SARMs get a bad reputation around the internet for being unsafe due to the sheer number of fake products being mislabeled as SARMs. This was proven by a study by Dr. Shalendar Bhasin, a research program director of a major Northeast hospital.[1] In this journal, he analyzed 44 products labeled as SARMs that he purchased online from random sources. He found that half the products did not contain a single milligram of any actual SARM ingredient. The other half that did have some SARM in the bottle did not include the specific one advertised on the label or were underdosed. This poses a massive problem for this industry since the people selling these products never genuinely know what they are selling to their customers in the first place. This is the problem in an industry that attracts shady criminals who only care about making a quick buck and neglect basic quality control out of incompetence, greed, or laziness.
Selling prohormones as SARMs:
There was a time in the United States when you could go online with a credit card, legally purchase prohormones, and have them shipped to your door. This led to many side effects by customers unaware of how dangerous these products could be. Teenagers who thought, since it was something legal online, that it would be safe for them to use were ending up with liver problems, gynecomastia, reproductive dysfunction, and aggression issues.
The federal government finally had enough of angry parents wanting to know why these toxic drugs making their children sick were so easily available online, so they finally stepped in and took them off the market.[2]
Companies were sitting on millions of dollars worth of prohormones, so some fought back over losing money. Those who dared to defy the feds ended up being sued, arrested and put out of business. Companies decided instead of fighting the Feds, they would be better off just trying to lay low and outsmart them. So they took all those prohormones and started selling them as SARMs and other supplements. This is known as ‘spiking’, a huge problem in the supplement industry since the FDA does not have the human resources to police the industry thoroughly. It is estimated that only 2% of all supplements are even tested, so the majority of supplements being sold today will never be tested at all.[3]
Now you see why certain users of what they think are SARMs report dangerous side effects. They aren’t taking SARMs at all; these are taking prohormones!