Researchers ordered 44 different compounds from the internet, each purporting to contain a SARM. Full disclosure here – they don’t report which sites they went to to get these drugs, so I can’t say that the site I referenced earlier was included in the study or not.

Anyway, the research group used advanced mass spectrometry to determine just what was in each of these 44 compounds. Let's just say the quality of these compounds is not too strong.

Only 23 of the 44 compounds had any SARMs in them at all. Only 18 of those 23 had the amount of the compound that appeared on the label. 4 of the 44 compounds had absolutely no active ingredient, and many compounds were adulterated with other chemicals, like the growth-hormone secretagogue ibutamoren.

Perhaps most upsetting to would-be bodybuilders out there, four products actually contained tamoxifen. Yup – a selective estrogen receptor modulator. Whoops.

These drugs – and I refuse to call them nutritional supplements – these are drugs – are not harmless. All the effects of anabolic steroids – baldness, rage, testicular atrophy, liver damage, stroke, and gynecomastia – have been seen in people taking SARMs.

And for my libertarian friends, I tend to agree that an individual should be entitled to make choices about the risks they take with their own body. But they at least deserve accurate labeling information.

The FDA seems to agree, issuing warnings to three supplement companies in October saying, no, these compounds are not nutritional supplements.