[ad_1]
According to a new study, some sports and weight loss supplements still contain experimental stimulants banned years ago by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The study, published today (Oct. 22) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, analyzed 12 brands of sports supplements and weight loss, looking for four potentially dangerous stimulant drugs that appeared in recent years . The FDA has explicitly banned these drugs in supplements.
New discoveries show that "what the FDA is doing to try to eliminate experimental stimulants from supplements is not working," said Dr. Pieter Cohen, lead author of the study, general internist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville, Massachusetts.
The drugs banned in the study are similar to amphetamines and include DMAA, an ingredient that the FDA had warned in 2013 could increase the risk of heart problems; DMBA, a stimulant very similar to DMAA; BMPEA, whose structure is almost identical to that of the amphetamine drug; and oxilofrin, a stimulant banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in professional sports.
In 2014, the 12 supplement brands reviewed in the study were positive for at least one of the four stimulants. The researchers then reanalyzed the supplements in 2017, after the FDA banned stimulants. (The DMAA was banned in 2013, the DMBA and the BMPEA in 2015 and the oxilofrine in 2016.) [Wishful Thinking: 6 ‘Magic Bullet’ Cures That Don’t Exist]
The investigators found that the number of brands containing the stimulants had decreased, but 9 out of 12 supplements (75%) still had at least one stimulant and six supplements (50%) had at least two. Oxilofrin was the most common stimulant, found in nine of the supplements; DMBA has been found in four supplements, and DMAA, in two supplements – four years after the FDA banned the ingredient and warned of its dangers. BMPEA has also been found in a supplement.
Surprisingly, none of the supplements were tested positive for DMBA in 2014; the stimulant only appeared after the FDA publicly stated that the drug was banned.
Cohen stated that he "was not expecting it at all". And while the current study may not prove that the FDA's statement has anything to do with the appearance of ABHR in supplements, it "raises a host of troubling issues," including whether the reviews FDA's unintended effect is to promote the stimulant to supplement manufacturers, Cohen said. Further research will be needed to examine this issue.
The stimulants in question cause health problems because they stimulate the cardiovascular system by increasing heart rate and blood pressure. This can increase the risk of cardiovascular problems; for example, the FDA warns that for some people, the use of DMAA could cause shortness of breath, tightness of the chest, and heart attacks.
The new study provides more evidence that the way supplements are regulated "is insufficient to ensure the safety of dietary supplements," the researchers wrote. The elimination of stimulants in the supplements would probably require changes to the legislation governing the supplements. But until these changes occur, the FDA should use all of its control tools, including facility inspections, warning letters, and recalls, to get the supplement containing market stimulants. said Cohen.
But with some 90,000 supplements on the market "it's hard to imagine how, without much more resources, the FDA could regulate an entity as vast and as amorphous as the food supplement industry," said Dr. Michael Incze and Mitchell Katz, both editors at JAMA. Internal medicine, written in an editorial accompanying the study.
"Thus, as in the era of the first snake oil salesmen, the rule remains:" Beware of the buyers, "said the editors." Given the security concerns existing, high costs and lack of benefits for most people, health professionals should regularly ask questions about the use of supplements and encourage discontinuous use in the l? absence of factual indication. "
Originally published on Science live.
[ad_2]
Source link
