OPINIONAn assurance of safety: Treat supplements like drugsPhysicians call for better federal regulation of dietary supplements.Editorial. Nov. 11, 2002. When it comes to concerns about dietary supplements, ephedra has become a lightning rod. Physicians have long expressed worry about their patients' use of this product for weight-loss and energy-boosting purposes. And their fears now appear to have been borne out. It was recently revealed that consumers made more than 13,000 complaints to the largest maker of ephedra-containing diet supplements, Metabolife International Inc. Nearly 2,000 of those reports represented "significant adverse reactions," according to congressional investigators. Metabolife insists that its products are safe. There are others using irresponsible, and possibly illegal, marketing tactics, targeting teens looking for an energy boost or promoting ephedra-containing cocktails as alternatives to street drugs. The health consequences of various ephedra-containing products reported by consumers are severe: death, cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, seizure and stroke. Consumer complaints alone don't prove that ephedra, also known as ma huang, caused their ills. But until there is adequate scientific research into the benefits and risks of these products, federal regulators should err on the side of caution. Worries about ephedra-containing supplements prompted the AMA to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to begin proceedings to remove products containing ephedrine alkaloids from the U.S. market. The FDA has not yet responded. But the AMA's concerns about this substance can be applied to all supplements.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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