College Athletes Need to Take Care When Supplementing

College sports are where the professional superstars of tomorrow showcase their skills on a national stage. From the College Football Playoff National Championship to the entirety of March Madness, these are elite athletes entering their prime. What’s even more amazing is that they’re still developing and still mastering their athleticism.

Like any professional or soon-to-be pro athlete, college competitors are busy fine-tuning their bodies from the inside out. Beyond diet and exercise, this often means supplementation at a high level. It’s an area where collegiate athletes need to take special care because one wrong ingredient could land them in hot water with the NCAA. Implied doping could cost them anything from precious playing time, to scholarships, to draft position when they decide to go pro.

Here’s a closer look at how careful supplementation draws a definite line between peak performance and potential problems among college athletes.

NCAA standards on supplements

The NCAA stands as a gatekeeper for ensuring the integrity of competition among college athletes. In simpler terms: the organization sets the standard for what qualifies as doping and enforces drug testing and penalization for those who test positive—unwittingly or not.

Unfortunately, when it comes to what qualifies as “doping,” the NCAA has less-than-clear guidelines. The organization provides a general list of banned substances, as well as guidelines for how to maintain compliance; however, there’s a significant lack of specificity. In fact, when referencing its own list of banned substances, the NCAA offers a disclaimer:

There is no complete list of banned substances. Do not rely on this list to rule out any label ingredient. Any substance that is chemically related to one of the above classes, even if it is not listed as an example, is also banned. It is your responsibility to check with the appropriate or designated athletics staff before using any substance. Many nutritional/dietary supplements are contaminated with banned substances not listed on the label.

To help athletes remain compliant with its doping policy, the NCAA does offer a supplement testing program. However, for athletes with evolving diets, training regimens and supplementation levels, this isn’t always accurate or helpful.

The bottom line? The onus for safe supplementation falls on players, despite often unclear standards levied and upheld by the NCAA.

Athletes need to protect themselves, without sacrificing performance

The vagueness of NCAA supplementation standards puts athletes in a precarious position. They can roll the dice with a supplement they feel confident about and hope none of the agents are too closely similar to banned substances at a chemical level. Or, they can forgo supplements that might otherwise help them improve their performance. Neither option is exciting for athletes.

There is, however, a third option that more and more collegiate superstars have begun to explore: natural supplementation. It’s an avenue that makes sense for many reasons:

• Natural compounds are much easier to test for and qualify, as well as distinguish from artificial compounds that might be lumped in with banned substances.
• Natural compounds often have better bioavailability, which improves absorption and metabolization—especially within the bodies of high-performing athletes.
• Natural compounds have better traceability, especially when sourced from reputable producers and companies that understand stringent NCAA parameters.
• Natural compounds enable a better level of supplementation by allowing athletes and trainers to modify amounts, combinations, doses and other factors—all individually.

Supplementing with all-natural, individually cultivated ingredients puts collegiate athletes in control over their own destiny when it comes to compliance with NCAA doping regulations. For instance, supplementing Vitamin E to improve the body’s natural growth factor is a safer way to get results than taking an engineered supplement that might contain banned peptide hormones or anabolic agents.

The key to safer supplementation

Ultimately, the key to safer supplementation for collegiate athletes is a return to natural compounds. While there’s always temptation in pushing the limits of performance through the wonders of supplement engineering, the risk for up-and-coming collegiate athletes (and elite-level pro athletes) is simply too great.

Supplementing with compounds as close to their naturally derived state as possible gives athletes a safeguard, even against false positives or doping suspicions. Rather than entrusting their future to the ambiguity of the NCAA’s general list of substances (and “any substance that is chemically related”), athletes taking natural supplements in accordance with those guidelines will find themselves further removed from scrutiny. Exonerating a false positive or proving the efficacy of a regimen comes down to showing the purity, potency and transparency of its baseline supplements.

In pursuit of ever-better performance, collegiate athletes will continue to turn to supplementation. However, at a time when chemically engineered supplements are more prolific than ever, it’s important to balance the risk and reward of supplementation. Natural compounds are the best way to do it.