In June, Nashville-based Aegis Sciences Corporation announced members of its Aegis Shield™ Expert Panel. Comprised of leaders in fields including sports medicine, nutrition and physiology, the panel provides Aegis guidance on its Aegis Shield mobile app and website, as well as its Aegis Shield CERTIFIED™ program, which are designed to protect athletes from inadvertently consuming banned ingredients.
“We created our Aegis Shield products and services to give athletes and supplement makers, alike, resources to help them avoid complications associated with banned or prohibited substances,” said Bob Murray, PhD, scientific director for Aegis Shield.
Athletes who are subject to sports drug testing can inadvertently test positive for prohibited substances found in some of the products they consume. The mobile app and website are designed to help athletes identify the presence of banned substances on the ingredient labels of dietary supplements, over-the-counter drugs and prescription medications. The expert panel helps Aegis stay abreast of current science and practices related to athletes’ dietary supplement use.
Additionally, the panel will help guide the development of Aegis Shield CERTIFIED, a certification program for dietary supplement manufacturers. After testing by Aegis, products free of prohibited substances such as steroids, stimulants and diuretics, can display the Aegis Shield CERTIFIED™ logo to assure consumers that the products have passed testing, the listed ingredient labels and packaging are true to the actual contents, and the product is free of any prohibited substances.
The eight-person panel includes sports medicine experts from The Ohio State University, Indiana University, the University of South Carolina, Penn State, and Georgia State. Additionally, a sports performance consultant, athletic trainer with deep Olympic experience and a nutrition researcher round out the group.