A new study south of the border strongly suggests that a number of weight loss and workout supplements that continue to be sold in US health shops contain an amphetamine-like chemical that endangers the health of users.
In a December 2014 advisory, Health Canada announced that the product Jetfuel Superburn had recalled because it contained “amphetamine-like drug substances” that posed “serious health risks.” Their e-mailed statement said, “These stimulants can increase blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature; lead to serious cardiovascular complications (including stroke) at high doses; suppress sleep and appetite, and be addictive.” When caffiene is combined with beta-methylphenethylamine and phenylpropylmethylamine. It can seriously increase these effects.
Health Canada said that the substances wouldn’t be permitted “in natural health products because they are not naturally derived and therefore do not meet the definition of natural health product substance” under the agency’s applicable regulations.
Dutch scientist, Bastiaan Venhuis, compared BMPEA to DMAA, an stimulant known to cause heart attacks and strokes. Supplements that contain DMAA were banned from US military bases after being implicated in the deaths of two soldiers.
Despite two year old documentation about the dangers of BMPEA, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recalled the products nor issued a health alert to consumers.
Pointing to the fact that two top FDA officials tasked with overseeing supplements were once leaders of major trade and lobbying groups in the industry, which has led to accusations of conflicts of interest.
“To have former officials in the supplement industry become the chief regulators of that industry at the FDA is like the fox guarding the hen house,” says consumer advocate, Michael Jacobson.
Supplements listed in the study as containing BMPEA include JetFuel Superburn, JetFuel T-300, Jetfuel MX-LS7, Aro Black Series Burn, Black Widow, Dexaprine XR, Fastin-XR, Lipodrene Hardcore, Lipodrene Xtreme, Stimerex-ES and Yellow Scorpion. A number of these products are available at US locations of the Vitamin Shoppe – which has refused to comment.
