For further information on regulations for international competition please see the BEF Rule Book and the FEI website.
Find out more about Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) here.
Sports - national : UK Sport is the UK's national anti-doping organistion - see their drug free sport pages
Sports - international: The FEI is the international anti-doping organisation - for more information, visit their website
Sports - global : Find out about the World Anti-Doping Agency on their website
UK Anti-Doping warning about Methylhexaneamine
Methylhexaneamine is prohibited in sport. It is increasingly being found in nutritional supplements, typically those that are designed to increase energy or aid weight loss. Methylhexaneamine is commonly referred to by a number of alternative names including 1,3-dimethylamylamine, dimethylamylamine, dimethylpentylamine, DMAA, forthan, forthane, floradrene, geranamine and geranium oil.
There is no guarantee that supplements are drug-free, even when all the ingredients listed are permitted substances. UK Anti-Doping counsels against the use of supplements; however, for those athletes who are considering using a supplement, UK Anti-Doping recommends caution, and advises a thorough assessment of the risks before taking them.
In order to assist athletes to assess the risk HFL, an independent organisation, has established a supplement risk minimisation scheme called Informed-Sport. This programme evaluates supplement manufacturers for their process integrity, and screens supplements and ingredients for the presence of prohibited substances. Athletes should be advised to go to www.informed-sport.com for more information.
Please make sure your athletes are aware of their responsibilities and warned against the risks of supplement use.
The following key points should be stressed to athletes to help minimise the risk of ingesting a prohibited substance through a supplement.
1. Keep in mind that www.globaldro.com is for checking medications NOT supplements, nor ingredients in supplements.
2. If you do use a supplement, assess the risks and refer to www.informed-sport.com
3. Keep records of all the checks you carry out before taking any medications or supplements.
We would like to remind athletes that they are solely responsible for any substance found in their body under the World Anti-Doping Code's policy of strict liability. Contaminated supplements or misleading packaging are not valid defences should an athlete test positive for methylhexaneamine or any other prohibited substance.
Anti-Doping: Changes to Prescribing Practices
It has come to the attention of UK Anti-Doping that prescribing practices might be changing in some of the regions, and that this may result in athletes being offered a different type of medication in their repeat prescription. We would like to remind athletes to check all medication carefully including repeat prescriptions, to ensure that they don't contain prohibited substances. Medications can be checked on Global DRO - www.globaldro.com.
An example of this change is in asthma inhalers. In some circumstances the inhaler prescribed has changed from one that contains Salmeterol (Seretide) to one that contains Formoterol (Fostair) for both single and combination asthma inhalers. In this case, inhalers containing Formoterol would require a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) application, whereas Salbutamol inhalers require a Declaration of Use.
If you require further information, please contact Sophie Thomas on 02476 698874 or at sophie.thomas@bef.co.uk.
