Major League Baseball has warned major and minor league baseball players to avoid any dietary supplements and sprays containing “deer antler velvet extract”. The ban on velvet deer antler follows reports that athletes have tested positive for the anabolic-androgenic steroid methyltestosterone after using “Ultimate Sports Spray“.
The manufacturer was ordered by a federal judge to pay $5.4 million to St. Louis Ram linebacker David Vobora. Vobora presented evidence that Ultimate Sports Spray was contaminated with the illegal steroid methyltestosterone. Methyltestosterone was not one of the ingredients listed on the label.
Ultimate Sports Spray is manufactured by a company doing business as “Sports With Alternatives To Steroids” or S.W.A.T.S.
The MLB is also concerned about claims that deer antler extract contains a naturally-occurring version of banned peptide hormone IFG-1. The company promotes its flagship product, “Ultimate Sports Spray”, as containing IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1).
IFG-1 is a performance-enhancing drug banned by practically every major professional sports league in the United States. IGF-1 is also a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency List of Prohibited Substances.
Mitch Ross, the owner of SWATS, has always denied that his products contain the illegal steroid methyltestosterone. However, Ross has gone out of his way to prove that Ultimate Sports Spray contains IGF-1. Ross provided ThePostGame.com with two laboratory analyses of the product that allegedly proved the presence of IGF-1 in “Ultimate Sports Spray”.
If the Ultimate Sports Spray does indeed contain trace amounts of IGF-1, the peptide hormone would be destroyed by the digestive system and unlikely to offer any performance-enhancing benefits.
Source:
Verducci, T. (August 5, 2011). MLB trying to curtail use of deer antler spray as steroid alternative. Retrieved from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/08/05/deer.antlers.arod/index.html
Adelson, E. and Watson, A. (June 29, 2011). ThePostGame Exclusive: NFL RB Heath Evans Says He Uses Controversial SWATS Spray. Retrieved from http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201106/thepostgame-exclusive-nfl-fullback-heath-evans-says-he-uses-controversial-swats-spra
