FDA warns consumers about weight loss products
Jacksonville – The FDA has released a recent list of weight loss products that the consumer needs to be cautious of.
Products added to their previous alert list are Herbal Xenicol, Slimbionic, and Xsvelten. The undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients added are fenproprex, fluoxetine, furosemide and cetilistat. Consumer awareness can help in the process of making informed decisions. According to Dr. Janet Woodcock,director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, these tainted products may contain many undeclared ingredients and in some cases contain prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed maximum recommended doses. cosumers buying weight loss products have no way of knowing if these products contain potentially damaging drugs.
The FDA said that some of these products are sold on the Web and also in some beauty salons. The products are considered to be illegal because they have not been approved by the FDA. THey could also pose significant health risks to certain people.
According to the FDA the active ingredients contained in these products but not identified include phenolphthalein :which is a suspected cancer causing agent which has been used in experiments. It has not been approved for sale in the US.
fenproporex : a controlled substance not approved for sale
fluoxetine : listed as an antidepressant which can be purchased by presciption only
bumetanide: a diuretic also available by prescription only
phenytoin: is used as an anti-seizure medication and is available by prescription
furosemide : another diuretic sold by prescription
rimonabant : a drug that is currently not approved for sale in the United States
cetilistat : this is an experimental obesity drug that is not approved for sale in the United States
These warnings are not the first that the FDA has issued in the last few years. The dietary supplement LipoKinetix, which was marketed by Syntrax Innovations was implicated in multiple reports in 2001.It contained norephedrine,caffeine,yohimbine, diiodothyronine and sodium usinate. Injuries reported occured in persons between the age of 20 and 32 years of age and consisted of serious liver damage.
As of January 8,2009 the FDA had expanded it’s list of 2008 warnings to include a total of 69 products marketed as weight loss products. Many of these products have been marketed on the Web, as well as at various health clubs and beauty salons.
FDA websites referenced for this article are as follows:
http://health.usnews.com/artcles/health/healthday/2009/03/20/fda-expands-weight-loss-p…
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/-dms/ds-lipo.html
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2009/NEW01977.html