Almost 60 percent of college athletes use nutritional supplements that are unregulated and may contain banned substances such as ephedrine, an NCAA survey found.

The survey, released this week, showed the use of amphetamines, anabolic steroids and ephedrine, while still low, has increased slightly in the past four years.

But 58.4 percent of the athletes surveyed said they had used a nutritional supplement other than a multivitamin within the past year. While this was the first time the survey looked at the use of supplements, the level of use trailed only alcohol and was more than double the use of marijuana.

Only 15 percent of those who took the supplements acquired them from an athletic trainer, nutritionist or doctor, the NCAA said. Gary Green, chairman of the NCAA's drug testing and drug education subcommittee, said most NCAA positive drug positives result from substances found in nutritional supplements.

"You need to educate student- athletes about supplements from the time you start recruiting them," he said. "We have had several freshmen test positive in the early weeks of their first semester on campus from the use of supplements."

The survey, conducted every four years since 1985, tabulated responses from more than 21,000 athletes in all three NCAA divisions. It was presented in June to the NCAA's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and published on Monday in the biweekly NCAA News.

Two weeks ago, Northwestern football player Rashidi Wheeler collapsed during practice and died of bronchial asthma, but the university is investigating reports that he and some teammates may have taken a popular supplement called Ultimate Orange, which contains the stimulant ephedrine.

The NCAA survey indicated 3.9 percent of the athletes admitted using ephedrine, up from 3.5 percent in the last survey in 1997. The biggest increase was in the use of ephedrine by women gymnasts, which showed a rise from 1.1 percent to 8.3 percent.

"This is of special concern in a sport in which there is a desire for thinness and a risk of pathologic weight-loss behavior," Green said.

On the other hand, ephedrine use among wrestlers dropped from 10.4 percent to 4.3 percent, perhaps because of weight certification changes adopted after the deaths of three college wrestlers in 1997, Green said.

Almost 60 percent of those using supplements acquired them from retail stores, according to the survey.

"In speaking with student-athletes, very often they are unaware ephedrine is a banned substance and an element in these products," said Mary Wilfert, NCAA program coordinator for health and safety. "They are not savvy enough, for the most part, to recognize that this is a risk for them, because they can go into a retail store and purchase them," she told The Los Angeles Times.

Amphetamines use was reported by 3.3 percent of the athletes surveyed, up from 3.1 percent in 1997. Just 1.4 percent reported using anabolic steroids, up from 1.1 percent in the last survey.

Among other findings in the survey, 79.5 had at least one alcoholic beverage and 27.3 percent admitted using marijuana at least once during the past year -- both figures below those for the general student population as reported in an earlier study at Southern Illinois University.

The NCAA survey also indicated drops in the use of chewing tobacco from 22.5 percent to 17.4 percent and in psychedelic drugs from 5.6 percent to 4.5 percent, and a slight increase in cocaine from 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent. Cigarette use was surveyed for the first time, with 22 percent saying they had smoked within the past year and 11 percent saying they were still smoking.

The NCAA said athletes in Division III continued to have the highest rates for amphetamines, ephedrine, alcohol, marijuana, smokeless tobacco, cigarettes and psychedelics, although the differences among the divisions were less than in 1997. Black athletes generally reported less use among all substance categories than whites, the survey indicated.

From Healthy.net