Supplements
The risk of supplements
Studies which have analysed nutritional supplements, such as vitamin tablets and sports drinks, have shown that they often contain banned substances not declared on the product’s label.
A study in 2008 by HFL Sport Science found that 10 per cent of supplements and weight loss products purchased and tested in the UK were contaminated with steroids and/or stimulants at levels that could have resulted in positive findings for athletes.
This emphasises the huge degree of risk surrounding supplement use in sport.
Risk minimisation programmes: know the facts
HFL Sport Science manages the Informed Sport programme which offers a risk minimisation scheme for supplements. This can help reduce the risk of contaminated supplements but it is no guarantee.
There are some important issues to note:
• The Informed Sport programme is not able to test for all substances on the Prohibited List. Athletes who take substances which have not been tested for by Informed Sport, do so at their own risk
• Supplements are batch tested. In batch testing, the amount of product actually analysed is a small proportion of the whole batch that is manufactured. Just because one sample does not test positive for a prohibited substance, there is no guarantee that the entire product is ‘clean’. It is possible to get a variation in the levels of contamination both between separate manufacturing batches and even within a batch itself.
You can find out more about UK Anti-Doping's advice on Supplements in our Resources area.
