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Re-activateWhen a healthy, fit Swedish woman in her early 50s suffered a stroke last year while exercising, her doctor suspected that a supplement she took before her work out may have played a role. Now tests of the product, called Jacked Power, found it contained a controversial amphetamine-like ingredient called BMPEA that wasn't listed on the label.
Earlier research had found that several other sport and weight-loss supplements also contained BMPEA (beta-methylphenethylamine), which is chemically similar to amphetamines. And some studies had suggested that it increases blood pressure and pulse rate in animals. But this is the first study to link the compound to a serious health problem in humans.
Read more about the dangers of weight-loss supplements, including garcinia cambogia, plus muscle-building supplements.
While the FDA recently sent warning letters to five companies about products that contain BMPEA, Pieter Cohen, M.D., a Harvard researcher who wrote the case report in the Annals of Internal Medicine and previously found the compound in other supplements, says the new evidence should prompt the FDA to immediately yank supplements with BMPEA off the market.
"The FDA has to move aggressively," Cohen says. "There is a very grave concern that BMPEA can lead to bleeding strokes, which can be extremely serious. What if, when you take this substance, it increases your blood pressure so high that you pop a blood vessel in your brain and bleed into your brain?"
Cohen also says that the FDA needs to rethink how dietary supplements are regulated, "so people can't just introduce supplements to the market without any testing." Unlike drugs, supplements do not have to be tested for safety and effectiveness before being sold, though the FDA can act after a supplement is proven to be unsafe.
—Roni Caryn Rabin
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