We should all be aware of the AAP’s policy not recommending the use of dietary supplements like creatine and testosterone boosters (10.1542/peds.2016-1300) but despite what we know, retail stores may be less familiar with these recommendations and enable teens easier access to such supplements than we realize. To determine if such a statement was true or not, Herriman et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-1257) had one of their research team pose as a 15 year old high school athlete hoping to increase muscle strength who called 244 health food stores in the US and asked what would that sales person recommend?
If creatine or testosterone was not mentioned, it would be asked about as well as if the 15-year-old (who shared his age) could come into the store and purchase the products. The results are concerning to say the least with 2/3 of those called recommending creatine and almost 40% doing so without prompting. Almost 10% recommended testosterone boosters. As to being able to come in and purchase it as a 15-year-old, just over 40% offered to sell the teen testosterone boosters and 74.2% were fine allowing the 15 year old to buy the creatine.
This data is worrisome and should energize us to want to do more to stop sales of dietary supplements to minors, no matter how athletic they are. This study offers some suggestions, but we also wonder what you tell your patients about access to supplements in health food stores? If you have a strategy that works or if you are working with your legislature to consider having sales of such products banned from minors, let us know by responding to this blog, commenting on our website where we have the full article available or posting your thoughts on this study on our Facebook or Twitter pages.
