Wadler serves as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice on anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse, and in 1993 won the International Olympic Committee President's Prize for his work in the area of performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports. He is also trustee and vice president of the Women's Sports Foundation, and chairman of the Nassau County Sports Commission.

If you missed his chat session on Nov. 11 with ESPN.com users, here is an edited transcript:

Ferdinand: I'm doing my senior seminar to complete my biochemistry major requirements on the oral intake of Androstenedione. Specifically, I'm trying to answer the question of: Does it really work? There are hardly any scientific, peer-reviewed journals that look into this question, however my research indicates that it is very hard for oral Androstenedione to be bioavailable to our body due to the "first-pass effect" or presystemic hepatic elimination. Can you please shed some light on this issue?

Gary Wadler: That's an excellent question and one that I've asked some physiologists that I work with. There seems to be no question that there is some systemic absorption and the evidence for that has been both in measurable elevations of Androstenedione in the urine, as well as elevated T/E (testosterone-to-epitestosterone) ratios, which is used obviously in drug testing.

Jonathan: I am doing a report on the home run chase. How much of an edge did Andro give Mark McGwire over Ken Griffey or Sammy Sosa?

Gary Wadler: Well, Jonathan, this has been a subject of great speculation. First of all, McGwire was using two supplements -- creatine and Androstenedione. The evidence for creatine enhancing strength has been in laboratory studies as opposed to actual sports competition. With respect to Androstenedione, there have been no prospective studies to demonstrate increased strength either in the laboratory or on the field of play.

However, particularly with respect to creatine, which provides explosive power as in the hitting of a baseball, I think it would be fair to assume that at least some of those home runs had been impacted by the use of creatine. The number, nobody can possibly know, and I do not believe he should have an asterisk next to his name, because he played by the rules of baseball and he played by the rules of this country.

A final point on that: Clearly, the use of strength equipment, whether it be Cybex or Nautilus or whatever, were not around when Babe Ruth hit his home runs. The equipment has changed, the training has changed and now the supplements have changed. You have to look at the McGwire record in that broad context

A.J.: I am doing a research report on Andro and was wondering if you knew the chemical composition of Andro?

Gary Wadler: Well, A.J., I was a chemistry major in college and therefore I particularly enjoy answering this question. The granddaddy of all the steroid hormones, believe it or not, is a cholesterol molecule. Without getting too complicated, let me recite the steps in a shortened version of how cholesterol becomes testosterone and estrogen.

Cholesterol is metabolized to a steroid hormone called pregnenolone, which incidentally is available as a supplement. It in turn is eventually converted into another steroid hormone, which you may recognize as DHEA, which is another widely sold supplement. DHEA is converted into our friend, Androstenedione.

Now, A.J., is the critical point: Androstenedione in one enzymatic step becomes testosterone. (Incidentally, Androstenedione is also converted to the female steroid hormone, estrone, which is an estrogen).

Since you asked a chemistry question, let me point out one other chemical change which has resulted in a new popular supplement. And that is if you remove the methyl group from the 19th position of Androstenedione, it becomes what we call norandrostenedione -- and norandrostenedione becomes nortestosterone. The reason that is important is because nortestosterone is known as nandrolone, which is the active ingredient of the widely abused anabolic steroid Deca-Durabolin.

So, in conclusion, your question is superb, because to understand the concerns that I have about Androstenedione, one has to have a little feeling for the chemistry involved.

Mike Welch: I have heard Andro labeled as a supplement and as a drug. Under which classification does Andro best fit? Also, if Andro is a drug, what is the difference between it and supplements such as creatine?

Gary Wadler: The question underscores a very important issue. And although it might sound like legal mumbo-jumbo, the heart of the problem in many ways relates in many ways to the passage of a federal law in 1994 called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which gave statutory definition to a variety of substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and certain metabolites. And by so classifying them as supplements, it no longer requires that the federal government provide that they are safe or effective, provided that the manufacturer made no health claims.

Now, contrast that with the introduction of a new drug into American society, a drug which may be life-saving. In that circumstance, the manufacturer has to prove that it's both safe and effective. Now, having said that, if you recall my earlier discussion about the chemistry with A.J., Androstenedione becomes two drugs -- one drug is testosterone, which is of such a concern in this country that it is what we called a controlled substance; and the other drug that it becomes is estrogen, which you cannot buy without a prescription in this country.

In my view, since both estrogen and testosterone are only one step away from Androstenedione, Androstenedione should unequivocally be reclassified as a drug. As should DHEA, and probably even pregnenolone. Clearly, they are closer to drugs than they are to bananas, grapes and strawberries. They are not in my view supplements to your diet, but rather very close first cousins to potentially powerful drugs.

Regarding the second part of the question, the distinction between Andro and creatine is great. Andro is a steroid hormone, as I discussed earlier. Creatine is chemically completely unrelated to steroid hormones; it is a very small molecule which is derived from certain amino acids and is the source of instantaneous energy through a compound called ATP, which we require for the the expenditure of energy.

Creatine is present in our muscles, and we call upon it when we require bursts of energy, whether it be swinging a bat, or weightlifting, or sprinting for a bus.

Both creatine and Androstenedione are present in our bodies, whether we take these substances as supplements or not. There is some reason to believe that increasing the amount of creatine in your muscles will provide more, or enhanced, explosive power. However, having said that, I might emphasize that there have been no long-term studies on the side effects of creatine. And as we ingest large amounts of creatine, our body down-regulates its own production, and nobody really knows when you stop it -- if that production will pick up where it was initially.

And as long as I am on the issue of side effects, steroid hormones, whether they be DHEA, Androstenedione, testosterone, estrogen and even cortisone (a different kind of steroid hormone), all have one disturbing similarity: The side effects they may produce may not be evident for months, years, and perhaps even decades. So, playing with these supplements, particularly the steroid hormones, including the anabolic steroids, may be interpreted as a Faustian pact -- no free rides.

Tom: Being a weightlifter, I took Andro for the first time about a month ago. As a result, my strength and intensity increased noticably. I was just wondering, why is it that on the bottle, a warning was printed saying, "As a result of taking this product, you may test positive for illegal performance-enhancing substances?"

Gary Wadler: When it comes to Androstenedione, one has to be particularly open-eyed about its use in sports where there are prohibitions against the use of anabolic steroids.

Firstly, Androstenedione can be detected by itself, but secondly, Androstenedione is converted to testosterone, and there is no question that elevated T/E ratios are being found

. As you know, there are inconsistent policies in various sports with respect to drug testing. Baseball, for example, does not specifically test its athletes, although it opposes the use of anabolic steroids and, I might add, has not added, as of yet, banned Androstenedione (but they are addressing the subject).

My own view is there is nothing to address. It is a steroid hormone, it does become testosterone, and it should be banned.

The NBA? They only test for heroin and cocaine. They only test their athletes in their rookie season, no more than three times, and there is no random drug testing beyond that. They do not test for any steroids, and I think this should be re-evaluated, because in my view basketball in the 1990s is a strength sport, and steroids also speed up recovery time in a sport that is very physically demanding.

Incidentally, the NFL does explicitly ban Androstenedione. Hockey has not dealt with this subject at all.

In amateur sports, under the IOC, the USOC and the NCAA, they all ban Androstenedione. And the reason that they do is that they clearly recognize its potential for artificial performance enhancement.

Lendrick: Is there a safe, tested alternative to Andro for those of us that want to take supplements?

Gary Wadler: The issue of safety, unfortunately, is no longer the responsibility of the manufacturer. The purity of what you are taking varies enormously from manufacturer to manufacturer -- it is basically caveat emptor, buyer beware.

As a former trustee of the American College of Sports Medicine -- the largest sports medicine group in the world and one made up of sports physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, trainers and related experts -- all are convinced that a well-balanced diet and a well-conceived training program, properly adhered to, is the only logical and safe way to proceed in maximizing one's potential in sports competition.

The explosion of sales in the supplement industry, particularly sales directed at young people, is very disturbing. There is no question that supplements are being sold in the most bizarre combinations -- what I call poly-supplement abuse. And what is particularly disturbing is that presentation of these products on the web are based on what the manufacturer's cite as "scientific studies." What they in fact have done -- and I have looked into a number of these of these presentations -- is to cherry-pick facts and string them together in what in my view can only be dubbed pseudo-science.

Particularly in the area of the steroid supplements, they are putting their customers at serious potential risk. And even if you read the labels of supplements such as DHEA and Androstenedione, there are warnings about taking these supplements if there is a history of prostate disorders, or family histories of breast cancer in women. If these supplements were so benign, why would there be any such warnings? The answer is, they are not so benign. In fact, in 1985 when DHEA was categorized as a drug, it was removed from the shelves for safety concerns by the FDA. In 1994, you now can buy it without seeing your physician, and without a prescription. That scenario should make everyone think twice.