In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was signed into law. This act classified substances derived from natural sources as food supplements and made many products otherwise classified as prescription drugs available over-the-counter (OTC) at health food and nutrition stores. In what could only be interpreted as a government mix-up, DHEA and other hormones (e.g., androstenedione, norandrostenedione, pregnenolone) remained legal and available as food supplements. Despite the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990, which requires any substance related to testosterone that possesses anabolic properties to be scheduled as an anabolic steroid, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has no plans to schedule these supplements as controlled substances. The following sections will go into detail on the OTC androgens and attempt to shed light on a topic that has received a great deal of media attention primarily because of Mark McGuire’s highly publicized use of androstenedione.Androgens (i.e., anabolic steroids) have been used extensively as an ergogenic aid for athletes, particularly strength-power athletes. Recently, certain OTC androgen preparations (e.g. androstenedione) have been sold and marketed based on the assumption that because they serve as immediate precursors to testosterone they too should exert anabolic effects assuming they readily convert to testosterone. Thus, the closer a hormone’s precursor is to the end product (i.e., testosterone), the greater the conversion of that precursor to the end product. For instance, the following compounds should convert more readily to testosterone based on their proximity to testosterone in the metabolic pathway for its formation (from greatest conversion to least): androstenedione> DHEA > 17-OHpregnenolone> pregnenolone> cholesterol. Obviously, this is a simplistic model inasmuch as consuming a large amount of cholesterol is not a
recommended method of inducing plasma testosterone increases. But it is clear that androstenedione can convert to testosterone. Whether this conversion has a physiologically significant effect on the hypertrophic process of skeletal muscles is not known. The scientific study of androstenedione and other prohormones is still in its infancy .
Thus, the focus will not be on the illicit hormones perse (i.e., anabolic steroids) but rather on the legal, over-the-counter pro hormones currently sold. It is clear that the self-administration of androgens (i.e., illicit anabolic-androgenic steroids) exerts potent ergogenic effects.
Tags:anabolic effects, anabolic steroid control act, anabolic steroids, Androgens, androstenedione, dhea, dietary supplement health, drug enforcement agency, food supplements, power athletes, prescription drugs testosterone
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