METABOLIFE WARNING
Excerpts From October, 1999 Article -- Newsweek Magazine
Metabolife
...The catch is that the stimulants it contains can be dangerous:
the Food and Drug Administration has warned that products
like Metabolife can cause "cardiac arrhythmia and death".
Several states have moved to ban or restrict their use, and
a few users have filed lawsuits claiming injury.
Metabolife is just one of several popular supplements-others
include Therma Pro, Diet Pep and Diet Fuel-that combine caffeine
with the stimulant ephedra. Derived from mahuang, ephedra
constricts the blood vessels while speeding the heart and
the nervous system. It also helps supress appetite. What worries
some experts is that it's chemically identical to ephedrine,
a synthetic compound regulated for safety. Asthmatics take
ephedrine to shrink swollen tissue in their airways. Until
the 1980s, it was also used in over-the-counter cold and allergy
pills, as a nasal decongestant. But when states started restricting
sales, manufacturers switched to a gentler chemical called
pseudoephedrine. "Ephedrine had too much potential for
abuse," says Dr. Darrell Hulisz of the University Hospitals
of Cleveland. "It was used as cheap, legal speed."
The scientific record on Metabolife is still sketchy. In
one small experiment, researchers and Vanderbilt University
clocked the metabolic rates of 17 patients - once while they
were taking the supplement and once while they were taking
a placebo - and found that the rates picked up slightly on
Metabolife. In another small study, researchers at Columbia
University and New York's St. Luke's Hospital found that volunteers
who took Metabolife for eight weeks lost more weight then
those taking placebo. But the study was neither large nor
long enough to prove the treatment effective, and it raised
questions about safety. The patients on Metabolife were more
likely to experience jitteriness, insomnia and heart palpitations,
as well as increased blood pressure. "In my mind, you
treat obesity to lower blood pressure", says Dr. Steven
Heymsfield, an obesity specialist who helped conduct the study
(and who serves as a trustee for Slim- Fast)."So anything
that raises it is at least an orange flag." Other orange
flags include "adverse events" reported voluntarily
to the FDA. Those reports don't establish cause and effect,
but they document dozens of seizures, strokes and heart attacks-and
at least nine deaths-among ephedra users. (End)
States Make Serious Health Warning Mandatory!
Laws in some States are already beginning to make mandatory
the requirement of serious health warnings posting on all
Metabolife products, such as this one in Texas:
Warning:"This product has ephedrine group alkaloids
in the form of herbal extracts and may cause serious adverse
health effects".
Equal, If Not More Effective, Alternative Puts Safety First!
As existing thermogenics such as ma huang come under scrutiny
from the Food and Drug Adminstration and from State Regulators
- and are in danger of being removed from the marketplace,
the need has arisen for a safe natural and effective weightloss/fitness
solution. Well, look no further that solution is already here.
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