market. ” The text does not mention why this is the case. The DSHEA hinders them. Any of those tainted products could end up in any GNC store.
The FDA explains the side effects of steroid use. The problem is that multiple types of steroids exist. Drugs are going to effect individuals differently. How dangerous a drug can be depends on the dosage and how long it has been used. The phrase “steroid like substances” is used. Steroids are not the only performance enhancing drug. To be classified as a steroid a drug must be synthetically derived from testosterone. Stimulants would not be considered anabolic androgenic steroids. Not all muscle building supplements or drugs would be steroids. The FDA press report should have made this distinction. The user of a contaminated supplement might not even recognize side effects related to steroids. The FDA appears to propagate the roid rage myth. Irritability and altered mood are mentioned. What is also listed is increased aggression.
Behavior can change due to changes in the endocrine system. Steroids are not going to transform a person into a vexed brute. Mood can be altered, but not to the exaggerated extreme that some present it as. Depression may not be the result of using steroids. This tends to be the effect coming off of them. Individuals might experience different side effects. The FDA classifies the changes as “serious reactions” and “life threatening reactions.” A better term would be disease inducing reactions and simply using side effects. Pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, kidney damage, and stroke are diseases. The liver is also effected. Each individual will react differently to AAS. This makes it difficult for a consumer to detect steroids in a supplement.
The medical advice insufficient. Certain products might not even state they have steroids in them. So the recommendation of going to the doctor would not be useful. A health care professional needs as much information as possible for helping a patient. There might be other substances in supplements that are unknown. The FDA also suggest not ending use of a supplement immediately. The reason is possible health concerns related to effects of withdraw. The guideline seems dubious, because a supplement is not classified as a drug. The 2017 incidents of steroids in supplements highlights another issue. Food labeling being specific about its ingredients. The food and pharmaceutical industry have opposed this measure.
There are multiple types of anabolic androgenic steroids. Your doctor might not be familiar with how each one interacts with a patient’s body. The FDA recommendation then lists some other side effects. It states ” Talk to your health care professional if you are experiencing symptoms possibly associated with these products, particularly nausea, weakness or fatigue, fever, abdominal pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes), or brown or discolored urine.” These symptoms are not associated with the use of steroids. Knowing this could happen, the case for stopping a tainted supplement could be better medical advice. This sounds more like poisoning. The FDA medical recommendation does not mention the word. Depending on how much and what type of steroids were in the supplements, doctor might not be able determine a proper course for treatment.
The FDA does not explain the process of stacking well. The description provided mentions a person using a combination supplements and stimulants. This is not correct. A person just using supplements is not stacking. The specific process is called steroid stacking. Multiple steroids are used to reduce fat, build muscle, and aid in recovery. Different combinations of steroids can result in a particular physique or athletic performance. Depending on the type of athletic training and the combination of steroids results can vary. Athletes who use pharmaceutical aids go through a steroid cycle. Unlike the supplements uncovered in the incident, steroids do not have a hidden ingredient. The FDA should have at least some basic understanding of how steroids are used. A person and use both steroids and supplements. However, when various steroids are consumed, this would be stacking.
The FDA sent warning letters to Fitness/Big Dan’s Fitness, AndroPharm, and Hardcore Formulations. The FDA claims that they do review dietary supplements on the webpage, but this is undermined Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. The decrease in regulation is evident by these companies marketing supplements with steroids online. The repeal of DSHEA would prevent these incidents. The FDA’s warning letters are not useful unless a lawsuit is brought up. Class action lawsuits could arise from people who have had their health damaged. According to the FDA 35 patients from the seven year study had liver damage. A significant portion required hospitalization. The data was extrapolated from adverse event reports. These collection of reports document the harmful effects of products. Then a determination is made to remove food or drugs from the market. The process is slow and corporations are an obstacle to consumer protection. Seeing as supplement production is a billion dollar industry, legal punishment is difficult. The supplement warning entry also contradicts a previous recommendation. It states a person should stop using a supplement immediately if the experience the symptoms listed. The webpage describing risk of the supplements stated not to get off the substance so fast.
AndroPharm is still in operation. Hardcore Formulations no longer has a website. However, most its products can be found on eBay and Amazon.com. Big Dan’s Fitness continues to sell products. The reason consumer protection exist is keep customers safe and stop false advertising . The reason products went through a vigorous inspection process was to ensure safety and effectiveness. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 undermines this when it comes to regulating supplements. The bigger question is how AndroPhram remains in operation. The website sells steroids. Pages have lists of both injectable and oral steroids.
The website does not use ambiguous language. The text states it is selling AAS. Under the Controlled Substances Act, steroids are a schedule III substance. The Anabolic Steroid Control of 1990 made them illegal to use without a prescription from a doctor or to sell them. AndroPhram has broken the law by selling them. The Drug Enforcement Administration does not focus much on steroid use, because other substances are their focus. Cocaine and opioids are considered a priority. That leaves the FDA to manage situations related to supplements. Government departments and agencies have not updated in relation to the rise of e-commerce. Supplement websites could still be selling products that put the consumer at risk. AndroPharm did a voluntary recall of its Sten Z and M1 Alpha capsules. The FDA stated ” when a company announces a recall, market withdrawal, or safety alert, the FDA posts the company’s announcement as a public service. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.” Companies do a recall before getting FDA product warnings is a way to avoid legal action or penalties. The voluntary recall does not mean the company’s practices changed; they jst got caught. All government departments are undergoing massive budget cuts in 2025. This will effect the FDA. If the FDA was showing inefficiency and corruption, it will only be exacerbated by the Department of Government Efficiency. Consumers are going to have to be extra cautious when using supplements.
