New steroids can be undetectable

Congress banned all known steroids in 1990 after hearing testimony about their health effects and rampant abuse in sport.

However, the two new steroids -- called 1-testosterone and 4-hydroxy-testosterone -- escaped mention in the legislation because they were virtually unknown. Because their manufacturers can claim they're natural substances, the steroids have been marketed as dietary supplements that increase strength and build muscle.

Dozens of products containing these full-blown steroids, which have been dubbed "pro-steroids" by their manufacturers, have proliferated on nutrition store shelves and the Internet in recent months. They're sold in a variety of forms but not as injectable steroids.

"People just do not know what is going on in the dietary supplement market," said James Tolliver, a pharmacologist in the drug and chemical evaluation section of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Office of Diversion Control. The new drugs "are anabolic steroids that can produce very significant adverse effects in humans. On top of that, they are available to anyone."

Because tests haven't been developed to detect these drugs, even athletes in sports that ban steroids might be able to use them without getting caught. The International Olympic Committee, National Football League and National Collegiate Athletic Association ban steroids and test their athletes. The National Hockey League and Major League Baseball do not.

Since the mid-1990s, supplement manufacturers have exploited a legal loophole to sell another type of over-the-counter steroid product known as "steroid precursors." Steroid precursors convert to illegal steroids only after they're ingested. The two new steroids are considered more potent than precursors because they don't require such a conversion in the body.

They were recently discovered by two U.S. scientists who are considered leaders in the dietary supplement industry.

Don Catlin, head of the IOC-accredited laboratory at UCLA in Los Angeles, said he has recently become aware of 1-testosterone and 4-hydroxy-testosterone and considers them the equivalent of "designer steroids." There are no tests for either substance. But Catlin and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Senior Manager Director Larry Bowers said 1-testosterone may share metabolites with some known steroids, which could aid in its identification. Catlin said he has begun the process of trying to develop formal tests for both.

The first of the new steroids was discovered and dubbed 1-testosterone -- its chemical name is 1delta-dihydrostestosterone -- by Patrick Arnold of LPJ Research and ErgoPharm in Seymour, Ill., just over a year ago. Arnold marketed the steroid only in its precursor form in a product called 1-AD. It is claimed to be seven times more anabolic -- in other words, more potent -- than testosterone, and has since been sold as a pro-steroid by many other companies. The other new steroid, 4-hydroxy-testosterone, was discovered by William Llewellyn of Molecular Nutrition in Jupiter, Fla. It will be released in a few weeks by Llewellyn in a product called Hydroxytest; the company Promatrix already is selling it in a slightly modified form in a supplement named Testabol Ether.

"There's a multitude of products; you can't keep track of all of them," Arnold said. "It's an industry full of people trying to get an edge on everyone else."