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Tuesday, November 7, 2000

Study: Diet supplement's risks outweigh benefits
Ephedra, popular for bodybuilding and weight loss, has been linked to at least 54 deaths
Associated Press
Ephedra, an herbal stimulant used by millions of Americans for bodybuilding and weight loss, can cause heart attacks, stroke, seizures and death in otherwise healthy young people, researchers say.
   At least 54 deaths and about 1,000 reports of complications have been linked to ephedra since the mid-1990s.
   The researchers concluded that the dietary supplement, also known as ma huang, poses a risk that far outweighs any benefits it might have.
   "They're uncommon events, but they're serious," said Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, chief of clinical pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco. "The substance is unreasonably hazardous as marketed."
   The research, commissioned by the Food and Drug Administration, appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, which moved up release of the study to Monday because of the importance of the finding.
   Benowitz and colleague Dr. Christine A. Haller noted that most of the cases they studied involved healthy young people. Some had been taking ephedra for just days or weeks, and two women who became pregnant while taking it lost their babies.
   Ephedra (pronounced eh-FED-ruh) products are often sold in health food stores under such names as Ripped Fuel - used by bodybuilders hoping to increase muscle and energy - as well as Metabolife and Diet-Phen for dieters.
   There are hundreds of unregulated ephedra products on the market.
   Benowitz estimated 12 million people in the United States used ephedra products last year.

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