Prevalence of adulteration in dietary supplements and recommendations for safe supplement practices in sport.

The prevalence of dietary supplement use among athletes continues to rise with 60-80% of athletes often reporting current or previous use of dietary supplements. While select dietary ingredients have been shown to improve acute performance and enhance training adaptations over time, it is important to still consider the risk vs. reward for athletes before opting to consume a dietary supplement. Previous work has indicated that certain dietary supplements may pose risks for inadvertent doping, may be susceptible to mislabelling, could be banned by certain governing bodies of sport, or pose health risks for certain populations. The purpose of the current narrative review is to summarize the prevalence of adulteration in dietary sport supplement products, outline the risks of inadvertent doping for athletes, and highlight best practices regarding safe supplementation strategies. Analytical studies have found anywhere from 14 to 50% of samples analyzed from dietary supplement products have tested positive for anabolic agents or other prohibited substances. It is important for the consumer to adhere to safe supplementation strategies, which include following serving size recommendations, cross-referencing ingredient profiles with the list of prohibited substances, choosing quality products that have been verified by a third-party certification program, and being cognizant of consuming multiple dietary supplement products with overlapping ingredient profiles. Once these practices have been considered, it is reasonable for an athlete to utilize dietary supplements as a strategy to optimize performance and health, with a low risk of failing a drug test (adverse analytical finding) and experiencing adverse events.

Informations de copyright

© 2023 Jagim, Harty, Erickson, Tinsley, Garner and Galpin.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

AJ, DG, and AG have consulted with and received external funding from companies who sell certain dietary ingredients and write for online and other media outlets on topics related to exercise and nutrition. GT has received research funding or other research support from several companies producing sports supplements. He also serves as a paid consultant for sports nutrition companies. None of these entities played any role in the present article. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest