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. 2021 Oct 4;5(10):e28957. doi: 10.2196/28957

Table 4.

Exemplar quotes related to weight loss and sports performance dietary supplements for each key theme appearing in military personnel subreddits from 2009 to 2019.

Theme and subreddit Year of posting Quote Coded themes
Drug testing/positive test result

r/army 2012 “Just curious if supplements such as preworkouts or proteins are allowed in basic?”

  • Regulation of supplements

  • Preworkout

r/army 2012 “…the Army (and pro-sports) has banned any preworkout with 1,3 Dimethylamylamine [DMAA] in them (such as Jack3d and Oxyelite Pro).”

  • Regulation of supplements

  • DMAAa

  • Jack3d

  • OxyElite Pro
Operation Supplement Safety

r/navy 2019 “https://www.opss.org/dietary-supplement-ingredients-prohibited-department-defense
Looks like it’s listed under the ‘unapproved drugs’ section.”

  • Operation Supplement Safety

  • Regulation of supplements
Other research citedb

r/army 2019 “If you are ordering stuff from sketchy suppliers on the internet, who knows what’s in it.
https://www.fda.gov /ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm 173739.htm”

  • Other research

  • Regulation of supplements
Products mentioned

r/AirForce 2015 “Are we allowed to take EC stack? I’ve heard anecdotes of people saying you can take it and there’s no problem, but just to be clear, ephedrine can cause false positives for methamphetamine. You have to buy Bronkaid or Primatene at a pharmacy in order to use the EC stack because ephedrine isn’t sold as a standalone product.”

  • Positive test result

  • ECc stack

  • Ephedrine

  • Bronkaid

r/army 2018 “I am thinking of starting an E/C stack taking Bronkaid (OTC) and Caffeine pills in order to cut some fat and get below my max weight. I wanted to just ensure that this is ok for me to do, and that it wouldn't get me in any sort of trouble. I appreciate any and all advice, thanks!”

  • Regulation of supplements

  • Weight loss

  • Bronkaid

  • EC stack

r/navy 2019 “E/C stack is about the only stack that's not a waste of money”

  • EC stack
Reason for supplement use

r/USMC 2018 “Want to take a preworkout with DMHA in it. DMAA is on the banned substance list, but DMHA is not. If I pop a false positive on a drug test, will I get charged? Or will they do further tests and determine it was a legal stimulant in a pre-workout?”

  • Regulation of supplements

  • Preworkout

  • DMAA

  • DMHAd
Adverse effects



r/AirForce 2019 “PSA for all you PT/Mock test takers. Do not, under any circumstances, take multiple energy pills you bought at the gas station before you test. Never thought it would be a problem, but I was testing one of our officers this morning. He completed 1 lap and proceeded to vomit. His heart rate was over 210 and I was starting to worry that we would have to call an ambulance.”

  • Vomiting

  • Elevated heart rate

  • Energy supplements

r/army 2019 “jack3d apparently did [make you test positive on a drug test] back in like 2009-2010. I used to use it lmao but never popped hot or anything. The military banned it and the product changed to remove some sort of amphetamine it had. It also killed a [couple] dudes in the Army and at USMA though from heart attacks so it could also have been that.”

  • Regulation of supplements

  • Drug testing

  • Jack3d

  • Heart attack

aDMAA: 1,3-dimethylamylamine.

bResearch from sources other than OPSS (eg, the US Food and Drug Administration website).

cEC: ephedrine and caffeine.

dDMHA: 1,5-dimethylhexylamine.