FDA warns against Hydroxycut
 

Gee... imagine that?

--

WASHINGTON ? Government health officials warned dieters and body builders Friday to immediately stop using Hydroxycut, a widely sold supplement linked to cases of serious liver damage and at least one death.

The Food and Drug Administration said the maker of the dietary supplement has agreed to recall 14 Hydroxycut products. Available in grocery stores and pharmacies, Hydroxycut is advertised as made from natural ingredients. At least 9 million packages were sold last year, the FDA said.

Dr. Linda Katz of the FDA's food and nutrition division said the agency has received 23 reports of liver problems, including the death of a 19-year-old boy living in the Southwest. The teenager died in 2007, and the death was reported to the FDA this March.

Other patients experienced symptoms ranging from jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, to liver failure. One received a transplant and another was placed on a list to await a new liver.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. distributor of the diet pill, Iovate Health Sciences, headquartered near Buffalo, N.Y. Made by a Canadian company, Hydroxycut is used by people trying to shed pounds and by body builders to sharpen their muscles.

Dietary supplements aren't as tightly regulated by the government as medications. Manufacturers don't need to prove to the FDA that their products are safe and effective before they can sell them to consumers. But regulators monitor aftermarket reports for signs of trouble, and in recent years companies have been put under stricter requirements to alert the FDA when they learn of problems.

Katz said it has taken so long to get a handle on the Hydroxycut problem because the cases of liver damage were rare and the FDA has no authority to review supplements before they're marketed. "Part of the problem is that the FDA looks at dietary supplements from a post-market perspective, and an isolated incident is often difficult to follow," she said.

The FDA relies on voluntary reports to detect such problems, and many cases are never reported, officials acknowledge.

Health officials said they have been unable to determine which Hydroxycut ingredients are potentially toxic, partially because the formulation of the products has changed several times. A medical journal report last month raised questions about one ingredient, hydroxycitric acid, derived from a tropical fruit. The article said it could potentially damage the liver.

Thank you Hydroxycut! Without my liver I lost 10#'s!

:1orglaugh

Do you have a link to the story?

I thought the new formula for Hydroxycut didnt even work. Thats funny!

Damn I have been taking this shit for a year!

damn they sell a lot of that crap

Don't worry, the liver damage usually takes 1-2 years to occur, so live it up for a while.

anyone who has taken that should get on a liver detox supplement. a good one with milk thistle etc.

How anyone takes any of this shit and thinks it wont later kill you is beyond me. Same goes with all these retards taking all this shit for body building.

Good ol'Milk Thistle I take that after a big drinking night

wonder how much money they made off that crap

:1orglaugh

Sweet I'll make it to the VEGAS show..!

sounds good... I need my liver to live ....I guess the bladder can take a hit for the team now ... :upsidedow

Steffy from Wisconsin says the FDA is full of shit.

its about time

o great, down to my last 2 pills and now its fucking recalled.

This is probably not good news for the people who make Hydroxycut.

very cyber thread title

"Gee.. imagine that" - the exact words that ran through my head before opening this thread lol.

Do u guys know if cla tonalin is safe? Will it kill u eventually? I used to take it quite regularly.

Ouch, really? That could be bad. Squeeze your kidneys... does it feel uncomfortable?

I would never take that stuff, but let's be REAL here.

Around 3 people had liver complications that they know of. Considering the tens of millions of pills consumed that's a very small number of people with adverse reactions, Hydroxycut is safer than any prescription drug you can take based on those numbers.

Remember that arthritis drug that was barely more effective than Tylenol, it was responsible for at least 300K deaths, on the low end.

You could have seen this coming years ago. It obviously messes and changes your system somehow to have any effect if it does and you expect it not to cause problems ? People wake up and smell the coffee.
You want to get good muscle tone, work out.
You want to loose weight eat right and work out.
There are no short cuts to doing something the right way.

CLA tonalin is supposed to be just "good fat" though, kind of like olive oil :helpme

It doesn't have chemicals as far as I'm aware of and its not toxic as far as i know. im not really sure tho. Does anyone know?

I took 2 bottles of it last year to get firm and toned up.

haha that made me lol this morning.. I had to read it in my tv commercial voice

I'm going to agree with Jim here. I'm not a huge fan of Muscltech......the maker of Hydroxycut........but considering the amount of product sold over the years as compared to the incidences of problems, the product may not be the whole issue.

What was not mentioned except for the reference to the 17yr old kid was the ages and amounts taken. I know many people both young and old who abuse these supplements way beyond their intended purposes.

Many do not take these supplements as directed, instead taking two or three times what they should as a way to get amped up for workouts, hitting the clubs, extra energy for school, etc. Add partying and other activities to the mix and over time you will run into problems. The law of averages just bares that out.

Now, if Hydroxycut was to fill a 60 second commercial with 45 seconds of side effect information like they do for all those drugs being advertised these days would they then be immune from government interference?

Tried it last year, just a 6 week supply. I saw no dramatic results, only marginal at best, so I dropped it. I lost about the same amount of weight in the months I wasn't taking it, so...

Waste of money.

Nah, that one has been recalled too, it's even worse than than this hydroxycut stuff... It was all over the news 6 months ago... Like Sly said your kidneys are probably all fried now...

jk.... :)

23 cases? Out of how many millions of people that take the stuff. I would bet more then likely almost all cases were probably people that were absolutely abusing the stuff. No different then if you down an entire bottle of aspirin or ibuprofen in a relatively short amount of time or if you go binge drinking.

fantastic, throwing the bottles away...

Doesn't surprise me at all.

:(

indeed they do and the sheep just cant wait to get in on the newest diet fad:2 cents:

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Taking a pill to lose weight sounds like a bad idea.

shortcuts that have terrible side effects? I am Jack's complete lack of surprise=/

seriously, though, that is a very low number of incidences considering the number of people using the product
I call shenanigans on the FDA

the government instills fear in all its citizens over EVERYTHING

for this particular thing, fine - but drinking water can cause cancer these days

That would be reported cases. Not every doctor is going to be checking your liver out during a check up. Also would assume that everyone that takes it even sees a doctor on occasion, and honestly most people I know only go to see one when they are super damn sick. Now that they (FDA) have made the link, people will come forward and you may see the incidences skyrocket, more than likely though with just minor or not that noticeable damage.

One thing for sure though. There will soon be TV commercials by lawyers rounding up users of this product.