When Hydroxycut was pulled from the market, we blogged about the issues with dietary supplements as far as their labeling of ingredients. Now, we discover that two popular over-the-counter dietary supplements used by high school football players contain banned steroids. Tren Xtreme and Mass Xtreme, both manufactured by American Cellular Labs, are being investigated for containing man-made designer steroids. One of the banned substances is Madol which became notorious during the Bay Area Lab Co-operative investigation.
The investigation has also discovered that Max Muscle, a retail supplement store with over 100 locations nationwide, paid American Cellular Labs to be the exclusive seller of these steroid-containing supplements.
Yesterday, the FDA executed search warrants on a Max Muscle store in San Francisco and another at WVM Global Incorporated in Lake Forest, California. The FDA has jurisdiction over dietary supplements as far as when it identifies a product that is adulterated or harmful and is already on the market.
The dietary supplements indicated in the investigation are highly popular with tenn athletes for their supposed benefits. However, steroids have been shown to be particularly dangerous in pre-teen and teen athletes because steroids can prevent normal bone growth.
As in the Hydroxycut case, these two dietary supplements failed to properly list the active ingredients contained therein. Of course, in this case it’s obvious why the label wouldn’t list steroids as active ingredients since they are illegal. However, this is another instance in which these dietary supplements may cause harm to consumer health. If the consumer is not provided with accurate information regarding the product, how can anyone be certain the product is safe?