Not all sports supplements supplement
According to the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, retail sales of “sports nutrition supplements” totaled $5.67 billion in 2016, and since then have increased by almost 37 percent.
Unfortunately, you need to be very selective when choosing sports supplement products promising improved health and performance. The Food and Drug Administration says they can be laced with counterfeit (and sometimes addictively enhanced) prescription drugs, controlled substances, and illegal ingredients.
Researchers from JAMA Network Open analyzed products that said they contained R vomitoria, methylliberine, halostachine, octopamine, and turkesterone. They found that:
■ 23 of 57 products didn’t contain a detectable amount of the labeled ingredient.
■ If the product did contain a listed ingredient, the actual quantity ranged from 0.02 percent to 334 percent of the labeled quantity.
Only 11 percent contained a quantity of the ingredient within 10 percent of the labeled quantity.
■ Seven of 57 products were found to contain at least one Fda-prohibited ingredient.
Overall, five Fda-prohibited ingredients were found, including an unapproved drug available in Russia (omberacetam), three drugs banned in Europe (octodrine, oxilofrine, and deterenol), and one drug that’s never been approved anywhere (1,4-dimethylamylamine).
Family matters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 22 percent of high school students in a recent survey said they had seriously considered suicide within the past year, up from 16 percent in 2011. Steps to address that crisis are vital.
But for moms and dads, that may be more of a challenge than has been recognized, since they, too, are contending with a sharp rise in depression and anxiety. A report from Harvard University found that while 18 percent of teens reported having anxiety, 20 percent of mothers and 16 percent of fathers did, too. And 15 percent of teens said they were depressed, while 16 percent of mothers and 10 percent of fathers admitted they contended with depression.
Clearly, family caregivers need care, for their own sake and to help their children. The study states: “Depressed and anxious parents are often terrific parents despite — and sometimes because of — these challenges. At the same time, depression and anxiety in parents are linked to emotional, social, physical and academic problems in children.”