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View Full Version : Ephedra linked in Marine study to half of heat-related illnesses



thedrifter
05-04-03, 03:01 PM
By Penni Crabtree
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 3, 2003

The controversial herbal stimulant ephedra was linked to half the heat-related illnesses reported at Camp Pendleton in 2000 – although only 7 percent of Marines used the substance on a daily basis, a military study found.

The study, based on a survey and medical data from the First Marine Division, also cites the ephedra-related death from a cerebral hemorrhage of an unidentified service member at the Point Loma Naval Submarine Base.

The military study is the latest to take aim at dietary supplements that contain the amphetamine-like herb. The products, made by companies such as San Diego's Metabolife International, have been linked to hundreds of deaths, serious injuries and side effects.

Earlier this week, a General Accounting Office review of thousands of consumer health complaints about Metabolife's best-selling Metabolife 356 cited 92 serious complaints, including five deaths, 18 heart attacks, 26 strokes and 43 seizures.

The Camp Pendleton study, conducted by Capt. Eric C. McDonald, a surgeon in the First Marine Division, has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. However, the study was part of the research considered by the Navy's Surgeon General when a decision was made in February 2001 to pull ephedra products from Marine bases.

Last summer, the Department of Defense ordered ephedra products to be removed from all stores on military bases worldwide.

McDonald, an emergency room physician at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, said he conducted a survey of 300 Camp Pendleton Marines to gauge ephedra use. The survey found that 7 percent used ephedra on a daily basis, and 11 percent used it weekly or less. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said they didn't use ephedra.

However, a review of the hospital's medical records in 2000 found that, while relatively few Marines used ephedra supplements, about half of the two dozen heat-related illnesses involved Marines who had used ephedra within 24 hours.

"If you talk to any military physician who works in the ER, they'll tell you they still see this stuff happening, it's not going away," said McDonald, who was reached by phone this week at his post in Iraq.

McDonald said that until he was sent to Iraq in January, he continued to treat about one Camp Pendleton Marine each month in the emergency room for ephedra-related problems, which included irregular heartbeat and acute psychosis.

On one day alone, McDonald said, he treated three Marines who had ingested an ephedra product called Yellow Jackets, which was promoted as an alternative to illegal street drugs. Last October, the FDA stopped imports of the supplement from the Netherlands.

"Young people who are athletes and who are trying to get an edge of some kind are going to try things that are advertised as giving an edge," said McDonald. "In fact, it is not enhancing their performance, it is actually a detriment."

The Food and Drug Administration has been under increasing pressure to ban ephedra since the widely publicized death in February of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler. He died from complications of heatstroke that were linked to ephedra.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a spokesman for Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer watchdog group, said the Camp Pendleton findings underscore the need for the federal government to remove ephedra products from the shelves.

"It would appear that the FDA is part of the 'Ephedra Industry Survival Service,' not part of the public health service," said Wolfe, whose organization petitioned the FDA in 2001 to ban ephedra supplements. "The government is talking about putting warning labels on ephedra products, but that is not enough.

"These products can kill, and they shouldn't be on the shelves."

The supplements, favored for the energy-boosting qualities advertised by manufacturers, have been linked to the deaths of 33 servicemen from 1997 to 2001.

Ephedra companies say their products are safe when taken as directed on the label.

The Ephedra Education Council, the leading trade association for the ephedra industry, referred questions on the military study to Richard Kreider, a Baylor University professor who heads the Center for Exercise, Nutrition & Preventive Health Research.

Kreider said heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses are a problem in the military, particularly during boot camp, but that there have been no scientific studies to suggest an ephedra link.

"There is no basis physiologically to contend that ephedra has any effect on hydration or how the body produces and gets rid of heat during exercise," Kreider said.

Although the U.S. armed forces have ordered ephedra products not to be sold at military bases, the supplements are readily available in drugstores, supermarkets and over the Internet.

One Web site, Milehighmuscle.com, is running a military "special" – offering $5 off all its dietary supplement products, including ephedra.

However, the Denver-based company also issued a warning on its Web site to soldiers serving in Iraq:

"Those of you in the Middle East and similar warm climates, please be advised that your heavy equipment and uniforms, compounded with the heat and potential exposure to chemical agents, may be at risk for elevated blood pressure, heart rate, etc. and could experience effects beyond normal use."

In February, while acknowledging that ephedra probably poses "unreasonable safety risks," the FDA announced it would impose stronger warning labels on ephedra supplements in lieu of a ban or regulatory restrictions.

Dietary supplement makers are not required to prove the safety or efficacy of their products before marketing them. Laws put the burden on the FDA to prove a supplement is unsafe before it can take regulatory action.



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Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com



Sempers,

Roger