Warning by FDA: Weight Loss Supplements May have Amphetamine

Five companies were warned by the FDA to stop the sales of energy enhancements, workout supplements and weight loss pills which contains the substance BMPEA which is not among the list of an ingredient for dietary supplement as reported by Forbes news.

BMPEA (beta-methylphenethylamine) drug which was created in the early 1930s is believed to be chemically relative to the prohibited amphetamine but was studied thoroughly.  It is also not clear if BMPEA is considered a stimulant or may possess qualities that can be addicting like the amphetamine.  The doctors fear that is used it may increase blood pressure and heart rate which were prevalent in studies using lab animals and in one study involving a human.

It was clear that BMPEA was already prohibited by the agency World Anti-Doping for athletes in competition.  An alert was put out several weeks ago when Pieter Cohen, MD and his colleagues published a thorough analysis that BMPEA was present in 11 out of the 21 health supplements they have tested.  Cohen is an assistant professor in Harvard Medical School and an internist in Cambridge Health Alliance who was not happy on the risk involved to the consumers who are unaware of the threat to their well-being.  He was also displeased with the chemists at FDA who detected the presence of BMPEA in some supplements two years ago.

Pharmaceuticals who distribute the supplements have claimed that BMPEA is actually legal and allowed in workout and weight loss aids as it naturally occurs in blackbrush, a shrub also known as Acacia rigidula.

The FDA is arguing that even if BMPEA is included in the list posed as an ingredient for weight loss printed on the labels of the product, that substance does not even meet the true definition of a dietary ingredient.  Also, the FDA can always exert the proper authority on dietary supplements which poses a risk to a person's health.