Education for athletes, coaches among solutions, By: Alan Gustafson
November 20, 2006
It will take local and statewide action -- new policies, surveys, legislation and education -- to root out performance-enhancing supplements and steroids from Oregon's high school sports culture.
Capping a two-month analysis of the problem, the Statesman Journal identified seven ways to attack it. This is a look at the core weaknesses and proposed solutions:
1. Educate athletes and parents
Problem: Salem-Keizer school leaders aren't doing enough to provide high school athletes and their parents with the latest and best information about performance-enhancing drugs and dietary supplements. Informally, coaches take the lead in answering questions put to them by athletes. Doctors, not coaches, should be at the forefront of dispensing such information.
Solution: School leaders should require all high school athletes to attend at least one doctor-led information session about steroids and supplements. Local school leaders could recruit qualified volunteers from the medical community to lead such sessions.
2. Require education for coaches
Problem: Strength and conditioning coaches will continue to be the everyday go-to guys for athletes curious about steroids and dietary supplements. Some coaches seem to have solid knowledge; others clearly don't. In fact, some believe that over-the-counter dietary supplements must be approved and certified as safe by the federal government. Wrong. Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, dietary supplements don't have to undergo clinical testing before they go on the market or be approved by an government agency. Studies have cast doubt on the purity and safety of many sports supplements.
Solution: All coaches need to be educated about the lack of government controls on performance-enhancing dietary supplements, the absence of scientific research into their long-term effects on children and the medical community's conclusion that adolescents should not use creatine and other supplements. State lawmakers should require all high school coaches to complete a coaching education program developed by his or her school district or the Oregon School Activities Association that provides coaches with essential instruction about dietary supplements.
3. Ask survey questions
Problem: Nobody knows how many high school athletes in Salem-Keizer and the rest of the state are using creatine and other sports-related supplements. That's because local and statewide surveys don't ask.
Solution: Questions about the use of creatine and other sports supplements should be added to the annual Oregon Healthy Teen Survey. In addition, Salem-Keizer schools should add such questions to existing annual surveys that measure drug and alcohol use by students in local middle schools and high schools. Survey data could be used to tailor solutions.
4. Send a clear message
Problem: The Salem-Keizer School District lacks a policy that advises students not to use creatine and other dietary supplements that purport to build muscles, burn fat and enhance athletic performance. It's a glaring oversight in a district that recently adopted a new nutrition policy, resulting in soda pop and candy being removed from school vending machines.
Solution: It's time for the district to take a policy stand against performance-enhancing supplements. The school board should send a clear message to student athletes: don't fall for the advertising hype; don't use performance-enhancing products.
5. More federal clout
Problem: Congress stripped the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of much of its regulatory clout over the dietary supplements industry in 1994. That opened the door for a flood of unproven products, including risky sports supplements sold to teens. Supplement companies now rake in billions in sales every year. Yet consumers have no way to be sure what they're buying is safe.
Solution: Congress needs to revoke the supplement industry's free pass into the virtually unregulated marketplace. Lawmakers must better protect millions of American consumers, including young athletes, by installing a tough-minded regulatory system for dietary supplements. Such products should be held to the same research and quality control standards as pharmaceutical drugs.
6. Prohibit coaches from pushing supplements
Problem: The 2005 Oregon Legislature derailed a modest bill that called for making it illegal for high school coaches and other school employees to sell performance-enhancing supplements to students or to encourage them to use such products. The Oregon School Activities Association proposed the legislation, motivated in part by a 2003 episode at South Eugene High School in which the head football coach sold creatine to his players.
Solution: Next year, state lawmakers will get a second chance to do the right thing by passing legislation that would set a clear line for coaches. The OSAA is gearing up to pitch a similar bill to the 2007 Legislature, which convenes in January.
7. Add proven training programs
Problem: Absent from Salem-Keizer high schools are ATLAS and ATHENA, two innovative programs developed at Oregon Health & Science University that promote a healthy lifestyle for athletes by offering solid instruction in nutrition and strength training. These programs, costing $11 per student, are backed by research showing that they steer teens away from steroids and supplements.
Solution: Salem-Keizer schools should pursue federal grant money, private donations, or both, to pay for making ATLAS and ATHENA local high school athletes. Other Oregon schools would be wise to do the same.
