Performance Enhancing Supplements Northeastern junior Colin Magee is like the other athletics students on campus. He played sports in high school and now lifts weights at the Marino Center, Northeastern's multimillion-dollar training facility, several times a week. Additionally, like many other weightlifting students, Magee takes performance-enhancing supplements. Performance-enhancing supplements are nutrients that, unlike anabolic steroids, are available over the counter in countless supermarkets and food stores nationwide. Supplements such as androstenedione (andro), creatine, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and NO2 are the most popular in today's market and are used to enhance muscle gain. They are taken in conjunction with a weight lifting program. Supplements, while all similar, differ in how they work once inside the body. “Creatine is the most moderate of the supplements available,” says Magee, an amateur expert on supplement and steroid use. Magee's sister is a professional bodybuilder. “Creatine creates water retention in the muscles, essentially swelling the muscles to increase strength…NO2, nitric oxide, is what they call a hemo-dilator, which is a blood expander. NO2 creates more blood flow in the body, makes the blood pumps harder, which creates more strength... Andro tricks the body into thinking it is not producing enough testosterone, so it causes the body to overproduce the hormone testosterone. in recent years the use of anabolic steroids has increased. A 1989 study conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) showed that approximately one in 20 college student-athletes... in the middle of the paper... and increasingly teenagers. they see their idols admit to taking supplements and steroids and think it's okay if they did too In today's world, where skinny girls are prettier and burly guys are more handsome, teenagers and college students are under more pressure. to conform to these social norms, and if someone is under pressure, they are more likely to resort to other unnatural methods to improve their results and appearance. The answer to this problem is an increase in awareness. If people were aware of the real risks of these supplements or the long-term effects of taking steroids, then maybe, just maybe, today's youth will turn away from these supplements and steroids. Maybe, just maybe, today's youth will realize that maybe taking those supplements isn't really worth it after all. Maybe, just maybe, they will choose their health over their appearance.