Although many of you may have been doing this for years, dry scooping has become a trend on TikTok that is worrying health professionals.
For those who aren't familiar, dry scooping refers to putting a scoop of pre-workout powder directly into your mouth, instead of mixing it with water and drinking as intended. Pre-workout is a supplement made to boost your energy and help with performance in the gym and dry scooping is supposed to amplify those effects.
But according to several TikTok videos and news reports, the practice can endanger people’s health. For instance, one 20-year-old woman went to the hospital with a heart attack after dry scooping, Buzzfeed reported. And Newsweek reported on a fitness influencer who chased four dry scoops with another four scoops mixed with water and went to the ER with dangerously high blood pressure and brain swelling. Another woman appeared to have trouble breathing after dry scooping, according to Newsweek.
Pre-workout powders can contain high concentrations (100mg or more per serving) of caffeine, Anari says, which is about the same as a cup of coffee). That can definitely cause symptoms like jitteriness, an upset stomach, and an elevated heart rate, especially when taken undiluted and/or in greater amounts than directed, Ansari says. In severe excess, “caffeine can definitely be very toxic and very dangerous,” Dr. Johnson-Arbor says.
A caffeine overdose, which causes symptoms such as heart palpitations, chest pain, trouble breathing, and dizziness, can land you in the hospital, Dr. Johnson-Arbor says. Life-threatening caffeine overdoses are more likely to occur and be life threatening in individuals who have underlying heart problems, take medications that cause similar effects, have a low caffeine tolerance, or are also drinking other caffeinated beverages at the same time, Dr. Johnson-Arbor says.
This was originally published on Self.com by Carolyn L. Todd.
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