Archive for May 8th, 2009

Dietary Supplements Contribute $60 Billion to National Economy

Good news is hard to find these days. But a new study funded by the Natural Products Foundation has found the total economic contribution of the dietary supplement industry to exceed $60 billion dollars, or 0.5 percent of the national GDP.

Dietary supplements generate more than $20 billion in annual consumer sales, but the industry’s overall economic contribution goes well beyond the direct purchase of goods.

The Economic Impact Report, completed by Dobson | DaVanzo, a Washington, D.C.-based economic research firm, is the first to quantify the dietary supplement industry’s total financial bearing on the national economy. It considers multiple tiers of contributing factors, including supply, production, research, direct employment, manufacturing, and taxes, as well as these dynamics’ longterm financial effects.
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New Research on Testosterone and Fat Loss
by Dan Gwartney, MD

Every time one joins a new gym, invariably the salesperson hands over an index card with columns of check boxes and tries to pigeonhole the new member by asking, “Do you want to gain muscle or lose fat?” Of course the correct answer is “both,” as nearly everyone looking for an improved physique wants to trim fat and gain muscle.

Melting Away Unwanted Pounds

As many drug-free bodybuilders have discovered, it’s nearly impossible for a trained athlete to accomplish both at the same time. Certainly, poorly conditioned individuals may see a gain in lean mass while losing body fat when first beginning an exercise and diet program, but that’s more a reflection of the dismal baseline conditioning of out-of-shape adults than any combined muscle-building/fat-burning effect.
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Steroids are Safe for Male Contraception but Deadly for Performance Enhancement
by Millard Baker

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently funded and designed a study evaluating the effect of a 30-month cycle of injectable testosterone undecanoate as a male contraceptive in over 1,000 Chinese men. Results from the June 2009 issue of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism were published online ahead of print. Monthly injections of 500mg of testosterone undecanoate were shown to be a “safe, effective, reversible and reliable contraception in a high proportion of [participants]“. Interestingly, the same side effects have been considered dangerous and deadly when they involve the non-medical use of steroids for performance enhancement (”Multicenter Contraceptive Efficacy Trial of Injectable Testosterone Undecanoate in Chinese Men,” March 17).
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