AFTER DMAA WATCH OUT FOR "DMBA" IN SUPPLEMENTS
Article by Veeraj Goyaram
Reference
After the ban on the pharmaceutical stimulant 1,3-dimethylamylamine (DMAA) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supplement companies came up with a replacement to this amazing compound. This compound is called 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (DMBA). DMBA is an analogue of the popular DMAA (see their chemical structures below).
DMAA nostalgia
As most of you probably know, DMAA was what gave new life to a lackluster pre-workout supplement category which was until then based on caffeine and Nitric Oxide boosters. DMAA was reintroduced in 2006 by Patrick Arnold and almost all companies rushed to include it into their pre-workouts and fat burner supplements. In the year 2010, DMAA-containing supplements generated $100 million. That was the year when the preworkout business really took off (nostalgia) with Jack3D, Muscle Marinade and others. Unfortunately, due to health concerns (risk of stroke, sudden cardiac arrest and heart failure) supplement companies have been pressured to remove DMAA from supplements. You can read more about the DMAA situation in a past article on this website (click here).
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| Jack3D was the trendsetter in preworkouts both with regard to DMAA and the smaller container that competitors rushed to copy. |
DMBA will soon grab spotlight
An article has just been published today by scientists from Harvard Medical School (Cohen, Travis and Venhuis, 2014) tested a number of supplements under the weight loss and preworkout category with ingredient lists that include DMBA or other chemical names that it is known by: 4-amino-2-methylpentane citrate, AMP citrate, 1,3-dimethylbutylamine citrate, 4-amino-2-pentanamine, Pentergy, and 4-AMP.
Welcome back as I am sure you all rushed to check the label of your supplements.
What Cohen and his colleagues found was that all products indeed contained DMBA after they analyzed it in their sophisticated laboratory. The labels did not disclose the amount of DMBA but the scientists were kind enough to provide the values (table below).
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| Amount of DMBA in dietary supplements. Table modified from Cohen et al. (2014) |
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| One of the supplements found to contain DMBA |
What does all this mean?
DMBA has never been studied in humans and therefore the health risks of the compound are unknown. According to Cohen et al (2014), only two studies have been conducted in animals reporting pressor effects (Pressor: tending to increase blood pressure) although weaker than DMAA. The authors also speculate that this "cat chase the rat" scenario between the FDA and the supplements industry won't stop anytime soon because there are additional related compounds waiting to replace DMBA once the latter gets banned by the FDA. These compounds to watch out for in the future are: 2-amino-5-methylhexane, 2-aminohexane and 2-amino-6-methylheptane.
All I want to say is that they don't really care about us.
Needless to say that the mainstream media has already rushed to write BS about this whole situation. They never had any good thing to say about our supplements, anyway. My personal opinion on this situation is that it would suck if DMBA gets banned. There is no still no definitive evidence of DMAA's safety but yet it was banned. Most substances can be harmful if consumed in excessive amounts (including beneficial drugs and even water). DMAA and DMBA are no different. Products bearing a real risk like tobacco and alcohol are legal. You can overdose alcohol and kill people on the road. Alcohol causes so many deaths every year and countless social problems. But yet nobody banned alcohol. Nobody even bats an eye that there are so many alcohol ads. Soon you will walk in public drinking a protein shake and get more stares than some moron walking with a can of beer. In our society real drugs are acceptable while dietary supplements aren't. Don't get me started on cigarettes, carbonated drinks and fast foods. Why do they spend so much effort to ban supplement ingredients? Perhaps because the supplement industry doesn't provide enough tax revenue to governments.
All I want to say is that they don't really care about us.
Needless to say that the mainstream media has already rushed to write BS about this whole situation. They never had any good thing to say about our supplements, anyway. My personal opinion on this situation is that it would suck if DMBA gets banned. There is no still no definitive evidence of DMAA's safety but yet it was banned. Most substances can be harmful if consumed in excessive amounts (including beneficial drugs and even water). DMAA and DMBA are no different. Products bearing a real risk like tobacco and alcohol are legal. You can overdose alcohol and kill people on the road. Alcohol causes so many deaths every year and countless social problems. But yet nobody banned alcohol. Nobody even bats an eye that there are so many alcohol ads. Soon you will walk in public drinking a protein shake and get more stares than some moron walking with a can of beer. In our society real drugs are acceptable while dietary supplements aren't. Don't get me started on cigarettes, carbonated drinks and fast foods. Why do they spend so much effort to ban supplement ingredients? Perhaps because the supplement industry doesn't provide enough tax revenue to governments.
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| Double standards. And its bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts who suffer |
Products bearing a real risk like tobacco and alcohol are legal. You can overdose alcohol and kill people on the road. Yet, nobody wants to ban alcohol
Reference
Cohen PA, Travis JC
and Venhuis BJ. A synthetic stimulant never tested in humans, 1,3-dimethylbutylamine
(DMBA), is identified in multiple dietary supplements. Drug Test. Analysis (2014).
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.1735/abstract
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