Nutrition experts and education officials gathered with regulators at a state parliament committee meeting last week to discuss how teens could be better educated about sports supplements use.
Danger
Sports nutrition specialists warned of the dangers of consuming cocktails of sports supplements as highly competitive teens sought to improve their sporting performance or lose or gain weight, often with professional careers in mind.
"What appears to a teen to be a benign drink, pill or powder when washed down with an energy drink ... before walking out onto the field and engaging in a long intense, physically exhausting training session, often in high heat and humidity with little to no fluids to drink, can result in fatal consequences," said Kim Crawford, a certified specialist in sports dietetics and coordinator of graduate studies in nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh.
Energy drinks, creatine, protein shakes and dietary supplements such as CoQ10 and ginseng are typically consumed by teenagers with scant knowledge of appropriate dosage levels and potential contra-indications if used in conjunction with each other, a panel of the state House Health and Human Services Committee heard.
There is also concern banned herbal stimulants such as ephedra were being attained from black market sources, usually the internet.
This kind of consumption occurs despite the fact the National Federation of State High School Association's Sports Medicine Handbook guides school personnel and coaches to "never supply, recommend, endorse or permit the use of any drug, medication or food supplement solely for performance-enhancing purposes."
The American College of Sports Medicine backed Pennsylvania's initiative. Alan Utter, a trustee of the College, said many high school athletes consumed sports supplements in a near-blind fashion.
"There are a number of states that have implemented drug testing policies at the high school level ... but a comprehensive sports nutrition program, this is the first to my knowledge," Utter said. "Kudos to Pennsylvania for considering it."
New program
The panel has a November 30 deadline to develop a sports nutrition program that can be employed by schools across the state.
A sports nutrition curriculum created by Pennsylvania’s Department of Education exists, and Crawford said this could be employed as the basis of an updated program that would integrate with math, science, health and physical education lessons.
She said it should be updated annually to keep up to speed with the latest research and athletic directors and coaches could tweak those lessons to develop sport-specific guidelines, Crawford said.