COLLEGE STATION - People spend more effort researching a car purchase than selecting dietary supplements. If the car has problems, you can leave it on the side of the road and choose another form of transportation. If your body breaks down from using a dietary supplement, you have fewer options.
"If you ask people what is in popular dietary supplements, they probably couldn't tell you," says Paul Wellman, a Texas A&M University researcher studying the mechanism of action in appetite suppressants.
The main ingredient in dietary supplements, such as Metabolife, is ephedrine, which has been used in weight loss products since the 1970s. Ephedrine can suppress appetite and increase activity; these effects help reduce body weight.
The fact that a product has been on the market for years does not mean it is safe for everyone notes Wellman, who heads Texas A&M's Psychology Department. Ephedrine is a stimulant and is structurally similar to amphetamine, he adds. Prolonged use of ephedrine can increase blood pressure and heart rate. Overdose can lead to vomiting, fever, convulsions and in extreme cases, even death.
Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the Food and Drug Administration cannot regulate a dietary supplement unless there it proof of harm. There are no government specifications for scientific testing. Each manufacturer can determine what type of testing, if any, will be done. Dosages also are set by product manufacturers, not the FDA. Wellman and Dennis Miller, a graduate research assistant, have studied the effects of repeated ephedrine dosage in animals over a 12-day period. They found that sensitivity to ephedrine increased over time.
Wellman offers an analogy of how this sensitization process works: It is as if the first day a person drinks a beer, he feels no effects; the second day he does so, he is lightheaded; and the third, he is drunk after only one beer.
When rats received the same dosage of ephedrine each day, the activity levels of the animals increased and their appetite decreased up to the fourth day.
"Before people can feel safe taking ephedrine products," Wellman says, "researchers need to find out if the adverse effects associated with ephedrine also increase over time with repeated administration of the same dosage."
Researchers also should study how the body reacts when people take ephedrine in combination with other common drugs, including caffeine and decongestants, Wellman says.
CONTACT: Tiffany Inbody at (409) 845-6746 or >[email protected]
OR Paul Wellman at (409) 845-2557 or [email protected]
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