14-Year-Old Basketball Phenom Cleared to Play After “Growth-Doping” Allegations
Senior Reporter
A one-month growth spurt from 5′6″ to 6′2″… explosive power, plus 20lbs of muscle gain isn’t something you hear about every day.
But that’s exactly what happened to Jayden W. earlier this year.
Whispers of Anabolics, HGH and “growth‑doping” quickly spread.
After significant pressure, an official investigation was opened.
Now, with the case concluded, the AAU Board of Review has cleared Jayden to return:
“No banned performance enhancers… only a 100%, natural supplement identified.”
AAU Board of Review, official finding
We bring you the story, along with an exclusive interview with Daniel Mercer, the Elite Performance Specialist responsible for the player’s program.
Mercer said:
“People have no idea but when I started… before all of this… he was exhausted. Bones aching, and falling behind physically.
So we fixed all of the usual stuff.
- Good nutrition.
- Quality sleep.
- He was already obsessed with being in the gym and on the court.
Here’s the thing. None of it mattered.
So I started to suspect something else was going on. The #1 thing parents need to understand is this: the biggest reason young athletes never reach their full physical potential is a protein called FGF‑21.
To put it simply…
FGF‑21 puts a growing body into lockdown-mode. And a body in lockdown can't absorb or use the fuel it needs to power‑up... no matter how much of it you give him.
Yet while FGF‑21 was bad news, there was something surprisingly simple we could do to get it under control.”
A 10-Second Tweak To His Morning Routine That Ended Up Changing Everything.
I'll tell you exactly what we changed in Jayden's mornings. But first…
Allow me to briefly introduce myself…
My name is Daniel Mercer. I'm a Harvard-educated, Elite Performance Specialist with over 30 years of experience.
As founder of the P1X Institute and a regular speaker at the Applied Biomechanics Summit, I'm recognized as one of the country's leading experts for developing athletes.
My programs have helped thousands of young athletes get bigger and faster, while reducing the risk of breaking down.
Why A Lot Of Talented Kids Don't Make It.
I've worked with some of the biggest talents in the game, from the EYBL and Team USA right through to one-and-done college players.
Here's what they don't tell you.
The difference between the players who make it and the ones who don't? A lot of the time, it's not about talent.
And that's what kills me. It's what drives me to do what I do.
Because more often than not, the difference is something inside their body. Something silently limiting their physical development.
If anything in that email sounds familiar, here's what I need you to understand:
- Another tub of protein powder
- Creatine
- BCAAs
- Mass gainers
Not because they don't work. They do. But if his body can't use them, they never get the chance to do their job.
What you DO need is to understand one, just one, crucial discovery about why growing bodies stall.
FGF‑21: The Protein That Puts A Growing Body In Lockdown.
A few years ago, I was at a sports science conference in Chicago.
Between sessions, I walked into the wrong room.
It was a talk on environmental health. Nothing to do with athletes.
The researchers had been tracking kids from cities all over the country. And a whole set of stress markers kept coming back higher than they should.
Nobody could say for sure what was causing it... microplastics, pollution, chemicals in everyday products. The theories were still being argued.
But the numbers? They were NOT up for debate.
Most of the room was focused on the big names at the top of that list. But one line near the bottom caught my eye...
FGF‑21.
The speaker barely mentioned it.
That night, back at the hotel, I looked it up.
What FGF‑21 Does To A Growing Body.
In a grown adult, FGF‑21 is the body's emergency lockdown. When the body thinks it's under attack, it slams the doors and shuts everything down to protect itself.
But in a growing body, one of the first things it shuts down is absorption. The protein, the minerals, the nutrients you work so hard to give him... most of it never gets in. And without it, growth simply goes on hold.
Think of a factory in lockdown. The trucks keep pulling up with everything it needs. But the doors are sealed, and nothing can get through. The deliveries pile up outside... and inside, the machines sit still.
That's a growing body with high FGF‑21.
I sat on that hotel bed and thought about every talented kid who never got a fair shot.
Like the mom who pulled me aside after practice: “Something's off with him. I just can't put my finger on it.”
For the first time, I had a name for it.
“He's just small” sounds permanent. “His body is in lockdown” sounds like something you can actually do something about.
None of them had done anything wrong. Neither had their parents. Their bodies were reacting to the world they're growing up in.
Most coaches have never heard of it. Most doctors never mention it. Which is why a kid can eat right, train hard, do all of the right things... and still fall short of where he should be.
It's why he can eat everything in the house and still look like a coat hanger. Why he's wiped out after practice. Why his knees ache and never seem to recover. A body in lockdown doesn't build. It doesn't repair. It just gets by.
We saw it with Jayden. At 14, he was 5′6″, right in the 50th percentile. He was still growing... but NOWHERE near his genetic potential, or where he should have been.
And remember, this is important, because that window doesn't stay open forever.
So Why Don't Protein Shakes And Creatine Work?
But before I show you what we changed, you need to understand why everything Jayden was already doing wasn't working.
Think more protein and creatine will fix it? THINK AGAIN: When his body is in lockdown, more of the usual does almost NOTHING.
It's not that he isn't getting enough. It's that it isn't getting in.
For instance, what if I told you that most of the protein a growing athlete takes in never even gets used?
What if I told you kids today are carrying stress markers their parents never had at their age?
And what if I told you a natural compound called Makzyme can help switch that lockdown back off?
These statements are all 100% true and backed by published research. While they may seem unrelated, they all come back to one thing...
You Guessed It. FGF‑21.
And Jayden wasn't the first.
Over the past few years, I've watched the same thing happen with kid after kid in my programs.
A point guard from Ohio, stuck at 5′7″ for two straight seasons... who grew three inches in a single summer.
A 15-year-old forward who couldn't put on a pound no matter what he ate... who added 18 lbs of muscle before his junior year.
A wide receiver from Texas whose coach had quietly stopped playing him... who came back faster than the seniors.
Different sports. Different towns. Different families.
But every one of them had the same thing holding them back. And once we dealt with it, their bodies finally started to thrive.
I'm here to tell you that, despite what you've heard, it's NOT down to luck or “good genes.”
I've spent years refining this... and testing it with the athletes in my own programs.
And it's working better than I could have imagined.
It's working for the young athletes I see every single week.
That's When Jayden Exploded.
The first thing I do with any new athlete is measure everything. Height. Weight. Wingspan. Vertical. Sprint times.
Jayden's numbers told the same story as Michelle's email. 5′6″. 128 lbs. Talented... but his body wasn't keeping up with the work.
And when I asked where it hurt? His knees and his ankles. Right where the growth plates are.
Like I always do, we started with the basics. We dialed in his nutrition. Fixed his sleep. Adjusted his training load.
Three weeks in, nothing had changed. He was still tired. Still sore after every practice. And his vertical hadn't moved an inch.
That's when I knew. This wasn't about effort. It was FGF‑21.
So we added two things to his mornings. Makzyme, a natural compound that works like an “off switch” for FGF‑21... and a blend of enzymes to get his gut absorbing again. Ten seconds, every day, before school.
(I'll explain exactly what Makzyme is, and how it works, in a moment.)
And then everything changed.
Within two weeks, the aching stopped.
Same food. Same protein, same creatine, same pre-workout he'd been taking for a year. But now it was finally getting in.
Within one month, he went from 5′6″ to 6′2″... with explosive power, and 20 lbs of new muscle.
He walked into practice a different kid. Everyone noticed.
Not everyone was happy about it.
Which is when all of this mess started.
What The “Growth‑Doping” Investigation Actually Found.
When the AAU opened its review, they didn't take my word for it. They tested EVERYTHING.
Blood panels. Urine screens. Every bottle in his kitchen cabinet.
Every test came back clean. No steroids. No HGH. No banned substance of any kind.
The finding
What they found was exactly what I'd given him every morning:
MAKZYME
So What Exactly Is Makzyme?
We asked Mercer the question every parent will ask.
It's not new. Makzyme was first studied by military researchers looking at soldiers in grueling training. They were eating thousands of calories a day... and still losing muscle. Their bodies were under intense stress... and their FGF‑21 was climbing.
What the researchers found was remarkable. Makzyme helped switch FGF‑21 back off. The body came out of lockdown... and nothing stood in the way of its natural growth anymore.
Sounds simple. There's just one problem…
After months in lockdown, his gut has slowed right down. The doors are unlocked again... but the deliveries still can't get through.
So you need two things.
First, switch off the lockdown. That's Makzyme.
Second, get the gut absorbing again. That's a blend of digestive enzymes that breaks down the protein and food he's already eating, so his body can actually use it.
Is it a hormone?
No. And I understand why parents ask. When people hear “growth,” they think HGH. Testosterone. Needles. I wouldn't give any of that to a 14-year-old either.
Makzyme isn't a hormone. It isn't a stimulant. It doesn't add anything the body doesn't already make.
It switches FGF‑21 back off, and the enzymes do the rest... so the nutrition he ALREADY gets can finally do its job.
That's exactly why the AAU cleared him. There was nothing in his blood that shouldn't have been there.
But Here's The Catch. Not All Makzyme Is The Same.
When I first started using Makzyme with my athletes, I ran into a problem.
Some kids responded right away. Others barely changed at all.
Some were taking Makzyme on its own. It switched the lockdown off... but their gut still wasn't absorbing. Same trucks. Same pile at the door.
So I started looking at what they were actually taking. And what I found was shocking...
Most Makzyme on the market is low grade. Under-dosed. Cut with cheap fillers. Some of the bottles I tested had barely a trace of it.
And some were worse. They contained things I'd never let a 14-year-old near. Ingredients that weren't on the label. Fillers nobody could even identify. And nobody is checking.
Think about that for a second. These are kids. Their bodies are still being built. And right now, parents are giving them something nobody has tested... every single morning.
The form the military researchers used is pure, and measured to the milligram. The cheap versions? It's like filling a race car with watered-down fuel... and wondering why it won't go.
So I partnered with TrueVita, a GMP-certified maker here in the US, and we spent years getting it exactly right. Pure Makzyme, at the right dose, together with the enzymes that get the gut absorbing again... in something a 14-year-old will actually take every morning.
Every batch tested. Nothing on the label a kid can't take.
Jayden was one of the very first athletes to use the finished formula.
How Can Other Families Get It?
After the ruling, Mercer says his phone didn't stop ringing. We asked what he tells those parents.
Most of them can't get into one of my programs. The waiting list is long, and I only take a handful of athletes each season.
So I've made the formula Jayden used available directly, through TrueVita. It's called Unlock.
It takes ten seconds. Every morning, before school. Jayden never missed a day... and he's 14.
There are four things I tell every family.
First, don't throw out the protein. I didn't take Jayden off his protein. I made it work. Once the lockdown lifts, that's what his body builds with. So I pair the formula with a clean protein, every day.
Second, give it a full season. Ninety days at least. Here's what most parents tell me:
Weeks 1‑2: The aching eases. He's not wiped out after practice anymore.
Weeks 3‑6: Recovery speeds up. He's hungrier, and it's finally going somewhere. You see it in his energy.
Weeks 6‑12: This is where it shows. Strength. Explosiveness. Muscle that actually sticks. And for a lot of kids, growth that had stalled starts moving again.
Third, this isn't forever. It's for the few years his body is still building. Every day while that window is open, because FGF‑21 doesn't take days off. Once he's through it, he's through it.
Fourth, show your pediatrician the label. I'm happy for them to look. There's nothing on it I'd hide.
One more thing. Because every batch is tested, we can only make so much at a time. If it's showing as available, I'd get a full season while you can.
TrueVita
Unlock
Performance Absorption Complex
- No hormones
- No stimulants
- Every batch tested
- GMP-certified, USA
60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
“If I'd Met Jayden A Year Later...”
We asked Mercer what he'd say to a parent reading this right now.
“Honestly? Don't wait for a growth spurt that might not come.
I hear the same thing from parents every week. He's a late bloomer. His dad was a late bloomer. The doctor said wait and see.
And maybe he is. But maybe he's like Jayden... and something is standing in the way.
A young athlete's growth plates don't stay open forever. In most boys, they start closing in the mid-to-late teens. The longer his body stays in lockdown, the more of that window he loses.
And it's not only his body on the clock. These are the years he's building his game. The work he puts in now should show up now, in his speed, his strength and his confidence on the court.
I've watched talented kids lose their spot, lose their confidence, and quietly walk away from the game they loved. Not because they weren't good enough... because nobody caught it in time.
If your son is eating right, training hard and still falling behind... it's not his fault. And it isn't yours. Nobody told you about FGF‑21. Now somebody has.
If I'd met Jayden a year later, I'm not sure we'd be having this conversation.”
Where Jayden Is Now.
Jayden has recently returned to the court.
His mother says prep schools have already started to call.
The complaint that triggered the investigation was filed anonymously. None of the parents in the group chat responded to our requests for comment.
Mercer says he's still taking on new athletes, though his waiting list now runs into next season.
TrueVita
Unlock
Performance Absorption Complex
- No hormones
- No stimulants
- Every batch tested
- GMP-certified, USA
60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
