A woman has issued a warning to others not to try the popular TikTok trend of 'dry scooping', revealing she suffered a heart attack after attempting it before a workout.
After becoming popular on Reddit, the 'dry scooping' trend made its way to TikTok, seeing many fitness influencers eating scoops of pre-workout powder without diluting it with water.
The method is allegedly supposed to enhance the absorption of amino acids, B vitamins, caffeine, and creatine in the supplement, but now many of those attempting it are suffering some severe side effects.
One of these sufferers is 20-year-old TikTok user Briatney Portillo, who was rushed to hospital with heart attack symptoms after trying the trend.
"Taking a dry pre-workout scoop [because] I saw it trending on TikTok," she captioned a video posted on TikTok from her hospital bed.
"Ending up in the hospital because I had a heart attack."
Portillo told Buzzfeed after taking the pre-workout, she started to feel "tingly and itchy" all over her body, which the internet told her was "a normal side effect".
She began her weight lifting workout but started feeling odd.
"I started to feel a heavy feeling in my chest and slight pain, but it wasn't too bad. I thought it was maybe anxiety or a bad panic attack, so I decided to just ignore it and push through my workout."
Post-workout, she said she felt nauseous and light-headed. She took a shower in hopes of shaking the symptoms and then went to work as an exotic dancer.
"In the locker room of my job, I started getting hot, even though it was cold in there...I started sweating a lot and was drenched even though I was wearing a bikini. Then my chest pain came back and this time it was more intense," she explained.
"The pain went to my back and to my left arm and my left arm went slightly limp, so I knew those were symptoms of a heart attack. I called 911 and the ambulance came."
At the hospital, doctors gave Portillo a CT scan and ultrasound. She was diagnosed with an NSTEMI heart attack, reportedly less damaging than the more common STEMI heart attack.
Portillo is now recovering, and experts are warning against the trend which placed her in intensive care.
Personal trainer Chris Appleton told The Sun there are "no nutritional" benefits to the trend.
"The only benefits you gain from dry scooping are the faster absorption rates however, by doing this, you lose the benefits of the taste. You don't gain any nutritional benefit from dry scooping other than the quicker absorption," he said.
"You also need to be aware of the ingredients as not diluting some products, pre-workout for example, will pump a shot of caffeine into your system much quicker than normal and may cause adverse side effects."
US cardiologist Dr Joy Gelbman told Women's Health that as the supplements aren't regulated it's impossible to know for sure what's in them.
"Certainly if you're going to take one, let alone take one in a way that's not the way that they're suggesting them, you have to realise you're taking a risk."
