Consumer Reports says that the popular body-building supplement Craze contains a methamphetamine-like stimulant that has not been previously studied in humans. The study was published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis.
The study states that pharmaceuticals and banned substances have been detected in hundreds of so-called “natural” dietary supplements. Some athletes have failed drug tests when they unknowingly consumed banned substances that were in workout supplements.
The study authors bought the product from American and European online retailers, and from a U.S. retail store. Two laboratories independently identified N,α-DEPE, a methamphetamine analog in the supplement. Lead author Dr. Pieter Cohen, of Harvard Medical School, said about the study, “what’s particularly alarming about finding a completely new drug, in this case a close cousin of methamphetamine, is that we have no idea how it will affect the body. Will it be addictive? Will it stimulate the heart and increase the risk of heart attacks? It has never been studied in humans, so we don’t know.”
Craze is made by Driven Sports Inc. and supposedly contains extract from the dendrobium orchid. Cohen said, “it might be that manufacturers are not actually using the orchid at all, but rather using the name ‘dendrobium’ when actually placing pharmaceutical drugs into the supplement. It is very likely that some other supplements labeled as containing dendrobium contain this same new drug.”
The FDA was informed about these results in May 2013 and has taken no action. The supplement is still available online and through big box retailers.
