Growth products are muscling in

Former Power player Darryl Wakelin at work as a pharmacist. Picture: Brenton Edwards Source: The Advertiser

PHARMACISTS have seen an explosion in supplements claiming to boost performance over the past few years, as athletes seek shortcuts and an edge.

And experts have warned taking legal supplements can be the gateway for experimentation of drugs bought from less reputable sources.

Port Adelaide premiership player Darryl Wakelin, who has worked as a pharmacist since retiring from the game, said it had been one of the most competitive and growing industries wanting space on chemist-shop shelves.

"It's become a huge industry," Wakelin said. "Products with images and promises of big things.

"There was a brand called Musashi about 10 years ago and it seems they were ahead of their time because they (similar products) are everywhere now.

"It's a big, competitive market that's growing even more."

But the spike in legal supplements also has the potential for a sinister side-effects, with anecdotal evidence it has become a gateway to heavier and often illegal training aides.

There is also a push and expectation among health professionals that the Therapeutic Goods Administration will soon regulate the industry more rigorously and ban claims that cannot be proven.

Among growth products are so called "fat-blasters" and protein supplements as athletes of Generation Y seek to fast-track their physical improvement.

Pharmacies are regulated by the TGA, but there are other outlets that operate according to more loosely defined guidelines.

Then there is the internet, where supplements can be imported directly.

"There's a lot of junk that comes in from Asia," Wakelin said. "And a lot of time it can be laced with steroids, even though the person buying it wouldn't know and it doesn't say on the packaging.

"But people nowadays are looking for ways to get fit quicker and without having to work as hard.

"We haven't had a big increase in scripts, but body-builders know where to get stuff from elsewhere."

University of South Australia professor of exercise and nutritional science Jon Buckley said it was a minefield of supplements for people to navigate - legal and otherwise - and called for tighter regulation.

He also recognised there had been a cultural shift, to where there was an expectation that athletes had to seek assistance outside of healthy food and exercise.

"A lot of people are looking for an easy option," Buckley said. "But there are a lot of products out there that claim that they do things without a lot of evidence."

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