That is, until he became the evidence.

"I'm never using another supplement," said Gould, who ended up in the hospital after taking Andro. "You think it's safe because you see Mark McGwire and all these guys taking it. But it's not."

Gould, a former football player at Division I-AA Monmouth (N.J.) University, told ESPN.com that his misadventure began when he received a free bottle of "Andro-forte 100" in the mail with the order of a book, Body Opus, by Dan Duchaine. The bottle was accompanied by a letter from Duchaine, requesting that he take the new product and get back to him with feedback.

	Jason Gould, in his Central Regional (N.J.) High School uniform.

Since Gould, 19, recognized Duchaine's name from reading muscle magazines, he felt secure in taking the pills. Sure enough, there were no problems the first few times he used the testosterone-boosting product, which according to the bottle is distributed by a company called Essentials, Inc.

"It makes you feel hyper," he said. "I don't know if it works, but it makes you think it does."

The problem occurred on Sept. 28, when for the first time he took Andro together with creatine, a supplement he had also used alone in the past, with no adverse side effects. Less than 30 minutes after ingesting the supplements -- which is when the Andro boost usually kicks in -- he felt himself getting extremely hot.

At the time, he was watching television on in his mother's home in Bayville, N.J. "I got up and went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, and noticed immediately that my face was turning red before my very eyes," Gould said. "I ripped off my shirt and my body turned red also, as well as my legs."

With hives growing on his back and neck, and fearing a heart attack, his mother called for an ambulance. Attached to an oxygen machine and a heart monitor -- his blood pressure was elevated -- he was rushed to Community Medical Center in nearby Toms River, where doctors controlled his condition with medication and he was released.

What caused the adverse reaction remains a mystery to Gould. The emergency-room doctor who treated him was unsure of what caused the problem, but speculated that he suffered from some kind of allergic reaction to the supplement cocktail, he said.

	The bottle of Andro-forte 100 that sent Jason Gould to the hospital.

Duchaine, contacted by ESPN.com, speculates that Gould had an adverse reaction to a unusual ingredient -- 40 milligrams of niacin -- that is included in the Andro-forte 100 formula. Niacin was added because it typically provokes a physical response in those who use it, he said. That allows people to know when the pill's ingredients, including Androstenedione, have reached the bloodstream, so they can better time their workouts.

"We're all used to it from the bodybuilding days," said Duchaine, the author of the Underground Steroid Handbook and other literature that helps athletes use illegal drugs and legal nutritional supplements. "He had a reaction to niacin, and he wasn't used to it."

Gould thinks there's more to it than that.

"I've read that niacin does that, too, but this was an extreme case," he said. "I don't buy (Duchaine's explanation). I think it had to do with the mixing of the two ingredients -- Andro and creatine -- with the niacin."

Duchaine said that Essentials Inc., based in New Jersey, is owned by Allison Murray, his fiance. About 2,000 bottles of Andro-forte 100 were produced by another company in San Francisco, 1,800 of which have been distributed as promotional giveaways with the book, he said. The product is not available in stores, he said, although it continues to be sold on the Internet.

Unlike with drugs, the makers of products classified as "dietary supplements" are not required under U.S. law to demonstrate that their products are safe or effective before making them available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration has the ability to remove a product from the market only if can prove it is unsafe.

No incidents of adverse reactions to Androstenedione have been reported to the FDA, according to its web site. Reports are filed voluntarily by consumers and physicians who make the effort to reach the FDA, although the organization will investigate when it learns of adverse reactions through other channels, said FDA spokeswoman Judy Foulke.

The FDA's Office of Dietary Supplements will look into Gould's reaction now that it has been reported on ESPN.com, Foulke said.

Michael Ford, spokesman for of the National Nutritional Foods Association, said his organization has not received any reports of problems associated with Andro-forte 100, or any other Andro product. Duchaine said that Gould's is the only adverse reaction to Andro-forte 100 that he has heard of.

Gould, a former all-Ocean County linebacker at Central Regional High School in Bayville (N.J.), said he started using supplements to put bulk on his 5-foot-10, 210-pound frame. He left Monmouth, a non-scholarship school, after suffering a shoulder injury and redshirting last season. He plans to transfer to another, more affordable college, and is working out to keep himself in shape for the time when he straps on the helmet again.

From now on, though, Gould plans to be supplement-free, despite Duchaine's insistence that his reaction to his product was normal. The Andro-related scare -- and an $806 hospital bill -- have prompted him to set aside his bottle of pills, with no intentions to ever take them -- or any other supplement -- again. To get large enough to again play linebacker in college, he plans to use no more than vitamins and hard work in the weight room.

"I could have been dead, for crying out loud," he said.