N.
Baume 1 , N. Mahler 2 , M. Kamber 2 , P. Mangin 1 , M. Saugy 1
1 Laboratoire
Suisse d'Analyse du Dopage, Institut Universitaire de Médecine
Légale, Département Universitaire de Médecine et Santé Communautaire,
Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Institute of Sports Sciences, Federal
Office of Sports, Magglingen, Switzerland
Corresponding
author: N. Baume, Laboratoire Suisse d'Analyse du Dopage, Institut
Universitaire de Médecine Légale, Rue du Bugnon 21, CH-1005 Lausanne,
Switzerland. Tel: +41 21 314 73 30, Fax: +41 21 314 70 95, E-mail:
norbert.baume@hospvd.ch
KEYWORDS
dietary supplements • prohormones • creatine • urine • doping
• anabolic steroids • stimulants
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to analyze the composition of 103
dietary supplements bought on the internet. The supplements were
dispatched in four different categories according to their announced
contents [creatine, prohormones, "mental enhancers"
and branched chain amino acids (BCAA)].
All the supplements were screened for the presence of stimulants
and main anabolic steroids parent compounds. At the same time,
the research was focused on the precursors and metabolites of
testosterone and nandrolone.
The study pointed out three products containing an anabolic steroid,
metandienone, in a very high amount. The ingestion of such products
induced a high quantity of metandienone metabolites in urines
that would be considered as a positive antidoping test.
The results have also shown that one creatine product and three
"mental enhancers" contained traces of hormones or prohormones
not claimed on the labels and 14 prohormone products contained
substances other than those indicated by the manufacturer.
The oral intake of the creatine product revealed the presence
of the two main nandrolone metabolites (19-norandrosterone and
19-noretiocholanolone) in urine.
CONCLUSIONS
This study
confirms that supplements contain drugs that will cause the athletes
to test positive for substances that are currently on the banned
list.
The situation in dietary supplements is that there are still approximately
one in five supplements on sale that are contaminated – whether
accidental or deliberate – with products that are not declared
on the label.
To date, excretion studies have produced conflicting results with
some but not all the subjects who ingested supplements containing
prohormones. This shows that the controls made on the purity of
dietary supplements are not sufficient.
Authorities and sports federations should be aware of this problem
and should dictate new regulations for production, sale and use
of supplements.
These results are also essential to inform athletes and ordinary
people of the possible contamination of dietary supplements and
to prevent the misuse of such products.
Even if the sale of the prohormones has been recently prohibited
in the US, these products are still easily available on the internet.
This indicates that problems related to the prohormones exist
nowadays.
Moreover, an important aspect for the consumers is to ask themselves
about the use of the dietary supplements as "ergogenic aids".
