Bodybuilding supplements are products designed to increase strength, muscle mass, athletic performance and endurance. Examples of bodybuilding supplements may include high-protein drinks, pre-workout blends with creatine or carnitine supplements and amino acid dietary supplements.
Creatine supplements enhance performance during vigorous workouts, but aren’t proven to increase muscle mass. Beta-alanine may help buffer lactic acid buildup during tasks lasting 1-10 minutes; its effects may not extend beyond this range.
Dangerous hidden ingredients
Many bodybuilding supplements contain harmful, undeclared ingredients – from prescription drug ingredients, banned substances and harmful chemicals, to products linked to liver injury – that may not appear on their labels.
Products used by bodybuilders often fall under the category of dietary supplements and can be purchased online and other marketplaces as well as convenience stores, gas stations, pharmacies and supplement outlets. Sometimes they’re even promoted through social media and websites by bodybuilders themselves.
Some bodybuilding dietary supplements contain steroids or steroids-like substances that may pose serious and even life-threatening health issues, including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, psychiatric issues and liver damage. Furthermore, taking these drugs may result in rapid or unexplained weight gain as well as hair loss.
Some bodybuilding dietary supplements contain stimulants like caffeine to increase energy levels and help you burn fat more efficiently, however too much caffeine can be harmful, increasing blood pressure while leading to insomnia, headaches and jitters.
Liver injury
One of the most serious forms of liver toxicity caused by herbal and dietary supplements (HDS), or HDS, involves bodybuilding products contaminated with dangerous levels of green tea extract, multi-ingredient nutritional supplements and performance-enhancing steroids like anabolic androgens (AAS). When these are combined with high doses of prescription drugs such as acetaminophen taken without medical supervision (e.g. acetaminophen), serious adverse health consequences can result.
When these substances are consumed, their ingestion can result in elevated levels of ALT, AST and bilirubin in the blood. Furthermore, skin may turn yellow and itchy while symptoms may include stomach pain, headache and fatigue.
Many patients who develop injuries from appearance- and performance-enhancing supplements containing illicit AAS typically recover when they discontinue use. In contrast to medication-induced liver injury, which may be difficult to identify without performing a liver biopsy, supplement-related liver injuries typically respond quickly after discontinuation of use.
Creatine
Creatine, which occurs naturally in our bodies from amino acids like glycine and arginine, is often taken by athletes to increase strength, muscle mass, and exercise performance. Furthermore, supplementing with Creatine can improve results in short bursts of high intensity exercise such as weight lifting or sprinting.
Creatine supplements increase muscle phosphocreatine, leading to more production of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), the energy source for your cells that fuel exercise. They may also alter several cellular processes to promote strength, endurance and muscle growth by increasing protein production while decreasing myostatin levels that limit new muscle formation.
Studies have determined that long-term creatine use is generally safe for most adults and does not result in kidney damage; however, less is known about its safety in people already diagnosed with kidney disease or taking medications known to impact kidney function. Most adults should consume no more than 3-5 grams daily of creatine supplementation for optimal performance; it may cause temporary weight fluctuations due to water shifting through muscle tissue.
DMAA
Although DMAA was once only seen as a military drug, today it can be found in numerous supplements designed to aid weight loss, fat burning and physical performance enhancement. Some of these supplements also contain caffeine or other stimulants; unfortunately the number of long-term safety studies involving DMAA remains very limited.
Studies conducted thus far indicate that DMAA may cause vasoconstriction and exert a pressor effect in the body, leading to an increase in blood pressure. Unfortunately, it remains unclear whether this compound alone or when combined with other ingredients was responsible for adverse outcomes reported in some case studies.
One case linked to DMAA use involved a female soldier who collapsed during physical training exercise and later died, with her core temperature reaching 105deg F and creatine kinase levels exceedingly high, suggesting rhabdomyolysis. Our controlled laboratory study demonstrated that one oral dose of 25 mg DMAA results in an oral plasma concentration time profile with peak values significantly lower than reported in case studies linked with its use.
