TikTok trend that sees gym-goers ‘dry-scooping’ protein powder is being warned about by doctors concerned that it could lead to choking, pneumonia, or heart disturbances among those who participate.
Doctors have issued a warning about a popular but ‘potentially lethal’ TikTok challenge popular among gym-goers, which involves ingesting pre-workout protein powder without first mixing it with liquid.
According to a new study, dry scooping video demonstrations on TikTok, which has millions of teen users, received more than 8.2 million likes.
TikTok user Briatney Portillo was hospitalised with chest pains, nausea, and fatigue after dry scooping pre-workout powder. (Photo: @brivtny/TikTok)
Potentially Deadly
The ‘dry scooping’ challenge has been making the rounds on the Chinese-owned social media app (TikTok), even though it has the potential to cause choking, pneumonia, heart disturbances, and other conditions.
Briatney Portillo, a TikTok user, was hospitalized after dry scooping pre-workout powder and experiencing chest pains, nausea, and fatigue. The 20-year-old was diagnosed with an NSTEMI, a type of heart attack in which the artery leading to the heart is not entirely blocked.
Portillo shared her experience on TikTok, telling Buzzfeed she thought it was essential to raise awareness.
“Being 20 I would’ve never assumed I’d get a heart attack from pre-workout,” she said. “I just want people to be careful with what they’re consuming. Just because you see it online, even if it’s ‘fitness influencers’ doing it, doesn’t mean it’s safe.”
Similarly, @mkaaaybabee, another TikTok user, was filming her reaction to taking dry powder when she stopped breathing and needed her inhaler right away. She then posted the video.
Meanwhile, a 25-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital with a brain injury after taking eight scoops of pre-workout powder, according to YouTube Doctor Bernard Hsu.
“The combination of huge amounts of caffeine and beta phenylethylamine in eight scoops of pre-workout swallowed all at once, with heavy lifting, all together could have increased his blood pressure so high that it caused his brain to start to stroke in the form of a bleed,” Hsu explained.
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Protein Powder Image. (Photo: Jorge Gonzalez/Getty Images)
‘Dry Scooping’
If a person is dry scooping, they will put one scoop of undiluted powder into their mouth and then follow it up with one or two small sips of water or other liquids. Alternatively, they may attempt to eat the scoop without water.
Pre-workout supplements are typically sold in powder form, and they are intended to be mixed with water and consumed as a beverage. In addition, the TikTok videos examined in the study show the mixing of pre-workout supplements with other substances such as energy drinks and alcohol, which is concerning.
Worse, TikTok allows children as young as 13 to create an account. According to the new study, improper use of pre-workout supplements, which are only intended for adults, can result in respiratory or cardiovascular distress or death.’
‘Pre-workout powders typically contain caffeine as well as other ingredients such as creatine, amino acids, and vitamins,’ said nutritionist Bridget Benelam of the British Nutrition Foundation, who was not involved in the study, told BBC.
The findings will be presented this weekend at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 National Conference and Exhibition, which will be held entirely online. The findings will be presented this weekend at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 National Conference and Exhibition, which will be held entirely online.
‘It can be difficult for physicians to identify novel trends that may pose health hazards among youth,’ said abstract author Nelson Chow, a Princeton University student and research intern at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, New York.
Chow gathered 100 TikTok videos with the hashtag ‘#preworkout’ for the study and analyzed the following data: likes, method of ingestion, number of servings, and the powder’s combination with other substances. The total number of likes for the 100 videos examined was 259,773,000, ranging from 112,300 to 1,700,000 per video. Thirty-one of the videos featured dry scooping, garnering a total of 8,201,900 likes.
Rhian Stephenson, a nutritionist, former CEO of London Fitness Temple Psycle, and the founder of Artah stated that taking a powder dry can lead to quicker absorption because it starts to get absorbed immediately through the membranes in the mouth, esophagus, etc. This means that the onset of effects of the supplements will happen at a much greater rate than if taken diluted, as directed.
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