Survey Shows Teens Trying to Build Muscle

Most teens are trying to build up or tone muscles, a new survey suggests. And some are doing this in potentially dangerous ways, the study finds. The study was based on a survey of about 2,800 middle and high school students from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. More than 90% of boys and 80% of girls said they exercised more in order to build or tone muscles. About two-thirds of boys and nearly that many girls said they had changed their eating habits for the same reason. One-third of boys and one-fifth of girls had used protein powders or shakes. Some teens even used potentially dangerous supplements or drugs. About 5.9% of boys and 4.6% of girls said they had used steroids. About 10.5% of boys and 5.5% of girls had used creatine, amino acids, hydroxyl methylbutyrate (HMB), DHEA or growth hormones. The journal Pediatrics published the study.