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Weight Loss, Body Building Ephedra Can Be Deadly


Ephedra, a supplement used by many boby builders and dieters, poses dangers including heart attacks, seizures and death, new research says.

Ephedra, an herbal stimulant used by millions of Americans for bodybuilding and weight loss, can cause catastrophic complications, including heart attacks, stroke, seizures and death, researchers say.

They conclude the popular dietary supplement, also known as ma huang and often also containing caffeine, poses a risk that far outweighs the small benefits, if any, the supplement offers.

"They’re uncommon events, but they’re serious,"said senior researcher Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, chief of clinical pharmacology at University of California at San Francisco. “The substance is unreasonably hazardous as marketed."/p>

Benowitz and Dr. Christine A. Haller, a clinical fellow at the university, both noted most of the cases they studied involved young, healthy people struck with side effects while using ephedra. Some had been taking the daily supplement for just days or weeks, and two women who became pregnant while taking it lost their babies.
  
  The research appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, which moved up release of the study to today because of the importance of the finding.
  
  Also today, the Food and Drug Administration warned Americans not to use over-the-counter cold remedies or appetite suppressants until their makers replace an ingredient that could cause strokes. FDA said it is taking steps to formally ban phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, which is a chemical cousin to the types of ephedra found in the weight loss and bodybuilding products the California researchers studied.

Causing Complications
  They reviewed records from 140 ephedra users who suffered complications between June 1997 and March 1999, finding about one-third of the problems definitely or probably were caused by the ephedra and another third possibly were caused by it. In one-fifth of the cases, there was insufficient information to draw conclusions, and the rest were deemed unrelated to ephedra use.
  
  Dr. Steven Karch, an expert on drug-related deaths working for the Ephedra Education Council, a group funded by supplement makers, said in some of the cases he believes pre-existing health problems such as heart disease, not ephedra, caused the complications. He also noted that the FDA’s outside experts get research funding from the federal government.
  
  But Dr. Stephen Schneider, an endocrinolgist and nutrition expert at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said the study provides strong evidence ephedra caused the side effects in many of the patients "but not enough evidence to ban it. He said people should consult their doctor before taking it because some of the patients had medical conditions, were taking other medicines or were drinking caffeine drinks that could heighten ephedra’s effects.

People Unaware Taking Ephedra
  "Many people have no idea that they’re taking it,"because it’s part of a supplement with limited or confusing information on the label, Schneider said.
  
  Schneider and Benowitz stressed ephedra should not be taken by anyone who is pregnant or has a history of heart disease, stroke, psychiatric disorders, asthma, thyroid or kidney disease, diabetes or prior seizures.
  
  Benowitz and Haller said federal regulators should require health warnings on products containing ephedra and should resurrect a proposal to impose dose limits. That idea was scrapped in 1997 under pressure from the supplement makers"industry and Congress"General Accounting Office, which said the 800 reports of side effects, including 44 deaths, FDA had collected by then didn’t provide enough evidence to impose restrictions.

First Time In Medical Journal
  So FDA asked Benowitz and Haller, another team of outside experts, and two in-house panels of scientists to evaluate the latest batch of cases where ephedra users suffered heart palpitations, very high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, seizures or other complications. The report by Benowitz and Haller is the first to appear in a medical journal.
  
  Joseph Levitt, director of FDA’s food safety center, said the four research groups had similar findings, although in some cases they did not agree on whether ephedra was to blame.
  
  John Hathcock of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for supplement makers, criticized the criteria they all used to classify which complications likely were due to ephedra. He also said a study by other researchers about to published found no link between such complications and ephedra use.
  
  Ephedra products are often sold in health food stores, under names ranging from Ripped Fuel, for bodybuilders hoping to increase muscle and energy, to Metabolife and Diet-Phen for dieters.
  
  Herbal ephedra is sold in about 200 unregulated dietary supplements, and past research has shown the dosage in ephedra pills often varies widely from what’s on the label. Benowitz estimates about 12 million people used them last year.
  
  Haller said she and Benowitz are just starting research to determine what genetic or metabolism differences make some ephedra users more likely to have problems.

(From ABCNews)

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