Do you take nutrition supplements?

[babylonsister]

This Harvard researcher wants you to know that your supplements can kill you
Updated by Julia Belluz on October 8, 2014, 11:20 a.m. ET


In the past, people looking to get high on designer drugs had to seek them out, knowingly risking their health on products like "bath salts."

Now, new research suggests that many consumers may be unknowingly ingesting similar untested designer stimulants — because over-the-counter nutrition supplements can be laced with them.

That's the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis. "This is the third time in the last year that we have seen a brand-new class of drugs appear in mainstream supplements," said lead author Pieter Cohen, an internist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, who conducted the research with colleagues in Michigan and the Netherlands.

Cohen and his co-investigators examined over-the-counter supplements for the presence of a new, designer stimulant called DMBA. Designer drugs are just synthetic variations on the chemical structure of existing drugs, made to have similar effects but avoid being classified as illegal. In this case, DMBA is a man-made version of the chemical DMAA, also known as as 1,3-dimethylamylamine, methylhexanamine or geranium extract.

""It took people getting sickened by it — having bleeds in their heads, dropping dead... that finally moved the FDA to get DMAA off the market.""

The researchers found DMBA — the new designer stimulant — in a dozen supplements. The health effects of DMBA are unknown because it has only ever been studied in a small number of cats and dogs, but never humans. And DMAA — the parent compound from which DMBA is derived — was banned in the US, UK and several other countries because it is linked to strokes, heart failure and sudden death.

"In 2006, DMAA was introduced on the market, but it should not have been in supplements," said Cohen. DMAA was found in dozens of sports and diet pills, selling to the tune of $100 million in 2010 alone.

"It took people getting sickened by it — having bleeds in their heads, dropping dead running marathons, that pathologists realized were due to DMAA — that finally moved the Food and Drug Administration to get DMAA off the market. That was seven years after it was introduced."

But while it's now illegal to put DMAA in supplements because it poses such a health risk, the new research shows manufacturers are using a sister chemical instead. With their new discovery, Cohen said, "There is no need to wait seven years. Here we are finding the next version of DMAA."


more...

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/8/6945793/ingredient-label-vitamin-supplement-health-bath-salts

[elleng]

1. No, just chocolate.

[SheilaT]

6. I add red wine to that.

Seems to be keeping me quite healthy.

[elleng]

7. Yes. Good.

[RebelOne]

20. White wine and Vitamin E, biotin and Centrium Silver.

I am 75 years old and have been drinking white wine for many years. It must be keeping me healthy because I don't have any major health issues, just high blood pressure which is controlled by medication.

[Suich]

2. I guess I'm not clear on what a "nutrition supplement" is.

I take Centrum Silver but that's not what they're talking about, is it?

[pinboy3niner]

4. No, this isn't about your multivitamins

The supplements in this case are special performance enhancers described here:

http://www.livescience.com/48191-dbma-stimulant-weight-loss-supplements.html

[HuckleB]

5. This piece isn't about multivitamins, though those should probably be avoided, too.

More evidence that routine multivitamin use should be avoided
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-that-routine-multivitamin-use-should-be-avoided/

[NeoConsSuck]

11. Thank you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dont-take-your-vitamins.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

[Jim Lane]

16. That New York Times article is disappointing

It cites a few studies that found adverse impacts from taking "large doses" of vitamins, but it doesn't identify specific levels. The closest it comes is to report that, when "the F.D.A. announced a plan to regulate vitamin supplements containing more than 150 percent of the recommended daily allowance," vitamin manufacturers got Congress to prohibit any such regulation.

I just checked my multivitamin label. It gives me 115% of the RDA for manganese but is not above 100% for anything else.

The Times article gives me no reason to stop taking my vitamins.

[HuckleB]

3. No. Most of them are worthless, anyway.

Vitamin D can be helpful for some, and fish oil won't hurt you, but otherwise there's not much of a need for anyone to use them.

Also, yeah, I posted about this earlier today:

Untested Stimulant Drug Found in 12 Supplements
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025640109

Thanks for posting it again! It needs to be spread!

[nationalize the fed]

8. I won't stop taking my multivitamin/ multimineral + Vitamin C supplements

based on this.

And no one is going to regulate it either. I don't need anyone's permission to feed myself whatever i want. I own my body, despite what the delusional control freaks say.

[elias49]

9. I make myself a protein shake in the morning

and wash it down with a few cups of coffee.
The protein supplement if mainly whey powder but the label has a butt-load of acronyms and other 'ingredients'. I'll have to check on this DMBA stuff. Thanks.

[JaneyVee]

10. Not nutrition supplements but I do sometimes take

Workout enhancing supplements. None on that list though.

[babylonsister]

12. Responses so far...great! No one does.

I don't either so posted this to find out more.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. yet we know pot doesn't kill people, and we spend 60 Billion a year arresting people for smoking it.

[SidDithers]

14. Best nutritional supplement story ever...

Woo crackpot Gary null poisoned himself, then sued his supplement company because his own name-brand Gary Null Ultimate Power Meal almost killed him.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2010/05/health-guru-sues-maker-of-own-product.html

Gary Null says he nearly died after taking a dose of his own medicine. Null, health guru, author, critic of the medical and psychiatric communities, and seller of Gary Null's Ultimate Power Meal, claims that after taking the supplement as directed for a month, he suffered from a variety of ailments including kidney damage, "excruciating fatigue along with bodily pain," as well as bleeding "within his feet." Null has sued Triarco Industries, alleging that the supplement they made contained 1,000 times the recommended dose of Vitamin D.

According to Null's attorney Leslie Fourton, the Ultimate Power Meal caused a D Vitamin overdose. Null "was informed by doctors at that time that he was getting too much Vitamin D. That the supplement contained 2 million units versus 2,000. The supplement contained way too much Vitamin D for the recommended use..."

But how could something like this happen? How can a person buy a supplement so powerful as to cause a D Vitamin overdose? For starters, vitamins, herbs, dietary supplements and alternative medicines, such as Ultimate Power Meal are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. As a consumer, you are often on your own, as problems with such products are frequently only found after people get sick. According to DiscoveryNews, manufacturers are not required to test such alternative medicines and supplements for safety or efficacy.

Remember that anytime someone uses Gary Null, and his dumbass "Seeds of Death" movie, as an allegedly reputable source.

Sid

[HuckleB]

15. +1,000,000 ... 000

[tk2kewl]

17. just vitamin D as directed by my doctor

nt

[Orsino]

18. Just an occasional multivitamin...

...to help make up for any dietary deficiencies.

[Glassunion]

19. Does beer count?