A TikToker Chugged 8 Scoops PreWorkout Supplement.
This Is What Happened To His Brain.
JA is a 25 year old man, presenting to the emergency room, unconscious.
His mother tells the admitting nurse that she found her son unresponsive on the floor.
You see, JA was a fitness TikToker who was just trying to make it.
He recently found out about dry scooping pre workout supplement.
This was a hot new trend where people would dump powder directly in to their mouth in
an effort to “bypass the water and allow the body to digest it as soon as possible,
so that the preworkout would hit harder.”
Clearly, this was nonsense intended to sensationalize an unnecessary class of supplement, but JA
was determined.
He was going to dry scoop preworkout for a video to post, and get a hundred thousand
followers.
After putting 2 scoops of pre workout directly into his mouth, JA felt like he was choking.
He felt the powder immediately coat his tongue and everything became dry.
In an effort to not breathe any powder in, he closed his eyes tight and tried to swallow.
The video he posted gained him so many likes and new followers, that he knew— he had
push it further to get his follower gains.
He was going to do 4 scoops next, and have the biggest workout of his life, all documented
in the biggest video he’s made yet.
Immediately after putting 4 scoops of preworkout supplement in his mouth, JA had instant regret.
He knew he was going to choke on it and if he didn't do anything, he would breathe it
in.
He thought it’d be funny for the video to just chase it down with 4 more scoops already
mixed in with water, as he washed everything down, and got ready for his workout.
At the gym now, JA didn’t feel well.
The preworkout he took was loaded with caffeine, creatine, and a “focus energy blend” made
of a variety of things.
He started sweating before he even started touching the weights.
He felt jittery during his sets.
He could feel his heart beating in his neck as his eyes started bulging out of his head.
He knew he was wired, but it was hard to actually get anything done.
And while he was doing one of his sets, he felt an instant headache breakthrough.
He posted his video online, but didnt FOLLOW any of the comments, because he COULDN’T
follow any of the comments.
At home now, JA wasn’t sure exactly what was happening as he stumbled around.
And as his mom came up to see what the commotion was, she found her son huddled over on the
floor as she calls for 911, and he’s brought to the emergency room, where we are now.
At examination, no one knew that JA had chugged huge amounts of preworkout supplement.
Even if they knew, they’d have no idea what was really in that preworkout supplement.
What they did know, was that he was unconscious and unresponsive.
He wouldn’t open his eyes, and when doctors and his mom tried calling out his name, there
was no response.
JA’s heart rate was high.
His breathing rate normal.
When the nurse tried to take his blood pressure, the machine just kept cycling, and it couldn’t
get a reading.
When they tried to do it manually, the measurement came out 330 / 180, which is almost 3 times
that of normal, and so high that the blood pressure machine couldn’t produce an actual
reading.
In a previously healthy 25 year old man, one reason why his blood pressure is so high,
could be that he took something.
But a screen didn’t return anything for substances, so it didn’t look like he took
anything illicit.
A blood test finds nothing abnormal either.
They looked at his heart rhythm and noticed that along with his high blood pressure, his
heart was beating erratically.
All of these together could mean that this is a problem with just his heart, but something’s
wrong.
When doctors looked at his pupils, they noticed that one was bigger than the other.
And the heart doesn't control the eyes, the brain does.
And if the brain controls the heart too, then could the brain be the cause of his problems?
Doctors send JA to get a scan of his head.
The images suggest that parts of his brain have been bleeding.
Because the brain’s enclosed inside a hard place, the skull, then bleeding into the brain
would mean the brain’s expanding.
The bleed, isn’t going to magically stop itself when there’s no more space left,
it’s just going to keep going, and keep pushing the brain up against the sides of
the skull, until the blood vessels start to crush themselves as the brain folds on itself
causing permanent damage.
Is there a way doctors can temporarily shrink JA’s brain to stop this?
Maybe.
Body water is a little salty, meaning that it has some sodium in it.
Cells have about the same amount too.
This is important because wherever sodium is, water will flow towards it.
In this small science experiment, I dissolve salt in this water and place it into a tube.
I submerge the tube in a pool of water that has no salt dissolved in it.
You’ll see that water flows into the tube, that water follows sodium.
If the brain is swelling, then a temporary fix could be to infuse saltier water in to
JA.
If the body water is saltier than the brain, then it would temporarily suck water from
the brain to relieve the pressure because it’s expanding quickly.
But this is only a quick fix for now, as he's sent to the intensive care unit.
Doctors still don’t know that JA had chugged 8 scoops of pre workout, because there isn’t
anything in that supplement that anyone in a hospital would test for.
Except, his mom pulls up his phone and finds the last video that he posted.
She showed the doctors, and while it gives them some clues as to what could have happened,
their main priority is to see if there’s anything they can do to relieve the pressure
building up in his skull.
Looking at the ingredients of the pre workout supplement, two things immediately stood out.
A single scoop, has 200 milligrams of caffeine, which is around 2 cups of coffee.
The recommended daily maximum for caffeine is 400 milligrams.
If JA swallowed 8 scoops of preworkout in just a few seconds, it means the caffeine
content he took was equal to chugging 17 cups of coffee, and equal to 4 times the recommended
daily limit.
Caffeine is a stimulant, it increases adrenaline in the blood, so it increases heart rate.
It could explain why JA felt jittery.
It increases blood pressure, which if high enough, can stress the blood vessels, to the
point of rupturing the walls of those blood vessels, causing a bleed.
But is caffeine alone, enough to cause a blood pressure so high that the machine can’t
even read it?
On the ingredients list was another listing named Beta Phenyl Ethyl Amine.
It’s featured prominently in the marketing materials of the preworkout supplement.
You may have heard of something called Alpha methyl Phenyl Ethyl Amine, which sometimes
goes by Am. feta.
Amine.
Something that’s used in the treatment of ADHD, that’s related to an N-Methyl Alpha
Methyl Phenyl Ethyl Amine.
Meth.
Am.
Phet.
Et.
Amine.
In this pre workout supplement, the Beta Phenyl Ethyl Amine was described to be a “Focus
maintainer, to help promote mood, alertness, and concentration,” similar to the function
of am feta amine.
But, something’s a little different here.
In the brain, Beta Phenyl Ethyl Amine gets broken down or metabolized, but am feta amine
doesn't get broken down in the brain.
It stays in, and the body needs to wait to clear it out.
This is a problem because in the synapse where nerves connect, chemicals normally send signals.
When the signal is done, the synapse needs to clear itself so that signals aren’t sent
nonstop.
This means those chemicals that send the signals need to be either pumped back in, or broken
down.
If a lot of amphetamine is present, the synapse doesn’t get cleared.
It keeps forcing more chemical out, sending signals non-stop, continuously stimulating
the nerve.
This is why we call it a stimulant.
Amphetamine doesn't get broken down in the brain, so it stays there until it naturally
clears out after a while.
But Beta Phenyl Ethyl Amine, the chemical that’s in JA’s pre workout, is supposed
to get broken down in the brain quickly, that’s why it’s not considered to be a controlled
substance.
But, when JA chugged and instantly swallowed 8 scoops worth of preworkout, there could
have been simply too much of it, for parts of his brain to break down quick enough.
This is a problem because that signal from the nerves also get sent to the heart, telling
it to beat harder and faster.
Huge amounts of Beta Phenyl Ethyl Amine probably can’t get broken down quickly enough, so
the signals aggressively push in to the heart, causing it to beat harder and faster.
But it’s not just the heart doing this, JA’s blood vessels are constricting too.
And when they constrict as the heart is beating harder, this dramatically increases the blood
pressure even more.
The combination of huge amounts of caffeine and beta phenyl ethyl amine in 8 scoops of
preworkout swallowed at once with heavy lifting, all together, could have increased JA’s
blood pressure so high that it caused his brain to start stroke in the form of a bleed.
The dysfunction of the brain, caused dysfunction in the heart, which was found first by the
doctors, as they were trying to figure out exactly what was going wrong.
Doctors were able to prevent JA’s brain from pushing up against his skull and oozing
out the cracks.
Surgeons removed parts of his skull, to relieve the pressure building up in his head.
But, the images showed that he didn’t have any physical abnormalities that would have
caused his brain to bleed like this.
His past medical history also didn't show that he was susceptible to this, because he
was a healthy 25 year old man.
Despite the doctors and surgeons at this point really only caring to fix the problems caused
by his brain bleed, the reality is, despite evidence strongly suggesting that caffeine
and beta phenyl ethyl amine are documented to cause hemorrhagic strokes when taken inappropriately,
there’s a always a little bit of doubt that it was absolutely those that caused JA’s
problems.
You can’t set up an experiment to test on people by giving them huge amounts of these
things and waiting until their brains start bleeding, because you’re intentionally harming
people, and you might not be able to fix the problems that you’re going to cause by doing
that, which brings us to the final problem of JA’s case.
Supplements sometimes tell you on the label to consult a physician first before taking
it.
That you should consult a physician before starting any exercise program.
And the reason why you’re probably gonna be told to not take it, Is that we don’t
really know what’s in here.
Some of the brands might change the ingredients and the amounts of those ingredients, and
they don’t have to tell you about it.
These “Complexes” and “Blends” might be sourced differently depending on what state
or country you’re from.
And some of these might be based off herbal ingredients that interact with your liver,
and cause problems when actual medicines you could be taking for a medical condition.
This is coming from someone who is in medicine, and also spent like 15 years of my life in
powerlifting circles.
I stepped on the platform to compete.
I used to take supplements.
And when I was competing, pre workouts like this were just becoming a thing.
Not many of us took it.
And we certainly didn’t dry scoop it.
There’s no such thing as “bypassing water to digest it faster.”
There’s such thing as bypassing the liver, but that would imply that the preworkout is
being absorbed in to your blood through your cheeks and under your tongue, which for granular
powder like this, isn’t happening.
You’re voluntarily creating a choking hazard for yourself by doing this.
It’s a troll.
If dry scooping is somehow a convenience for you in some way, great, but don’t lie to
yourself thinking that taking it that way is doing something special.
If you’re really training seriously, you shouldn’t need anything extra to help you
focus on training, because this is a non-essential supplement.
JA may have not had the support structure of a team at a gym, to gain that insight,
but the label of the preworkout also says don’t take more than 2 scoops in a given
day.
Don’t push it with this kind of stuff.
When stabilized after surgery, JA was moved in to a step-down unit where he appeared to
improve, likely thanks to the fact that he was younger and previously healthy.
He was moved to a rehabilitation facility afterwards and after several months of care
there, he was able to make a recovery.
Thanks so much for watching.
Take care of yourself.
And be well.