Analysis of Ingredients of Supplements in the National Institutes of Health Supplement Database Marketed as Containing a Novel Alternative to Anabolic Steroids
Open accessAbstract
Our analysis suggests that consumers and clinicians cannot obtain accurate information on novel supplement ingredients with the NIH supplement database.Future efforts to design and update supplement databases should take steps to assure accurate results.
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Several studies of the accuracy of dietary supplement labeling have found that many of the products analyzed contained significantly lower amounts of the specific ingredient or additional, possibly risky, ingredients that were not declared on the supplement label [29,32,33,76-81].
“Several studies of the accuracy of dietary supplement labeling have found that many of the products analyzed contained significantly lower amounts of the specific ingredient or additional, possibly risky, ingredients that were not declared on the supplement label [29,32,33,76–81].”
From How reliable is the labeling of a commercial phytosteroid product? A 12-week randomized double-blind training study (2025) · cites this paper as [76]
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Emergency Department Visits for Adverse Events Related to Dietary Supplements
Geller, A. I., Shehab, N., Weidle, N. J., Lovegrove, M. C., Wolpert, B. J., Timbo, B. B., Mozersky, R. P., & Budnitz, D. S. (2015) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsa1504267 · Cited by 502 · see citing works
Cohen, P. A., Wen, A., & Gerona, R. R. L. (2018) · JAMA Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4846 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Self-citationVanhee, C., Tuenter, E., Kamugisha, A., et al. (2018) · Journal of Forensic Toxicology and Pharmacology · doi:10.4172/2325-9841.1000156 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Self-citationAvula, B., Chittiboyina, A. G., Bae, J., Haider, S., Wang, Y., Wang, M., Zhao, J., Deuster, P. A., & Khan, I. A. (2019) · Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis · doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2018.12.045 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
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Blanckaert, P., Balcaen, M., Vanhee, C., Risseeuw, M., Canfyn, M., Desmedt, B., Van Calenbergh, S., & Deconinck, E. (2021) · Drug Testing and Analysis · doi:10.1002/dta.3113 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Self-citationRelative safety and quality of various dietary supplement products U.S. Service Members ask about
Crawford, C., Walter, A. R., Avula, B., Lindsey, A. T., Hunter, A. M., Ikhlas, A. K., & Deuster, P. A. (2022) · Clinical Toxicology · doi:10.1080/15563650.2022.2036751 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Dissemond, J., Havers, T., Held, S., Geisler, S., Kostov, T., Diel, P., Türschmann, S., Parr, M. K., & Isenmann, E. (2025) · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · doi:10.1080/15502783.2025.2540408 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Several studies of the accuracy of dietary supplement labeling have found that many of the products analyzed contained significantly lower amounts of the specific ingredient or additional, possibly risky, ingredients that were not declared on the supplement label [29,32,33,76–81].”
- Authors
- Cohen, P. A., Sharfstein, J., Kamugisha, A., & Vanhee, C.
- Affiliations
- Cambridge Health Alliance (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Sciensano (Belgium) (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Cohen, Pieter A.
- Venue
- JAMA Network Open
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2020-04-15
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e202818
- ISSN
- 2574-3805 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7160690
- OpenAlex
- W3015208421
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 3.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JAMA Network Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Pharmaceutical Quality and Counterfeiting
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Doping in Sports
- Keywords
- dietary supplements, supplement ingredients, anabolic steroids, consumer information, clinical data
- MeSH terms
- Drug Labeling, Humans, National Institutes of Health (U.S.), United States, Dietary Supplements, Testosterone Congeners
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