TikTok trend gives 20-year-old exotic dancer an actual heart attack!

New York, New York - Watch out for "dry scooping", a dangerous trend on TikTok in which people ingest concentrated dry "pre-workout" powders for an extra energy boost before hitting the gym. Trying it just once gave a 20-year-old dancer a heart attack!

20-year-old Briatney Portillo's story is a stark warning against unhealthy internet trends.
20-year-old Briatney Portillo's story is a stark warning against unhealthy internet trends.  © instagram.com/brivtny

Briatney Portillo should have a very healthy heart at her age. She goes to the gym, models, and makes her living as an exotic dancer, which means she's supposed to be in top shape.

However, she recently suffered a heart attack, apparently due to an insane TikTok trend called "dry scooping."

Dry scooping involves taking a pre-workout protein powder packed with tons of stimulants and ingesting it without mixing it into a shake. Because it is in it's most concentrated form, the logic is it will give you a major energy boost right before you hit the gym.

It may sound like this month's "cinnamon challenge," but it's no joke: dry scooping ended up sending Briatney to the hospital! After swallowing the dry powder, she shot a few TikTok videos and then started working out.

"I felt tingly and my whole body was itchy, it wasn't a good feeling," she told BuzzFeed. "But I Googled it and it said those were normal side effects."

She even started getting chest pains, but she ignored them at first thinking they might be a panic attack, and pushed through her workout. But on her way to her dancing job, it got worse.

"I want people to watch what they ingest."

Briatney Portillo is a dancer and model.
Briatney Portillo is a dancer and model.  © instagram.com/brivtny

"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," she recalled.

"Then my chest pain came back and this time it was more intense. 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."

The hospital was reluctant to diagnose her because at only 20, she seemed too young to have heart problems, but tests confirmed that she had suffered an NSTEMI, a form of heart attack in which part of an artery of the heart is partially blocked.

Many workout supplements on the market are not regulated by the FDA, and contain unknown additives and higher levels of stimulants than are safe for human consumption.

Briatney has since recovered and is able to exercise, dance, and shoot TikTok videos normally again, but she still wanted to share her story to warn against the dangerous internet trend: "I just want people to be careful with what they're consuming. 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."

She's definitely got the word out! One of her TikTok videos she shot at the hospital, in which she portrays herself as a clown who made the foolish decision to dry scoop has now reached more than 2.3 million views and 335,000 likes.

Cover photo: instagram.com/brivtny

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