Is NDGA legal in Canada?

In male mice, it made them live longer at three different doses, and bigger doses did more. It never worked in females. It also harms the liver, which is why the plant it comes from was pulled from the supplement market.

NDGA is a plant compound from the creosote bush. In people, the record that matters is about the liver, and it is bad.

How it works: NDGA does many things at once, which makes it hard to say what is doing the work. It blocks a group of enzymes called lipoxygenases.

Approval history: Not approved for any use as a medicine that works through the whole body. Masoprocol, a skin cream version, held an approval for actinic keratoses, rough scaly patches on sun-damaged skin. Chaparral, the herbal product from the same plant, has drawn official warnings over liver damage.

Allows a drug to be sold by issuing a Notice of Compliance and a Drug Identification Number (DIN). A compound that is not allowed for sale cannot legally be sold for use in people. Bringing in prescription drugs for your own use is also limited.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Health Canada, Health Products and Food Branch listings for NDGA on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check Health Canada directly

Whether NDGA is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in Canada. Before you compete or get tested, look up NDGA by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.