A new dietary supplement ingredient, dendrobium, is appearing rapidly in dietary supplement products promoted to boost athletic performance. According to the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, manufacturers claim that dendrobium is a natural source of the stimulant phenylethylamine, but some researchers say that phenylethylamine doesn’t occur naturally in dendrobium. Phenylethylamine is a stimulant, with effects similar to those of amphetamines. At this time, the safety of dendrobium is unknown, so users should be aware that products containing this ingredient might be unsafe, particularly when used in combination with exercise.

Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS) is about to launch this summer and will answer many of your questions about Dietary Supplements. Watch for HPRC’s announcement coming soon.

Up-to-date information on tainted products marketed as dietary supplements are now provided on HPRC’s Dietary Supplement domain page via a “widget” from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Recent product alerts and health information on products marketed for weight loss, sexual enhancement, and bodybuilding are automatically displayed and updated as the FDA adds new notifications. Please see this new feature by visiting HPRC’s Dietary Supplements section.

The latest update of HPRC’s list of DMAA-containing dietary supplement products is now available online. Six more products have apparently been removed from the market; one has been added to the list because the fact that it contains DMAA is stated only on the product label, not on the manufacturer’s website.

Following in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration’s warning letters to manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements containing DMAA, the Army announced that its own study on the effects of DMAA on soldiers will continue. Read about the announcement and more in the recent Stars and Stripes article. For more information about the FDA’s action, you can read HPRC’s post, which also includes a link to the FDA news release.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters to manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements containing 1,3-dimethylamylamine (DMAA) due to lack of safety evidence provided before marketing. The FDA states that information about the safety of DMAA as a dietary supplement ingredient has not been identified. For more information, see the FDA News Release and HPRC’s latest on Dietary Supplement Products Containing DMAA.

The latest news on DMAA includes the New Zealand government’s ban just placed on DMAA-containing products. DMAA has already been declared a drug in Canada and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA), collegiate sports teams, and most professional sports teams.

HPRC has again updated its list of DMAA-containing dietary supplements, including a number of additions as well as some products that have been discontinued or reformulated. The additions mostly represent lesser-known products that have been around a while, but surprisingly there are a couple new products too. And we have added two new “aliases” to the list of other names for DMAA. To download the list, click on this link to “Dietary Supplement Products Containing DMAA.”

HPRC has written about energy drinks and their possible adverse health effects; these drinks continue to be in the news following the death of a teenage girl due to caffeine toxicity from drinking two Monster energy drinks. Senator Dick Durbin has now urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate energy drinks, specifically to regulate caffeine in these drinks (caffeine content in colas is already regulated) and determine whether other ingredients contained in them are safe. Read the press release and Senator Durbin’s letter to FDA.

Do you buy dietary supplements when you want to lose weight, improve your performance, or give yourself a boost to get through a long day or hard workout? Then watch for this soon-to-be-released service-wide educational campaign by the Department of Defense in collaboration with the Human Performance Resource Center. Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS) will help Warfighters and their families make informed decisions when choosing dietary supplements. See HPRC’s new OPSS link for an introductory article on supplement safety.

The goal of National Nutrition Month is to remind Americans to eat healthy and choose foods with good nutrition. The FDA’s theme for 2012 is “Remember to Use the Nutrition Facts Label.” One tool you can use to help make good food choices is the Nutrition Facts label that appears on all packaged foods and beverages. To learn how to read labels, visit the FDA’s web page “Nutrition Facts Label Programs and Materials.”

HPRC has received a number of questions about whether dietary supplements—especially those used for bodybuilding and weight loss—could result in a positive result on military drug tests.

Military drug testing begins with urine, which is first screened and then followed by additional tests depending on the outcome of the screen. You can get extensive information about the DoD drug policy and drug testing from the TRICARE website section on the Drug Demand Reduction Program (DDRP), including military testing. And for answers about the potential effects of specific dietary supplements on drug screening tests, you can contact your service’s military drug testing laboratory by phone or email at:

• U.S. Army, Fort Meade, MD – (301)-677-7085  FTDTL_MSupport@amedd.army.mil
• U.S. Army, Tripler AMC, HI – (808)-433-5176  FTDTLWeb.Portal@amedd.army.mil
• U.S. Navy, Great Lakes, IL – 847-688-2045, press 2 or ext 113  NDSLGL-tech-help@med.navy.mil
• U.S. Navy, San Diego, CA – 619-532-5180  NDSLSD-scientificsupport@med.navy.mil
• U.S. Navy, Jacksonville, FL – 904-542-7755, press 2 or ext 104  DLJAX@dlj0ndsl.med.navy.mil
• U.S. Air Force, Lackland AFB, TX – (210) 292-3089  aaron.jacobs.3@us.af.mil

Positive urinalysis results due to dietary supplement use can occur because products on the market may contain undeclared drug ingredients—that is, controlled substances that are not stated/listed on the product label. More information can be found in the FDA News Release from 2010 in which this was brought to the public’s attention. There is no way to know if a particular supplement contains an undeclared drug without laboratory testing, but the FDA does keep track of such products once identified through its MedWatch program. One of the best ways to check for such products—and other potential health issues related to dietary supplements—is through the FDA website’s Dietary Supplements Alerts section.

The Department of Defense (DoD) currently has no formal policy on the use of dietary supplements and no list of either banned or safe supplements. For more on this topic, read HPRC’s article “Is there a list of dietary supplements/substances banned by the military?”