Dietary supplements are touted to be the next possible target of forbidden vices for deployed troops after alcohol, pornography, and smoking.

According to some military health experts, there is evidence to suggest that even the legal over-the-counter forms of such supplements can cause unconsciousness, heart palpitations, and death among troops, particularly those in desert climate conditions like Afghanistan.

From NYTimes.com:

Col. Erin Edgar, a physician who commanded the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad in 2006 and 2007, said his unit handled 2,332 cases of soldiers complaining of palpitations or fainting spells. Twenty percent of those soldiers reported using either prescription psychotropic drugs or performance-enhancing supplements.

In one case, Colonel Edgar said, a soldier who reported nothing more than “feeling bad” later died, possibly of a heart attack. Though Colonel Edgar does not know the precise cause of death, he said the soldier’s room was filled with legal performance-enhancing supplements.

While he is not prepared to advocate a ban on the products, Colonel Edgar did call for removing them from stores on military bases. “I just think we shouldn’t create the perception of D.O.D. endorsement,” he told participants at a conference here last week on military health research, referring to the Department of Defense.

His view did not go over well with some in the audience. A former Army captain, Charles R. Gatlin, said banning the supplements at stores on bases would hurt morale without necessarily safeguarding troops who were already in harm’s way.

Ellen P. Embrey, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said there were no plans in making for removing the supplements from base stores.

Tags: dietary supplements, supplements

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