Supplements in sport

Many people use supplements in the hope it might help their performance. However, supplements pose a real risk for athletes. Every year multiple Australian athletes receive anti-doping bans as a result of supplement use.

Being aware of the risks is the first step to staying in the game.

About supplements

Nutritional supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, meal supplements, sports nutrition products, natural food supplements, and other related products used to boost the nutritional content of the diet.

The marketplace supplies thousands of supplements claiming to provide nutritional support for athletes. Some of these consist of high-protein products, such as amino acid supplements, while other products contain nutrients that support metabolism, energy, and athletic performance and recovery. Supplements can be found in pill, tablet, capsule, powder or liquid form.

The risks

Research has shown that the ingredient list on supplements doesn't always match the product contents. That makes it difficult for you to know exactly what is going into your body. It is not uncommon for banned substances to be added deliberately during the manufacturing process or added accidentally through contamination. Because of this, we are unable to guarantee whether a specific supplement, or bh of a supplement, is safe to use.

See: Therapeutic Goods Administration information about sports supplements in Australia.

Consequences of supplement use by athletes

Products containing a prohibited substance can result in you being banned for up to four years.

The presence of a prohibited substance in a supplement may result in an anti-doping rule violation. This is the case whether you used it intentionally or not. Under the World Anti-Doping Code’s strict liability principle, athletes are ultimately responsible for any substance found in their body, regardless of how it got there. That means, even if the prohibited substance is not listed on the label of a supplement, if you consume it, you are still responsible.

Watch marathon runner Cassie Fien tell her personal story about the risks:

Supplement survey

In 2016, life science company LGC conducted the Australian Supplements Survey. This survey analysed 67 common supplement products available for purchase in Australia.

They found one in 5 products contained one or more substances banned in sport. Importantly, none of the products identified listed any banned substances on their ingredients list.

A study by New Zealand’s Otago University Department of Physiology also found several supplements on sale in New Zealand and Australia that contained steroids not declared on their labels.

Australian athletes talk about supplements in sport

Many elite Australian athletes avoid supplements all together. Multiple Olympic medallist Kim Brennan stated it clearly when she said: ‘Supplements aren't going to win you a gold medal.’

The risk of doping through the use of supplements is real and doing research can be your best form of defence.

Prior to using any supplement, ask yourself:

• Has it been tested?
• Is it safe?
• Before taking it, is it effective (in improving performance) or necessary?

Supplement Risk Analysis

We have produced a one-page fact sheet to help people assess the risk of supplement use. This resource should be read alongside the information on this page, so you can make a fully informed decision prior to the use of a supplement product.

Supplement risk analysis fact sheet [PDF]

Has it been tested?

Supplement testing

If you decide to take a supplement, the first question you should ask about a product is, 'has it been tested for banned substances?'

There are a number of companies that offer laboratory analysis of supplements to check whether they contain banned substances.

HASTA and Informed Sport are two major testers operating in Australia. They screen products, including protein powders, creatine powders, pre-work outs and recovery products.

You can see details of products tested by Informed Sport or HASTA using the Sport Integrity app (available on Google Play or the Apple App Store), using each company’s webpage, or look for these logos when shopping for products:

Supplements which are screened by these companies undergo testing for every single batch and have their manufacturing factories examined for possible contamination.

Although batch tested products are the lowest risk supplements, they do not provide a guarantee against testing positive, and you can still face anti-doping sanctions if you test positive from one of these products.

Remember, no supplement is 100% safe. The only way to have zero risk, is to take zero supplements.

Checking ingredients online

You can use our online substance checking tool Global DRO to check thousands of ingredients and their status in sport. Including individual ingredients listed on supplement labels.

Words of caution

Despite the claims made by supplement manufacturers that their products are safe and free of substances prohibited in sport, there is a risk associated with the use of any supplement. Supplements may contain prohibited substances even if every ingredient listed on the label is approved by Global DRO.

When researching supplement ingredients be aware that supplement manufacturers may use alternate names. Be particularly wary of ingredients with chemical names or plant extracts.

At a minimum, you should check every ingredient on Global DRO. However, this still does not guarantee that the supplement is safe to use as some supplements contain substances not listed on the ingredient label.

Global DRO will not return results for specific brands.

Common ingredients banned in sport

Some supplement ingredients that have come to our attention through failed tests, include:

Safety of supplements

Health risks

Not all supplements are safe. Many of the supplements coming to our attention contain different classes of prohibited substances with the most common being anabolic agents, peptide hormones and stimulants.

Health concerns surrounding supplements are real. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has banned some supplement ingredients (prohibited in sport) due to risks to human health.

Following are some cases, deaths and major health issues that have been reported in Australia and worldwide:

• Company fined $11 million for unlawfully advertising unapproved sports supplements
• FDA warns against SARMs in supplements
• DMAA factor in marathon runner death
• Dietary supplements cause 20,000 hospital visits a year

Watch how a popular weight-loss supplement almost cost Matt Whitby his life:

Regulation of Supplements

In Australia, supplements may be regulated as a medicine or a food dependent on the characteristics of the specific product.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have made changes to the regulation of certain sports supplements. Information on these changes is available on the TGA website.

While this is a positive step in helping to protect consumers through the greater regulation of products with higher risk ingredients, athletes must not become complacent.

Even with these protections the anti-doping risk remains and athletes need to remain diligent about using batch-testing products.

Before taking supplements

Professional help

Get advice from experts like an accredited doctor, nutritionist or dietitian about whether you need to take supplements. The experts will often look at your diet, lifestyle and training before considering the use of supplements.

If you do need a dietary supplement, ask a doctor or pharmacist if there is a registered medicine, which carries a much lower risk of contamination, and can be checked with certainty on the Global DRO website.

In the following videos the Chief Medical Officer Dr David Hughes and former Head of Sports Nutrition, Professor Louise Bourke from the Australian Institute of Sport, talk about whether supplements in sport are necessary, and how changing your diet is often a better and safer option.

Food first initiative

We have developed a suite of resources to help promote the food first message, including posters, flyers and postcards that can be distributed at sporting clubs.

These include:

No one ever tested positive to a banana [PDF 226KB]

No one ever tested positive to a drumstick [PDF 211KB]

No one ever tested positive to broccoli [PDF 281KB]

If you would like copies of these resources, please email: education@sportintegrity.gov.au for high resolution files.

It is your personal choice to avoid or take supplements. From our perspective, it is safest to avoid supplement products. If you do choose to take supplements, here are some things to avoid:

• Supplements made in China, India or the USA.
• Pre-workout, weight-loss and muscle-building products, as they can be at higher risk of contamination with a prohibited substance.
• Bold claims from the manufacturer about the effectiveness of a product, such as:
  • offering the same benefits as prohibited substances
  • the treatment or prevention of disease, or
  • being an alternative to prescription medicine.
• Claims of WADA or Sport Integrity Australia's endorsement or approval (anti-doping organisations do not test, endorse or approve supplement products).
• Ingredients that include chemical names or plant extracts.
• Supplements that are only available online.
• Supplement products labelled ‘not for human use’ or ‘for research use only’.

Additional resources

A number of resources are available to help you reach an informed decision:

Sport Integrity app

The free Sport Integrity app (available on Google Play and the App Store) lists every batch-tested supplement sold on Australian shelves and gives athletes a way to assess the risk of other products.

The Sport Integrity app is a ‘one-stop-shop’ for everything about sport integrity and anti-doping, and you can access it all in the palm of your hand.

With the Sport Integrity app you can:

• Check medications (Global DRO) and find low risk ‘batch-tested’ supplements.
• Report an integrity issue or suspicious activities.
• Check whether you need an in-advance Therapeutic Use Exemption
• Give feedback or ask a question about anti-doping.
• Explore further information in the MENU such as details on the rules, testing, health effects of doping, supplement and nutrition advice, and much more.

eLearning

Our online education is a free and easy-to-use resource featuring online courses, videos and learning updates about the key areas of anti-doping such as prohibited substances and methods, therapeutic use exemptions, the sample collection process, intelligence and investigations.

Login for courses including:

• Clean Sport Basics (15-minute introductory course)
• Anti-Doping 101
• Annual Update course
• Parents’ course
• Coaches’ courses

Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

Read the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s advice on Sports supplements in Australia.

Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)

The Australian Institute of Sport website has information on supplements.

Sports Dietitians Australia

The Sports Dietitians Australia website includes loads of ‘food first’ fuelling ideas for athletes from grassroots to elite, plus they have many fact sheets including specific foods for particular sporting needs.

Play by the Rules

The Play by the Rules website provides information, resources, tools and free online training to increase administrators, coaches, officials, players, parents and spectator’s knowledge of discrimination, harassment, child safety, inclusion and integrity issues in sport.

Your sport

Your national sporting organisation’s policy or guidelines about supplements.