Self-Administration of Exercise and Dietary Supplements in Deployed British Military Personnel During Operation TELIC 13

Abstract

This is the first study to investigate the use of exogenous nutritional supplements within the British Military and has identified their widespread use during operational deployment. The use of anabolic steroids is particularly worrying, given both their illegality and their well-recognised and deleterious health effects. There is a need for greater awareness and education regarding potential benefits and dangers of supplement use in order to maximise any potential benefits and minimise clinical risk.

Soldier use of dietary supplements, including protein and body building supplements, in a combat zone is different than use in garrison

“…Another study found greater DS use by United States Marines who were deployed to Afghanistan (Cassler et al 2013). The prevalence of overall DS use we observed among deployed personnel was much higher than the 35%-40% levels reported in the recent studies of British soldiers deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, but this may reflect differences in the questionnaires used in each study (Boos et al 2010(Boos et al , 2011 or general differences between British and American DS use. In the United States compared with the United Kingdom a much wider variety of DSs are available.…”

“…Interestingly, our findings of DS use among deployed personnel are remarkably similar to DS use by United States Marines deployed to the same region of conflict (Cassler et al 2013). Previous reports of DS use for deployed soldiers (Boos et al 2010(Boos et al , 2011Cassler et al 2013;Jacobson et al 2012) did not directly compare deployed and garrison personnel using the same survey instrument as was done in the current investigation. Therefore, this report is the first we are aware of that definitively demonstrates that patterns of DS use change during deployment.…”

“…Thus, the growing popularity of DSs among active duty soldiers may reflect the increased number of deployments to a combat theater. For many deployed British soldiers, DS use was initiated while in a combat theater (Boos et al 2010). The data presented by Jacobson et al (2012) and the current findings, especially for combat arms personnel in garrison, suggest that soldiers continue DS use initiated in a combat theater upon returning to their home bases.…”

“…Deployed male British soldiers reported high levels of protein supplements and body building products in combat theater (Boos et al 2010(Boos et al , 2011. Also, a large cohort study reported greater use of body-building and weight-loss supplements in both males and females with a history of deployment to a combat theater (Jacobson et al 2012).…”

“…Recent findings from a survey of British soldiers deployed in Iraq revealed that 32% of responders (325 of 1017 soldiers) were current users of specific DSs, such as creatine, protein, and amino acids, and of these DS users, almost two-thirds initiated their use during deployment (Boos et al 2010). However, this survey may have underestimated DS use since use of multivitamins, which are frequently used by UK soldiers during training, was not assessed in the survey (Casey et al 2014).…”