BODYBUILDING aficionados are faced with another controversy which may soon transform into another blocking force in their agenda which is to get their discipline into the elite list of legitimate sports.

In what appears to be an addition to what is already a long list of their problems, the Bodybuilding sector is linked into the use of dietary supplement products reported earlier as containing steroids.

In fact, the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) recently made an announcement recalling 65 dietary supplement products. Specifically recalled are those that are being sold online by a bodybuilding website.

Who is liable?

Most of those that the US FDA is running after are marketed online by the Bodybuilding.com, a website entirely and comprehensively devoted for bodybuilding enthusiasts. According to the US government drug agency, those products sold online at the Bodybuilding.com website might be containing steroids.

Specifically under close watch are those which were manufactured by BrainQuicken LLC Research and Technologies or simply LLC. LLC is a subsidiary of Adaptagenix Applied Biosciences of Boise, Idaho. It is likewise considered as a top investment entity engaged in the development and distribution of bioactive and pharmaceutical-grade neural acceleration products.

Should the drugs sold online be found positive of steroid, the US FDA has yet to make any pronouncement on their next legal step. Moreover, there isn’t any word as to whose liability would it be. It could be the liability of the website that plays the crucial role of selling it via the net. There is however a higher probability that LLC would face prosecution --- or it could be both.

Steroid what?

Steroid and steroid use is a frequent headline grabber in the major dailies. Careers of not a few world-class athletes were cut short for steroid use. Most of those who got themselves a free publicity for the use of steroids were those who are considered as already popular.

Steroid is a regulated substance. It is described as performance-enhancing drug that is widely being taken by athletes all over the world, despite a ban on its use. Use of steroids is considered as cheating in many sports disciplines and sporting events.

Findings show that use of steroids and other medical or dietary products containing steroids causes acute liver ailments, male infertility and makes one vulnerable to heart attack or stroke, which could result in death.

Soon after the FDA announcement, the website (Bodybuilding.com) officials have already made a statement, apparently caving in to the drug agency’s request for a voluntary recall of sold dietary products online and pull-out of the advertisement and marketing. They however made it clear that those dietary products that they are selling online are legally classified under the federal laws as "dietary supplements".

The FDA has yet to make a final statement as to whether the recalled drugs indeed contain steroids.

Bodybuilding dragged into it

As a result of this development, Bodybuilding has been dragged into the controversy and bodybuilding aficionados are just not too happy about it.

The controversy might just make it a lot harder for them to convince international sporting organizations into agreeing to their request to consider the muscle discipline as a legitimate sporting event. GP