Training with steroids produces greater strength gains, but the male hormone supplements are illegal for use as a training aid, not to mention potentially dangerous. Risks range from heart disease to baldness. Creatine, on the other hand, is widely available and legal. The Food and Drug Administration lists it as a food supplement and allows it to be sold with no more restrictions than those on vitamins. Teen athletes can buy it at their local health food store - possibly their local supermarket.
Many teens do, but no one knows how many.
Yesalis, who studies athletes' quests for better bodies through chemistry, would like government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add questions on substances such as creatine to their health habits surveys. One new study is in the current issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers had 182 male and 146 female Minnesota students ages 14 to 18 complete an anonymous questionnaire when they appeared for preparticipation physical exams that are required for sports. Twenty-seven athletes, including one female, said they had used creatine, and 14 said they were using it at the time of the survey. The researchers concede their survey of students who showed up for physical exams was not a random scientific sample.