Health food stores often regard science and evidence-based medicine as the tools of profiteering and greed so it is ironic that they continue to sell dietary supplements to children. Some even recommend them, despite clear warning labels that read "for adult use only."
Though supplements are an unregulated wild frontier at the US Food&Drug Administration level, body-shaping supplements are banned for sale to minors in 49 U.S. states. Nonetheless, 15-year-olds were able to buy them in health food stores across the country and the staff even recommended certain products that were illegal for sale to minors.
Senior investigator Ruth Milanaik, DO, had testers identifying themselves as 15-year-old boys and girls call 244 health food stores in 49 states (both independently owned and large-chain retailers) because previous studies have shown the high prevalence of minors using these products. Clearly the people most heavily promoting supplement usage should be knowledgeable of the risks, so either they are, and exploit youth to make money, or they are not, which has its own dangers.
The investigators knew that health food store supplements are not always healthy and that health food store attendants selling well-known "fat burning" thermogenic products (such as Hydroxycut,and Shredzm), testosterone boosters, or products containing creatine, don't know what they are talking about, but they did not know they were routinely flouting laws put in place to keep young people from harm.
Despite many testosterone boosters bearing warnings such as "for adult use only," the team found that 41 percent of sales attendants told callers identifying themselves as 15-year-olds they could purchase a testosterone booster on their own.
Although testosterone boosters are specifically not recommended for children under age 18 unless for documented medical reasons, 9.8 percent of sales attendants recommended a testosterone booster, the study showed.
"Health food stores that advertise that their employees are 'trained experts' need to re-educate their employees and reinforce that these products are not recommended for minors," Dr. Milanaik.
All three studies were conducted by Alexis E Tchaconas, BA; and college students Laura A Fletcher and Maguire Herriman, who were overseen by Andrew Adesman, MD, and Milanaik, of Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY. The findings are reported in Over-the-Counter Testosterone Boosters and Underage Teens: Easy Access and Misinformation Provided by National Retailers.
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