Athletes are strongly advised to be very cautious if they choose to take any supplement such as vitamin tablets, energy drinks, or sport-nutrition formulas. This is because there is no guarantee that any supplement is free from banned substances.

In the news yesterday was an athlete from Athletics who tested positive while representing Great Britain at this summer’s European Team Championships, (see link to Telegraph article).

All athletes are advised to:

• assess the need to use supplements by seeking advice from a medical professional or nutritionist on their need to use supplement products
• assess the risks associated with supplements and undertake thorough research of all supplement products they are considering taking
• assess the consequences to their careers – they could receive a four-year ban

all BEFORE making a decision to use supplements.

However, supplement risks can be reduced by:

• undertaking thorough internet research
• only using batch-tested products
• checking on Informed-Sport [www.informed-sport.com] (which is a risk minimisation programme) that the supplement has been batch tested

Visit the UKAD website for further information on supplements [www.ukad.org.uk/supplements] including information on the Informed Sport [www.informed-sport.com] programme, which provides a batch-testing service for supplement products.

• Daily Telegraph article – Joanna Blair +ve test
• BWA comprehensive info on Anti-Doping with further links
• UK Anti-Doping Home Page