• There's a dangerous new fitness trend sweeping TikTok, and it's landed at least one young woman in the hospital and caused another to stop breathing.
  • "Dry-scooping" caught on after a fitness influencer suggested taking a scoop of pre-workout powder without diluting it with water, in order to maximize the effects of the amino acids, B vitamins, caffeine, creatine in the supplement.
  • Experts call the trend "alarming" and warn people not to try the challenge.

There's a dangerous new fitness trend sweeping TikTok, and it's landed at least one young woman in the hospital and caused another one to stop breathing.

"Dry-scooping" has been making the rounds on Reddit for a few months, but seems to have taken off on the short-form video platform. "Dry-scooping" videos suggest eating a scoop of pre-workout energy powder without diluting it with water, in order to maximize the effects of the amino acids, B vitamins, caffeine, and creatine in the supplement.

After dry-scooping, 20-year-old Briatney Portillo was rushed to the hospital for heart attack symptoms.

"Taking a dry pre-workout scoop [because] I saw it trending on TikTok," she said in a video posted from her hospital bed. "Ending up in the hospital because I had a *heart attack*"

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"After I took the pre-workout, I started to feel tingly and itchy all over my body, which wasn't a good feeling, but I Googled it and it said that was a normal side effect, so I began to do my workout," Portillo told Buzzfeed. "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."

After her workout, 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."

It turned out that Portillo had a type of heart attack known as a non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Compared to the more common type of heart attack known as STEMI, an NSTEMI is typically less damaging to your heart because the artery to the heart isn't completely blocked off, according to Healthline.

At the hospital, doctors told her to avoid caffeine and skip the pre-workout powder. "They said I was OK to work out within 3 to 4 days after my hospitalization and to start watching my heart rate on either a Fitbit or a smartwatch," she said.

What's in pre-workout supplement powder, anyway?

First off, it's impossible to know for sure what's inside a pre-workout supplement. "These supplements are not regulated by the FDA," says Dr. Joy Gelbman, a cardiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian. "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 realize you're taking a risk." She explains that many of these powders have variable but high levels of caffeine.

"That big jolt of caffeine can ramp up the heart rate and the blood pressure, essentially putting a strain on the heart that can lead to the release of this cardiac enzyme called troponin," which causes the non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), Dr. Gelbman says.

Some pre-workout supplement powders contain up to 250 milligrams of caffeine per scoop—roughly three times the amount in a cup of coffee, Dr. Gelbman adds. "If you take a big shot of caffeine like that, in addition to any other caffeine you're drinking in your normal daily habits, it can spike the blood pressure or the heart rate or lead to heart rhythm disturbances, which can be pretty dangerous to an otherwise young, healthy person," she says.

Especially for someone like Portillo, who doesn't routinely consume caffeine, that's a lot for the body to handle. Keep in mind that a dry scoop is an even more concentrated form of the ingredients.

Dry-scooping carries other risks, too.

Aside from the danger of giving yourself a heart attack, dry-scooping is a major choking hazard. "Taking a big scoop of a powdered substance without water [poses] the immediate risk that you would choke," says Dr. Gelbman.

Though it's not clear what happened exactly, another young woman stopped breathing as she swallowed the dry scoop. (Warning: some readers may find this video disturbing or triggering.) Though she won't speculate about what happened in this particular case, Dr. Gelbman said the woman looked like she was having a laryngeal spasm. By inhaling any type of powder, "you can aspirate it into your lungs and get pneumonia," she says.

Dr. Gelbman suggests contacting your physician before taking any TikTok wellness advice. "Anything that you're taking, even if it's a supplement, you probably want to connect with your doctor, certainly taking it in some kind of off-label way like dry-scooping it should be something to really not do at all or do at your own risk."

Briatney told Buzzfeed that she feels better now, but wants people to be aware of what they're putting in their bodies. "Being 20, I would’ve never assumed I’d get a heart attack from pre-workout," she said. "Just because you see it online, even if it’s 'fitness influencers' doing it, doesn’t mean it’s safe. Being young doesn’t mean we’re invincible."