Sports doping and dietary supplements consumption: a delicate relationship

Abstract

Objective: this study seeks to know if the massive consumed dietary supplements can cause doping, since, unable to accept their limits, athletes search ergogenic methods aiming for the increase of their performance and, in the nutritional field, dietary supplements appear as the most prominent choice. Methods: the present paper is a descriptive bibliographic research, with an exploratory approach, in which were used official information of organs related to the control of world sports competitions, as well as Brazilian regulatory agency rules. Results: It was found that the option for the huge consumption of dietary supplements is due to the influence of massive publicity – that promises miraculous results – and to the ease of the purchase of these products. The effectiveness of many of them lack scientific proof; many others may cause serious side effects that are not disclosed, containing substances of prohibited use and able to characterize doping. In Brazil, the sector has reached a regulation mark only in 2018, the reason why a rigorous evaluation of its effects was not possible to be done. Conclusions: it was found that the multidisciplinarity that concerns the relationship between doping and consumption of dietary supplements is responsible for the difficulty of controlling the sector, revealing how unstable is the approach to the problem, in which new areas of knowledge are often inserted, requiring deep interdisciplinary knowledge. Hence the need for the intervention of qualified professionals to prescribe such supplements only in cases where they are necessary.