Anabolic steroids detected in bodybuilding dietary supplements – a significant risk to public health

Abstract

Twenty-four products suspected of containing anabolic steroids and sold in fitness equipment shops in the United Kingdom (UK) were analyzed for their qualitative and semi-quantitative content using full scan gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), accurate mass liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), high pressure liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD), UV-Vis, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In addition, X-ray crystallography enabled the identification of one of the compounds, where reference standard was not available. Of the 24 products tested, 23 contained steroids including known anabolic agents; 16 of these contained steroids that were different to those indicated on the packaging and one product contained no steroid at all. Overall, 13 different steroids were identified; 12 of these are controlled in the UK under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Several of the products contained steroids that may be considered to have considerable pharmacological activity, based on their chemical structures and the amounts present. This could unwittingly expose users to a significant risk to their health, which is of particular concern for naïve users.

Monitoring of essential and toxic elements in multi-ingredient food supplements produced in European Union

“…For example, some microalgae-based products were found to cause significant side effects, exert cytotoxic effects in human cells, and were contaminated with significant levels of lead, aluminium (Rzymski et al 2015a or cyanotoxins (Heussner et al 2012) while bodybuilding FS targeted at sportsman contained prohibited stimulant compounds (Geyer et al 2008) or anabolic androgenic steroids (Abbate et al 2015). Moreover, as found for selenium FS distributed in Poland, the declared nutritional values often differed significantly from actual content .…”

Challenges to promoting health for amateur athletes through anti-doping policy

“…Media and marketing targeted to athletes commonly engage in “claimsmaking” for the supplement industry (Bailey, 2013). Supplements are especially of interest, as athletes use these products for enhancement purposes (Baume, Hellemans, & Saugy, 2007) while independent lab analyses of supplements regularly demonstrate a huge proportion to be contaminated with banned – and potentially risky – substances (Abbate et al, 2015; Cohen, Travis, & Venhuis, 2013; Venhuis, Keizers, Riel, & Kaste, 2014). …”

Androgens

“…Yet the ergogenic advantages of androgens for power sports and their efficacy for body sculpting fostered the continuing availability of well-known alkylated androgens such as stanozolol, methandienone and oxandrolone via the internet for illicit use [12][13][14][15][16][17] . However, in sports, all marketed androgens were readily identified by mass spectrometry (MS)-based doping detection methods [10] making such androgen doping highly risky.…”

“…Consequently, various alternative strategies were adopted to continue exploiting androgen doping without detection by other means. One approach has been to utilize never-marketed synthetic androgens identified from the old patent literature, but whose structures were unfamiliar and undisclosed while MS-based urine detection tests required a known structure [15,18,19] . The first such designer androgen identified in an athlete's urine was norbolethone, a 17-α alkylated androgen originally synthesized in 1960 but never marketed [20] .…”

“…Nevertheless, once identified, these designer androgens have never again been detected in regular doping tests reflecting effective deterrence. More broadly, similar never-marketed androgens are also commonly found in unregulated, over-the-counter and internetmarketed food supplements, which often do not identify steroids on the label but are promoted as purportedly legal body-building alternatives to androgens [15,24] .…”