From supplements to peptides, the wellness products that can get athletes busted for doping

Think steroids are the only thing that can get an athlete in trouble? You’d be wrong. Dietary supplements, cosmetic treatments and recovery aids have all landed professional jocks in hot water with anti-doping authorities, costing them games, medals and reputations — sometimes without even realizing they’d crossed a line. “I have absolutely seen athletes and support teams underestimate the risk of wellness products,” Dr.Mark Kovacs, a performance physiologist and coach who has worked with scores of professional athletes, told The Post. “The surprise usually comes from the same belief: ‘I bought it legally, so I thought it was safe.’”The biggest misconception, he said, is that doping is just about juicing or athletes deliberately trying to get an unfair edge.

Today’s landscape is much bigger.“It includes anabolic agents, peptide hormones, growth factors, beta-2 agonists, hormone and metabolic modulators, masking agents, stimulants, certain narcotics, cannabinoids, glucocorticoids in specific contexts, IV methods, blood manipulation and even gene or cell-related methods,” Kovacs said.And ignorance is no get-out-of-jail-free card.Athletes who break the rules by accident can still find themselves watching from the sidelines.“Athletes are subject to the principle of strict liability, meaning they are ultimately responsible for every substance they put into their bodies, regardless of intent,” said David Trosin, senior director of nutrition and wellness at NSF, a nonprofit that independently tests and certifies products.“There have been cases where undeclared or prohibited substances in supplements have contributed to anti-doping violations, even when an athlete did not intend to use a banned substance.”Just ask former NFL offensive tackle Taylor Lewan.In 2019, the then-Tennessee Titan tested positive for ostarine, a drug that works similarly to anabolic steroids and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and major sports lea...