Idaho psychologists and college fitness professors say demand for muscle building supplements goes beyond elite athletes. People’s discontent with their bodies - even among those in good condition - often takes them to steroids and other products as one more way to tone up.

W. Rand Walker, a consulting psychologist at the University of Idaho in Moscow, often encounters clients who use questionable supplements and do not mean to stop. Many come to him only at the goading of friends or spouses anxious about their steroid use.

The demand for bodybuilding supplements, combined with manufacturers who chemically tweak steroids into something not readily evident to government officials cracking down on their use, has led the Food and Drug Administration to publish public warnings to avoid taking these substances or risk a form of ills from liver damage to kidney problems.

In the past several months, the FDA has raided a number of companies, including Meridian-based Bodybuilding.com, which the FDA suspects was selling and distributing illegal steroids.

The company has announced it is collaborating with authorities but has otherwise declined to comment. The FDA pronounced it would not comment ongoing investigations.

According to Mc Clatchy:

BOISE, Idaho — From fitness fanatics to teenage athletes, the attraction to run faster, jump higher and look bigger and stronger is fueling an illicit steroid market with the substances often showing up unannounced in so-called dietary supplements.