Increasing Circulatory Risks Associated with Pre-workout Supplements in the United States among Athletes age 18-30 from 2005 to 2013

My previous problem definition was Increasing Health Risks Associated with Pre-workout Supplements in the United States among Athletes age 18-30 from 2005 to 2013. I modified this problem definition in order to make it more specific into the Increasing circulatory Risks associated with Pre-workout Supplements in the United States among Athletes age 18-30 from 2005 to 2013 in order to specify the problem that is most pertinent with this issue. This is a rising topic that is under surveillance, since it was not questioned or studied previous to this year after several people having reported heart attacks, heart palpitations, and increased blood pressure due to the use of pre-workout supplements. The purpose of surveillance is to have an ongoing and systematic collection of health data in order to evaluate and act on public health policy accordingly. Although pre-workout supplements have been used for decades, surveillance was not implemented until April of last year when the Food and Drug Administration sent warnings to ten different companies that manufactured pre-workout supplements with the ingredient dimethylamyamine (DMAA) questioning the safety of this ingredient, as well as asking if it was even considered a dietary supplement. The FDA gave the companies 15 days to provide evidence that this powerful ingredient was suitable for distribution. The companies, however, could not provide such evidence and as a result, supplements that contained this ingredient were not available for sale through popular sources, such as Amazon.

Concerning DMAA, the acceptance of this ingredient as a dietary supplement is generally accepted because it is labeled to come from geranium plants. However, in July of 2012, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Arlingon ran a study to try to detect 1,3-dimethylamyamine from eight different samples of different geographical origins (China and Middle East) and found that no significant amount of DMAA was found in these plants. This article provides support that this product is likely a chemically synthesized supplement and therefore does not safely fall under the category of a dietary supplement.

However, there is a general lack of knowledge from the public between differentiating which pre-workout supplements have DMAA and which don’t. DMAA may also not be the only cause of irritants to the circulatory system. For other supplements to compete in the market without this chemical, many companies substitute this by adding 100+ mg of caffeine per scoop to their product, which could also increase blood pressure or cause other side effects.

Despite this, there have also been several studies to support the extraordinary progress that pre-workout supplements cause. In November 2012 in the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, Institute of Sports Science and Medicine at Florida State University, a group of 24 men were split into two groups and were put to six weeks of resistance training, one group taking the popular pre-workout supplement NO shotgun, and the other group taking a placebo. At the end of the experiment, it resulted that there were no differences in testosterone balances or blood hormones, but the men that were taking the NO shotgun had a great increase in their 1RM weights (one rep max) for upper and lower body strength, and that the participants taking multi-ingredient performance supplements, NO shotgun in this case, significantly increased peak anaerobic power while the men in the placebo group remained relatively unchanged. The Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation at Baylor University previously did a similar study with the same supplement in 2009 and concluded that heavy resistance training combined with this multi-ingredient performance supplement is not associated with any negative side effects and did not abnormally impact the chemistry of the participants. Quite on the contrary, the NO shotgun effectively aided in increasing muscle mass and strength, as well as the muscular process in building protein (Willoughby ).

From these sources, I believe that I can conclude at one point for now, and that is that there is not enough research to completely represent pre-workout supplements as a whole. There are large cons with not much research to support the point since it has not been previously done, as well as large pros that shows the positive effects of pre-workout supplements but even these studies have mostly been done within the past year. With more research that I will do on the topic, I will hopefully find more sources of research done on supplements to have a more clear idea of which standpoint – whether to support or oppose pre-workout supplements – is better.

Works Cited

Willoughby, Darryn S. "Effects of 28 days of resistance exercise and consuming a commercially available pre-workout supplement, NO-Shotgun®, on body composition, muscle strength and mass, markers of satellite cell activation, and clinical safety markers in males." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. (2009): n. page. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. <http://www.jissn.com/content/6/1/16>.

Ormsbee, MJ. "The effects of six weeks of supplementation with multi-ingredient performance supplements and resistance training on anabolic hormones, body composition, strength, and power in resistance-trained men.." PubMed. Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, Institute of Sports Science and Medicine, The Florida State University, 15 Nov 2012. Web. 30 Mar 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23153110>.

Rovell, Darren. "Vendor Stocks Fall, Amazon Acts as FDA Questions Pre-Workout Ingredient." Headlines from CNBC. CNBC, 01 May 2012. Web. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. <http://www.cnbc.com/id/47244948>.