WASHINGTON &emdash; On the shelves of health stores across the country sits a dietary supplement that advertisements boast can “significantly alter body composition” &emdash; by converting to steroids in the bloodstream and, for some, helping pump up muscles like traditional steroids do.
But unlike every other substance in the steroid family, the supplement DHEA is not classified as a controlled substance. In fact, the chalky white pills and capsules enjoy a special exemption under federal law, thanks to a bill passed by Congress late last year.
How DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, came to enjoy special legal protections &emdash; at the very moment that steroid abuse was grabbing national headlines and only months before Congress held hearings on body-building drug use in professional baseball &emdash; is a study in skillful political maneuvering, said participants in the deal.
Sports officials had favored an overall ban on steroids and related pills, such as DHEA, which is banned by the Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the NCAA, the NFL, the NBA and baseball minor leagues.
Major League Baseball is the exception on banning DHEA, and at last month’s congressional hearings, the top medical adviser to the league turned the tables on lawmakers, accusing them of failing to write zero-tolerance toward steroids into federal law.
GOP Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who represents a state where many dietary supplements are produced and who is a longtime champion of herbal remedies, thought last year that DHEA must be kept legal and available as an “anti-aging” pill.
Other lawmakers and staff members said he threatened to kill a far-reaching piece of legislation restricting the sale of other steroids and increasing penalties for illegal use if lawmakers did not agree to include an exemption for DHEA.
“There is a big argument that DHEA is very beneficial for health and well-being,” Hatch said, noting that he did not believe there was significant opposition to leaving DHEA on the market.
He was joined in fighting for the exemption by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa a leading supporter of dietary supplements.
Most DHEA is manufactured in China from the dried roots of wild yam. In humans, where DHEA is produced naturally in the adrenal glands, levels of the hormone usually peak by age 25. The synthetic version is primarily marketed as an anti-aging drug.
The FDA banned over-the-counter sales of DHEA in 1985. The supplement reappeared after Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, releasing a flood of supplements classified as foods rather than as drugs, and not requiring FDA approval.
As the abuse of steroid-like supplements became more widely discovered, athletic and medical groups pressed for stricter legislation, arguing that any substance that turns into a steroid hormone once digested should be regulated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
But faced with opposition from Hatch, lawmakers decided it was not worth sinking the entire bill to ban DHEA, several said. The law gave the DEA more power to ban new steroids, with one named exemption &emdash; DHEA.
