Many athletes in every sport tend to believe that they do not get adequate nutrients in their daily diet to maintain the high level of fitness that they need to carry out regular training, and then to perform at an elite level. These athletes then resort to ingesting supplements in order to access the additional nutrients that they require.
Supplements are available in various forms like, vitamins, minerals, protein supplements, creatine etc. The manufacture of many of these supplements are not regulated by the drug regulatory bodies of nations as they do not fall within the pharmaceutical category. Many of these are marketed as either herbal or natural supplements.
Risks involved with supplement consumption
The WADA does not support the use of supplements, nor do they endorse any sort of supplement brands for use by athletes. According to the World anti-doping rules, the athlete is eventually personally responsible for whatever goes into his or her body. Since the nutritional supplement industry is not regulated by the pharmaceutical oversight bodies, and they are also not legally obligated to list out the ingredients, there is a risk of the supplements being contaminated either accidently or deliberately with banned substances that can result in a positive doping test if consumed. There have even been instances where some manufacturers have deliberately added steroids to their supplements to improve athletic performance in order to prove the superiority of their product. Sometimes products within the same brand of supplements may contain different ingredients in different lots; where some products may not be contaminated, and some are contaminated. There have been many athletes who have taken supplements and then tested positive for banned substances due to the supplements being contaminated.
Recommendations
1. The athlete should get his nutrition from a regular balanced diet as far as possible without having to resort to supplements use.
2. Before any athlete decides to take supplements, they should think very carefully whether supplements are really the best solution for that condition.
3. An athlete suffering from a deficiency of a particular nutrient might be safer taking a prescribed medicine.
4. Before you decide to use any supplements, you are strongly advised to visit the USADA website below https://www.usada.org/athletes/substances/supplement-connect/high-risk- list/ some examples of supplements that might pose an anti-doping risk are given in the above link
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