Prescriber's Letter Exposes Deceptive Weight Loss Supplement Marketing Practices.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

STOCKTON, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--July 24, 2002

Prescriber's Letter (www.prescribersletter.com), a Physician Advisory Service on developments in drug therapy, is advising physicians about deceptive and potentially unsafe labels and marketing practices of particular weight-loss remedies. For example, few physicians realize that the natural-sounding ingredient "heartleaf" actually contains a potentially dangerous stimulant.

"The public is being misled because some manufacturers use ingredient names that sound natural and safe, but in reality can be harmful," says Jeff Jellin, PharmD, Editor of Prescriber's Letter.

The issue revolves around dietary supplements containing stimulants such as ephedra or ephedrine. Products containing ephedra extracts have been associated with several cases of severe adverse effects including heart attack, sudden cardiac death, stroke, brain hemorrhage, seizure, and others. Experts consider ephedra to be a potentially unsafe herb. Pharmacists and physicians generally recommend that patients avoid using products containing ephedra because of these safety concerns.

"The adverse effects have caused many manufacturers to remove ephedra from their products," says Philip Gregory, PharmD, Associate Editor of Prescriber's Letter. "But all too often, supplement makers just change their labeling. Instead of listing ephedra, they list ma huang, a lesser-known name for ephedra, or other lesser known names for potentially harmful products. The hope seems to be that they will fool the consumer into thinking the product is safe, when it really may not be."

Gregory and a team of researchers and writers have just released a 39-page booklet analyzing the appropriate and inappropriate use of several dietary supplement products for obesity and three other conditions. It identifies several dietary supplement products that have not removed stimulants such as ephedra, but instead have simply changed their product label.

Instead of listing ephedra or ephedra extract on the product label, consumers might even see products labeled as "ephedra free." Upon close scrutiny of the ingredient list, many of these products contain ephedra or another stimulant with a different name, for example, ma huang, heartleaf, country mallow, bitter orange, and others.

"What consumers don't realize is that these ingredients are the same as ephedra or contain similar chemicals such as ephedrine and synephrine, which may also be unsafe," says Gregory.

The editors of Prescriber's Letter advise pharmacists and physicians to be aware of these deceptive techniques and help their patients sort through the mis-information.

They further advise that consumers of dietary supplements should consult their pharmacists prior to using any supplement to find out more about safety concerns and potential drug interactions.

Prescriber's Letter is one of several drug advisory services provided by Therapeutic Research. Founded in 1985, Therapeutic Research provides high quality drug information to pharmacists, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, libraries, hospitals, and other health professionals through its advisory services called Pharmacist's Letter and Prescriber's Letter. Therapeutic Research also publishes the gold standard reference for information on dietary supplements, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. This huge database provides information on over one thousand natural medicines including herbs, vitamins, minerals, and other dietary supplements in use in North America. This reference also provides the largest database of brand name ingredient lists available. Therapeutic Research also publishes Ident-A-Drug, a comprehensive resource for identifying tablets and capsules by their unique markings.