Workout supplements and weight loss supplements are now offered at hundreds of stores, all across the world. People are using diet supplements without even knowing the chemicals in these tablets such as amphetamine which is a powerful stimulant that can cause health dangers to those who are using these diet supplements. According to the Canadian Health experts, they called this chemical BMPEA and pulled it off from the stores. The FDA has already documented the same chemicals in the diet supplements, but they never mentioned the names of the manufacturing companies of the diet supplements in public.
The FDA said in their statement that this supplement that contains stimulant does not have any safety concerns at the moment. However, other health experts said that the reluctance of the FDA in acting about the case will make a bigger problem. Daniel Fabricant is the senior executive of the dietary supplement division program from year 2011 up to 2014. They have spent millions in blocking the new laws to hold the diet supplements and make the standards stricter. Daniel left FDA last year and returned as the chief executive. Micheal F. Jacobson, executive director of Center for Science in Public Interest, said “to have former officials in the supplement industry become the chief regulators of that industry at the FDA is like the fox guarding the hen house.”
Dr. Fabricant didn’t agree and said in one of the interview that with this kind of official in the industry that runs the FDA supplement division, it is “an incredible benefit to the agency.” Dr. Fabricant also said during his term that they worked hard to get the unsafe products out the market. They also issued a mandatory recall on a supplement included in a lethal multistate occurrence of liver disease. He said “I did more there in three and a half years than was done in the 16 years prior.” Last week, the fourteen state attorneys general of New York spearheaded by Eric T. Schneiderman called on the Congress in order to give FDA more power to control the supplements.
FDA was the very first organization to investigate the supplements that contained the BMPEA. In early 2013, the scientists of the agency mentioned in the article that was released a year ago that they have noticed an ingredient in the popular supplement known as acacia rigidula. This is a native shrub in southern Texas and Mexico. The presence of this plant in the diet supplements was red flag according to Dr. Pieter A. Cohen, an assistant professor on Harvard Medical School. He stated that it is not unusual for companies to include chemicals similar to amphetamine in weight-loss supplements and then conceal them on their labels under vague plant names to make it seem they are natural plant extracts.
Under the federal law, the dietary supplements can only contain ingredients that already existed on the market even before 1994 or are already part of food supply. He also mentioned that BMPEA is never sold as food supplement, so any product or supplement that contains this chemical is considered adulterated and FDA will have to send warnings.
Source: A version of this article appears in print on 04/2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Study Warns of Diet Supplement Dangers Kept Quiet by F.D.A..
Dr Lam’s Adrenal Fatigue Perspective:
Most adrenal fatigue sufferers tend to have central obesity. Weight management is a challenge. Trying to lose weight without first healing the adrenals often fails and end in frustration. Trying to go against the body’s wishes is not a good idea. The right time to reduce weight is after the adrenals are well healed. The reason is simple: losing weight often involves the use of metabolic stimulants. Those with adrenal fatigue can feel worse if they are sensitive or weak. These stimulants can trigger adrenal crashes. The proper adrenal fatigue recovery protocols should be followed first and foremost. It should be customized for each person’s need and the stage they are in. Those in advanced stages should expect a slight weight gain as the adrenals begin to heal, followed by weight loss. The adrenal fatigue diet does not focus on weight loss and any program that does can backfire if not properly titrated.
