ANTI-AGING SUPPLEMENTS MAY SOON BE ILLEGAL!

If you're one of the millions of Americans who enjoy and benefit from anti-aging supplements such as DHEA and pregnenolone, you have reason to be concerned. Certain members of Congress are intent on taking them away from you and placing you under arrest if you possess them! Sound far-fetched? It's frighteningly real, yet almost no one in the anti-aging/life-extension community is aware of the threat.

The villain is the so-called "Anti-Andro Bill" -H.R. 207- introduced last October in the House by U.S. Representatives Sweeney and Osborne. Purporting to address the use of muscle-building "andro" supplements by teens, this wildly overbroad bill would have devastating effects on mature adults throughout America. It would actually permit the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to schedule a wide variety of currently over-the-counter nutritional supplements as controlled substances. In effect, this bill would authorize the arrest and criminal prosecution of millions of Americans as drug offenders-just for possessing supplements like DHEA, 7- keto DHEA and pregnenolone. Those caught with these currently legal supplements -proven to have powerful health and anti-aging benefits -would even be subject to federal asset forfeiture laws, permitting the government to seize and retain private property! All this would be done by making an end-run around the proper lawful procedures, and without any evidence of legitimate public health concerns or dangers to American adults. The bill seeks to deal a staggering blow to nutritional supplement freedom and the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

The intention of the bill is supposedly to keep testosterone precursors like androstenedione away from teens. But rather than restricting sales of these items to minors, H.R. 207 would restrict all steroid hormone precursors from people of all ages. And not by making them prescription medicines, but by reclassifying them as controlled substances (see sidebar for the definition of "controlled substance"). The bill would accomplish this by "bootstrapping" these compounds into the federal Anabolic Steroid Control Act. This act was a 1990 revision to the original Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It reclassified anabolic steroids from simple prescription medicines to highly restricted Schedule III controlled substances. Mere possession of a schedule III controlled substance without a valid prescription is a federal drug offense with serious potential penalties that can even include jail time.

Let's look at the actual language of the bill. It's crucial that life extensionists understand what this language really means, because it was written in a specific way for a reason. The following is the heart of the bill.

(a) DEFINITION- Section 102(23) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(23)) is amended— (1) by striking ‘(A)’ and inserting ‘(B)(i)’; (2) by striking ‘(B)’ and inserting ‘(ii)’; (3) by striking ‘(C)’ and inserting ‘(iii)’; and (4) by inserting after ‘means a substance— ‘the following new subparagraph:

(A) which the Attorney General has found to be, and by regulation designated as being, the immediate chemical precursor of an anabolic steroid that has been scheduled as a controlled substance (hereinafter in this subparagraph referred to as ‘scheduled anabolic steroid’) which either is a metabolite of a scheduled anabolic steroid or is transformed in the body directly into a scheduled anabolic steroid or the metabolite of a scheduled anabolic steroid; or’. (b) PLACEMENT ON SCHEDULE- Section 201(e) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811(e)) is amended— (1) by inserting ‘or for the immediate precursor of a scheduled anabolic steroid, without regard to the requirements of section 102(41), including the requirement that the substance promote muscle growth’ after ‘section 202(b)’; and (2) by adding at the end the following: ‘However, once an immediate precursor described in section 102(23)(A) is placed in a schedule pursuant to this section, it becomes a controlled substance and the Attorney General may schedule an immediate precursor of that substance in accordance with this section’.

While all this legalese may seem overly technical, it’s very important to understand the scope of what’s written here. The key language starts in paragraph 1(a)(4). This is where the primary qualifications for a controlled steroid precursor are outlined in a new subparagraph (A). Interpreted simply, this new subparagraph says that an immediate precursor to a controlled anabolic steroid shall itself become a controlled anabolic steroid. Case in point: immediately upon passage of this bill, androstenedione, which is the precursor to the controlled anabolic steroid testosterone, would automatically become a controlled steroid.

All right, that part is pretty obvious. It’s in subsection 1(b) where the sneakiness begins. First off, look at the troubling language of paragraph 1(b)(1): “…without regard to… the requirement that the substance promote muscle growth” (emphasis added). This language changes the bill from one designed to simply eliminate the supposedly muscle-promoting andro products, to a bill that eliminates ALL steroid precursors—such as anti-aging precursors like 7-keto and pregnenolone that have absolutely nothing to do with muscle mass.

Okay, so the real intention is revealed in 1(b)(1). It’s in 1(b)(2) that the mechanics of how the anti-aging steroid precursors will be swept up and revealed. This paragraph states, in effect, that not only precursors of anabolic steroids can be controlled, but precursors of precursors of anabolic steroids, and so on. Get the picture? This is the dangerous hidden aspect of this bill that few members of Congress understand. Just look at how it works.

The chart below shows one of the main metabolic pathways of how pregnenolone naturally converts to testosterone. H.R. 207 is written so that androstenedione, because of its conversion to testosterone, becomes classified as a controlled substance. If this bill were passed, according to paragraph 1(b)(2), the Attorney General could then declare DHEA a controlled substance because it is the immediate precursor of androstenedione, which this bill classifies as a controlled substance. The process repeats itself backwards with 17-alpha-hydroxypregenolone and finally with pregnenolone then being classified as controlled substances. There they would go, like dominoes, all criminalized by a simple administrative act that must be stopped from being enacted into law. If Congress passes this draconian piece of legislation, there won’t be much any person, agency or citizen’s action group can do about it. It will already be the law of the land, and you’ll be a criminal if you violate it.

What about 7-keto DHEA? Does it escape the tentacles of this far-reaching bill? No hope there, I’m afraid. They were careful not to leave that one out. Take a look at the chart to the right.

7-keto DHEA is not a precursor of DHEA; however it is a metabolite. Now if you look back to the new subparagraph (A) proposed in 1(a)(4), you will see that they modified the language to include metabolites as well. They obviously wrote this bill with the intention to make it as broad in scope as possible—to go beyond just the andro-type immediate precursors and to outlaw every steroid hormone precursor product being sold today as a nutritional supplement!

While many drugs require a prescription from a physician, some drugs are deemed so dangerous that further restrictions are warranted. These drugs are called “controlled substances.” According to Rick Collins, Esq., performance drug and supplement legal expert and General Counsel for the United Supplement Freedom Assn (USFA), federal law has created five schedules of these controlled substances. Anabolic steroids are in Schedule III. In order to put a drug into Schedule III, the government has to find that it meets certain requirements:

(A) The drug or other substance has a potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in schedules I and II. (B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. (C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

How does the government decide if a drug meets the requirements to become a controlled substance? The authority to add new substances to the schedules is given to the Attorney General. To start the inquiry, he’s supposed to request an evaluation and recommendations from the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the drug’s potential for abuse and the need for scheduling. H.R. 207 circumvents the established procedures, and attempts to classify all steroid hormone precursors simply by act of Congress.

What crisis compels such a radical act? What evidence suggests that health-promoting substances like DHEA, 7-keto DHEA and pregnenolone have a potential for abuse or dependence of any kind? Absolutely none. Most life extensionists and anti-aging enthusiasts would agree that no such potential exists, and that to schedule these compounds as drugs of abuse is ludicrous.

Particularly troubling, as Mr. Collins points out, is that controlled substance status carries with it serious consequences. Controlled substances fall under the jurisdiction of the DEA, not the FDA. If H.R. 207 passes, the mere unlawful possession of steroid hormone precursors will be a federal crime punishable—like the possession of narcotics and other hard drugs—with a range of potential penalty including incarceration. Bottom line from Mr. Collins: this bill could put otherwise law-abiding mature adults in jail for what are now health food store nutritional supplements!

If you are an anti-aging supplement user, then we are going to spell it out for you. Don’t be deceived by the stated goals of this bill. This dangerous bill tries to sneak dietary products that are dear to you into a bill that is being promoted to Congress and to the media as seeking to ban over-the-counter anabolic steroids. With images of kids taking andro to hit home runs like Mark McGwire in the mind of Congress, coupled with the support of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the NFL and the NCAA, the political pressure to vote for this bill is almost overwhelming. Unfortunately, what the proponents of this bill are NOT telling anyone is that this bill is about a lot more than andro. It’s also about sneaking in as many other supplements as possible—supplements that do NOT have the stigma of andro, and that otherwise would be much more difficult to eliminate from shelves.

H.R. 207 is a high priority bill that has received tremendous media coverage the past several weeks in a wide variety of outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Rep. Sweeney has made it clear that he is going to push as hard as possible to get it passed quickly.

Unfortunately, right now there is practically no resistance to this bill. With its politically popular “save our teens” message and well-hidden assaults on adult freedoms, H.R. 207 is basically a home run—that is, unless we act quickly! We must tell the politicians on Capitol Hill that American adults want supplement freedom, not an expansion of the war on drugs into our neighborhood health food stores! Please contact the United Supplement Freedom Association, Inc. (USFA), a not-for-profit coalition dedicated to the preservation of nutritional freedoms for American adults. You can visit online right now at www.USFA.biz, where you can click on the Anti-Aging section and follow instructions on how to petition your congressional representatives to demand that they fight this bill. A form letter and list of representatives is available. Alternatively, you can write and contribute to the USFA through the association’s general counsel, Rick Collins, Esq., United Supplement Freedom Association, Inc., One Old Country Road, Suite 250, Carle Place, New York, 11514.

We must act immediately to let our voice be heard, or face the beginning of the end of our supplement freedoms!

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Corrupt bureaucracies will trample basic human rights as long as citizens remain passive and apathetic. Please sign the letter on the next page and mail it to your Congressional Representative. To find your Congressional Representatives, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 1-202-225-3121. If you want to discuss this with your representative, you can be connected to his or her office directly. You can also find out who your Congressional Representative is and send an e-mail letter by accessing the web site www.house.gov.

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It has come to my attention that a bill (H.R. 207) has been introduced that aims to classify a wide variety of nutritional supplements as controlled substances. As a consumer of nutritional supplement products, I am gravely concerned about the consequences of this bill. This bill represents an abuse of the legislative system, and a blatant misuse of the controlled substance act. How can the government vote overnight to make criminal the possession of substances that have been used safely for years by millions of Americans? How can the government allow the attorney general to classify compounds as controlled substances without determining the existence of appropriate toxicological or pharmacological activity? Was the controlled substance act enacted with the intention that it be used as a political tool? If the government believes nutritional supplements such as pregnenolone and DHEA are unsafe and wishes to restrict access to them, then let it do so through already established legitimate means. Let the government produce the evidence that these substances are a risk to individuals and society, or that they meet the legal/scientific qualifications to be listed as controlled substances. Then, and only then, should the government be allowed to act. If this bill is passed it will directly affect the freedoms and lives of millions of Americans, including mature individuals that use DHEA and pregnenolone for anti-aging / disease-prevention purposes.

If any of these prohormones worked, I'd be concerned. Having said that, this will almost certainly spread to other food supplements (vitamins, proteins, etc.) the Hatch Act notwithstanding.

And...the snake-oil salesmen who peddle this stuff have nobody but themselve to blame. The LEF folks are reputable, but the rest of 'em advertise for this stuff like it was better than steroids, so its no wonder the control freaks are jumping in with legislation.

Life Extension is not the only supplement company utilizing these nutrients. It affects many other companies.

The sad thing here is that these components do have positive benefits and have been clinically proven to slow the aging process.

If THAT happens, think of ALL those senior citizens full of life and vitality having to collect social security into their 90's....hmmmmmm, hidden agenda?

I agree.

I am very grateful to say that I don't have to depend on ANY "medications" "blessed" by the American Medical Association.

You're right ... if they outlaw nutritional and natural supplements, those of us who have benefited from them for several years, will find a way to go get 'em.

I don't know much about DHEA ... sounds like that's a "guy thing" (testosterone, etc.), so I wouldn't be affected by that. But if they try to take away ginkgo biloba, the vitamin formulas (for vision, etc.), I would find a way.

And yes, I am drawing on the Social Security that I worked fifty years for and had taken away from my paychecks (among all the other taxes.)

What do you think is worse?

A hamburger, fries and coke from McDonalds, or 50 mg. of Anro?

The worse thing is anyone concerning themselves with matters which do not concern them.

When it comes to government and neighbors, the most under appreciated advice ever given is "mind your own business".

Elderberries: An Israeli virologist developed an anti-viral preparation from extract of elderberries. It kills the virus that causes colds, flu, and other nasty illnesses. It can be found in US health food stores either in a pleasant-tasting syrup or capsules.

It's called, "Sambucol" and it's put out by Nature's Way.

"Food supplements", which are chemicals, should be held to the exact same standards as any other medicine such as tylenol or aspirin. It is time ALREADY that congress stepped up to this plate. The "chemical supplement" industry is so out of control and so anecdotal.

If you want them held to the SAME standards, then you shouldn't have a problem with any of the currently available supplements.

In case you were not aware, according the CDC and JAMA, there are approximately 2,000 deaths every year due to use of aspirin. That's right, aspirin. In fact: Properly researched, regulated, prescribed and properly used drugs are the fourth most common cause of death – but they are never reported. (Source, Journal of the American Medical Association - Range 90,000 to 160,000 deaths per year.) That’s a Boeing 747 crashing every day!

I bet I know what you would say -- 'that's different'. Why is it different? Just because you are safe and happy if the you know that the government is there to take care of you?

It's time for people to get the facts on these issues instead of reacting out of pure emotion. The easiest thing to do is to give in to emotional thoughts and arguments about things such as this, but that's why we are on FR, to sort out the truth of the situation and not react in a knee-jerk fashion as the liberals do.

This is such certified BS, This so-called food suplement industry simply takes 5 cents a pound chemicals, wraps them in fancy claims and empty promises and sells them to unssupecting dupes for 5 dollars a pound.

I can't speak about anti-aging supplements, but Andro works when used before a workout. That I can attest to firsthand. When I started taking it, my bench press was 275 pounds(I was stuck there for 2 months). Two months later, I was benching 315.

I quit taking that stuff after an ESPN report linking it to possible pancreatic cancer(my grandfather and his dad died of it), but it should be a personal choice.

Banning supplements/drugs is seldom a good policy.

If the FDA wants to test some supplements and advise the public about their purity, it might be a great idea.

Nevertheless, siccing the DEA on the supplements industry is an overkill.

When I started working out, I considered taking “andro” to increase my testosterone level. High testosterone levels are associated with bulky and hard muscles.

After researching the subject, I found out that there are other natural ways to increase testosterone levels without the possible side effects of “andro.”

Simple things usually work on young people:

Sleep an extra hour
Increase vitamin C intake
Limit workout time to one hour
Meditation/yoga exercises to reduce stress

So far I’m happy with my muscle development. Nevertheless, if I decide to take “andro” in the future, I will hate to have to go to the black market to buy these supplements.

If we keep making silly laws, eventually everyone will be a law breaker.

Tell your 'leaders' to protect us from our real enemies and close our borders. Leave our bodies to our own minding.

GOD MADE HERB
GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD
GOD GAVE IT TO MAN

Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

Nowhere in the Constitution is it enumerated what one may put into ones body. Therefore, that right is reserved for the states or the people. However, since God has already specified in the Bible what one may consume, it is, in fact, the PEOPLE's God given right.

'Natural Rights' are those rights granted by God to mankind
and which governments are erected by mankind in order to protect.
It is NOT for governments to protect us from ourselves or from sin.
In the very first book, first chapter, of the bible it clearly states that
FOOD was granted by God. Therefore, it is every man's right to partake
of whatever Gifts of God.

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