Supplements are safe for teens! (or are they?)
Question:
I am 18 years old. I've been weight lifting for about a year now. I want to take a few supplements like:
glutamine
creatineNO-explodeor animal pump instead of creatine and NO-explodea multi vitaminwhey protein
My parents are claiming that for my age all of this is totally unsafe and would destroy my liver and kidneys!
I can't convince them so I need to know are they safe if they are taken by the recommended dosage! If they are safe will you send me what I can tell them to convince them. I have tried every which way to say it is totally natural and completely safe if used according to the recommended dosage. If they are safe, I need the medical and chemical speech to convince them so help me please.
Answer:
If there's one lesson I've learned in my own 20 years of bodybuilding and the last 10 years of being online helping as many people as I can it is this. Recommending supplements and trying to convince people they are safe is just the wrong approach. I know this isn't what you probably wanted to read but before you close your browser, hear me out please.
Recommending supplements to somebody without knowing the intimate details of your health situation is irresponsible. Think of it like a peanut allergy. Peanuts are great! They are totally safe. I tell you to eat them. Then we find out you have an allergy to them and opps! My bad! A bit extreme but I hope it proves the point. Getting supplement advice off the Internet can be a bad idea unless you put forth the effort to do your own research.
As a teenage, your frustration is understandable. You think your parents are totally misinformed and maybe they are but I'd venture to guess, you may not have all the information you need either to understand the situation.
And that's what the rest of this answer is about! While I won't tell you or your parents that supplements are safe (that would be irresponsible of me), nor will I say they are not, I'll do my best to give you some resources you can use to understand them better and make informed decisions.
In order to make the best supplement decision for you, several factors need to be considered. Two of the most important are:
You want to first understand how important your
nutrition is to your overall goals before taking any supplements.You should understand how a supplement becomes a supplement.
Warning: Just because a supplement is on the shelves being sold, does not mean it is automatically safe to take. Even taking it at the manufacturer's recommended dosage, does not mean it will work nor does it mean it is safe.
How Important is Nutrition?
"You can't out train a bad diet." I forgot who said that but it's 100% true. If you do not have your nutritional house in order, no supplements will save you. In reality, supplements are about 3% of the overall picture anyway. (I got that figure from years of personal observation and some guess work; don't bother looking it up)
Most teens I know, are sporadic when it comes to nutrition. They could improve on it greatly. Maybe that's you and maybe it's not but the point is ... if you can improve, you should. It will make more of a different that say.. glutamine (which I find useless for bodybuilding).
When I was a teenager, I thought not having supplements were really holding back my progress. Let me be blunt...
That is total bullshit. What really held me back in my youth was:
No Proper nutrition for muscle buildingNo Workout consistencyNo Focus on big liftsToo much focus on supplements
I tried all kinds of useless crap. I'd take amino acids faithfully and skip meals all the time. I'd take some stuff you put under your tongue every day but miss workouts and maybe hit the gym (at this time it was a Soloflex) three times a week at best.
Supplements were not my answer. But I feel prey to the marketing hype and promises like everybody does.
So you get nutrition is way more important right? You get that down along with working out, and you'll surpass anybody short of steroids in the gym. That creatine, those protein powders, that BSN (Bull.Shit.Nutrition) aren't worth it in the long run.
Now don't get me wrong! There are some supplements worth trying but that's not necessary now and at your age, it won't make a different. Your youth (testosterone) is far more potent than anything you can buy legally. Use it now to your advantage!
You Need to Know How Supplement Become a Supplement
To answer this question, what better place to get the information then the FDA’s own website.
“The FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering “conventional” foods and drug products (prescription and Over-the-Counter). Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Generally, manufacturers do not need to register with FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements. Manufacturers must make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading.
FDA’s post-marketing responsibilities include monitoring safety, e.g. voluntary dietary supplement adverse event reporting, and product information, such as labeling, claims, package inserts, and accompanying literature. The Federal Trade Commission regulates dietary supplement advertising.”–Source: The FDA
As you can see, just because something is sold, does not mean it's automatically safe.
How to Evaluate Any Supplement - What my mom didn't tell me about buying supplements and what I’m about to tell you could save you hundreds of dollars in worthless purchases or worse yet.. an ineffective and potentially dangerous supplement!
All this means to you is ...
Just because a supplement is sold on the shelves of the United States, does not mean it's automatically safe to consume. Even taking the recommended dosage does not ensure safety.
is the dosage safe in such amounts?is the dosage recommended what any studies show to be effective?where is the material coming from?has this company ever received any warnings?is this product even effective?
That's just a tiny list of questions you have to ask yourself.
When it comes to Creatine, it's a different answer than 99% of the junk on the shelves today simply because of the amount of information available on that particular supplement. But regarding the rest, it's unknown unless you dig deep to find the answer and even then, you may not get the full story unless the company opens up the exact amounts in the product.
Ever hear of a Proprietary Formula? It means the company must list what's in the product but it does not have to list each amount. So some ingredient may be effective but maybe not in the amount in that product but you'll never know. It might be too much or too little. In most cases, too little as really effective ingredients can be costly.
At this point, you might think I'm totally against supplementation. Not at all! I'm for the consumer making informed choices and understanding the landscape.
Taking supplements are neither automatically safe or automatically dangerous.Because it's on the shelf being sold doesn't make it safe or dangerous.
You, the consumer needs to make that choice based on available information.
Here are some excellent resources to further your research on a particular supplement:
My favorite but not totally free site is ConsumerLab.com They routinely evaluate various supplements for safety, they list out what the claims are, what dosage is necessary and then independently test supplements to ensure what's on the label is what is in the bottle.
A subscription would be a nice birthday present.
The bottom line is ... a supplement isn't automatically safe because it's sold. There's quite a lot that goes on behind the scenes. The more information you can gather from reputable sources, the better information you will have to start a conversation with your parents. Focus on nutrition and training above all as that will make much more of a different than any supplement. I understand your frustration, I truly do. But reassured, if you don't even up taking a single thing off that list, your muscle building goals will not be in jeopardy. Your youth is by far the best supplement you'll ever have so do not waste it!
Start eating right and training consistently right now, today and in 20 years, you'll be freaking huge! :-)
Be Fit, Stay Strong!
Marc David – CPT
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