New Research Highlights Dangers of Online Sports Supplements

A new paper, published in the Journal of Clinical Toxicology, has found numerously banned and illegal stimulants in sports nutrition supplements.  This paper was written by Dr Pieter Cohen MD, who led a research team from Harvard Medical School.

The article identifies brands from certain “online” sports nutrition businesses who have been actively promoting the ingredient deterenol on the product labels. Deterenol is both WADA banned stimulant for weight management, a potentially dangerous side effect profile, and an illegal substance in foods and dietary supplements.

Dr Cohen’s research went further than just finding deterenol in those actively marketed online as sports supplements; they found cocktails of numerous illegal and banned substances.

Of the 17 products tested claiming to contain Deterenol, they all included at least one additional banned substances, and in many cases, there were several.

The products included six marketed as pre-workouts, four were marketed as fat burners, three as weight loss products, one as a thermogenic, the remaining three had no specific indication on the label.

A significant conclusion from this March 2021 paper is that sports supplements, containing illegal and banned substances, are being actively promoted by some online stores. You need to be very careful when purchasing online and only buy products that have been independently batch tested for banned substances. 

For more information on this article by Dr Cohen go to: https://doi.org/10.1080/15563650.2021.1894333