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RESEARCH INTERESTS: DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS |
Dietary supplement use is a well-documented practice among athletes,
both young and old. Creatine has become the best selling supplement of all time
but it was Baseball’s Mark McGuire’s mention of the dietary
supplement Androstendione in 1998 that has sparked a nation’s interest
(and debate) in sports supplements.
As a whole, young athletes in particular continue to use
dietary supplements at a rate higher than the general population. Of great
concern to researchers is the fact that dietary supplement products are not
tested by any federal agency, and the potential exists for short and long-term
health problems to occur. The current law that “governs” (a
misnomer) these products, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act,
passed in 1994, essentially took the FDA’s power to request pre-market
review on these products away. In
essence, the current law means that if you want to know what’s in these
products, you as the consumer have to wade through the vast array of marketing
claims to determine safety. In my
opinion, young athletes have almost no chance of making wise decisions about
sports supplements (for that matter, neither do their coaches or their parents)
and many of the millions of these athletes who participate in sports will
continue to be curious about the claims made to be bigger, faster,
stronger. My research has focused on the
influences that may lead to use/non-use of these products, namely internal
decision-making processes, and external factors such as coaches, peers, the
media, etc. As a result I have developed an instrument, based on the
Theory of Reasoned Action that can discern the strength of influences on this
population, and have tested it on over 6000 athletes. The ultimate goal of this
research is to develop intervention material specifically directed by internal
or external influences, not the traditional model of putting all athletes in a
gym and talking about the side-effects of certain products, etc. This has never
worked and has only created more users.
The data from this research serves as the basis for my book,
“Taking One for the Team: The New Thinking on
Young Athletes and Dietary Supplements” published by Kendall-Hunt in
2002.
Click here for
updated research efforts and publications.