Pharmaceutical forms of human growth hormone releasers are available only through prescription or remain in the human-trial stage. But at some nutrition retailers and on dozens of websites, there is another form of HGH releaser -- food supplements that cost a couple of dollars a day.
Some of these products, which go by names including GH Stak and Ageless Foundation, tout the same benefits as synthetic HGH.
"There seems to be increased marketing of these products around big events, like the Super Bowl and the Olympics," says Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
"We saw this at (the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City), and several companies marketed these products again before the 2004 Summer Games.
"We knew these products were being shipped directly to athletes in '04. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it happens again this summer."
Because these HGH releasers are nothing more than readily available amino acids, the building blocks of protein, the products don't run afoul of federal law or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
"The HGH experts consulted by WADA strongly believe that amino acid preparations cannot stimulate the HGH release strongly and substantially enough to have a doping effect," WADA spokesman Frederic Donze says in an e-mail.
A recent study by Syracuse University professor J.A. Kanaley showed that the main ingredient in most food-supplement HGH releasers, arginine, can spur the body's production of HGH when taken orally, though the effects are slight and not long-lasting.
The effectiveness of arginine is reduced when combined immediately with exercise, but most HGH-releaser supplements advise taking the product before bedtime.
Gary Wadler, chairman of WADA's Prohibited List and Methods Subcommittee, says to get a sustained HGH boost from such supplements, somebody would have to ingest such massive quantities that it would lead to a severe upset stomach or diarrhea.
That might not stop elite athletes, according to Nathan Piasecki, a member of the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team until a urine sample collected by USADA in January 2007 showed he'd tested positive for anti-estrogenic agents and a steroid. A USADA announcement in October said Piasecki established that the positive test stemmed from his use of the over-the-counter food supplement 6-OXO, manufactured by Ergopharm.
"I feel most elite athletes are pretty scientific in their training," says Piasecki, whose two-year ban ends in February. "They know what's legal, and if (a supplement) makes them feel good, I have no doubt they'd continue to use it even if there were some bad side effects.
"Once you get to that level, you're going to do whatever possible to get something extra."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- which has limited authority to investigate supplement companies after the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 -- hasn't cracked down on the maker of a food-supplement HGH releaser since 1999. FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan says the agency looks at all food supplement products on a case-by-case basis.
PayPal, the online payment company owned by eBay, doesn't take the same approach. It prevents customers from purchasing HGH-releaser supplements, even if they are legal.
"If the product is marketed and claims to 'act like' or have the same effects as a prescription or illegal drug, we also generally prohibit it," PayPal spokeswoman Charlotte Hills says in an e-mail.
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