Hydroxycut is a product that many of us in the loss and muscle gain community have watched and used before and after health scares. Hydroxycut in the early part of the is decade, even in the 90s was a great product for stripping fat in the Spring and was already pulled once off the market and now Hydroxycut is gone again.
Hydroxycut has a history as a fat loss supplement and was one of the first popular products to have and ECA stack. Back in the 90s the ECA stack was Ephedra and caffeine to raise the metabolism and aspirin as a buffer to help your stomach and get rid of any shakes from the ephedra and caffeine. Well once ephedra was pulled from the market for giving seemingly healthy people heart attacks Hydroycut was gone to, at least I thought so.
Hydroxycut was eventually successfully relaunched as a completely natural product and I wrote a review of it just a little while back (now I will pull that review) and now the FDA had pulled Hydroxycut off the market again.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products by Iovate Health Sciences Inc., of Oakville, Ontario and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, N.Y. Some Hydroxycut products are associated with a number of serious liver injuries. Iovate has agreed to recall Hydroxycut products from the market.
The FDA has received 23 reports of serious health problems ranging from jaundice and elevated liver enzymes, an indicator of potential liver injury, to liver damage requiring liver transplant. One death due to liver failure has been reported to the FDA. Other health problems reported include seizures; cardiovascular disorders; and rhabdomyolysis, a type of muscle damage that can lead to other serious health problems such as kidney failure.
Liver injury, although rare, was reported by patients at the doses of Hydroxycut recommended on the bottle. Symptoms of liver injury include jaundice (yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes) and brown urine. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, light-colored stools, excessive fatigue, weakness, stomach or abdominal pain, itching, and loss of appetite.
‘The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risk. Adverse events are rare, but exist. Consumers should consult a physician or other health care professional if they are experiencing symptoms possibly associated with these products,’ said Linda Katz, M.D., interim chief medical officer of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
So just as I have always said, beware of some of these diet pills. Most people can and will lose using exercise and a better diet and the advantage of diet pills are either to raise your metabolism or to cut your appetite. Watch out for the ingredients of these products to make sure that they are going to be safe if you use them at all.
I too have paid attention the news regarding the Hydroxycut withdrawal and find it interesting that I didn’t hear anyone mention the fact that there were 9 million bottles of Hydroxycut sold last year and probably 10s of millions total over the years. My point with this is that there have been 23 complaints out of many millions of bottles sold. I would think this makes the risk of negative side effects very low. The FDA even stated in their release that the risk of negative side effects with the Hydroxycut products is very rare.
Here’s a review of the FDA’s release w/ a link to the original.
http://www.stayfitcentral.com/?p=218
While I feel bad for anyone who became ill after using Hydroxycut and agree that is there’s concern a product may be unsafe it should be recalled, the media should be a lot more fair in their reporting and not be so quick to vilify a product instead of giving the entire story. The again, that probably doesn’t help them get the ratings the desire.
It actually made all of the major news networks, http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/05/02/fda_says_stop_using_hydroxycut_immediately/
http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Politics/34/020520090142_lawyers_eye_on_suits_against_hydroxycut.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/shopping_blog/2009/05/fda-warns-consumers-to-stop-using-hydroxycut-dietary-supplements.html
Do you have link to where you got this info from> Im very interested in reading more about it…
– Justin
I read your acai section too. Acai made my tummy/lower abdomen feel a bit funny like the hydroxicut. I can only lose if I really do stuff like determine not to eat much food today. Hydroxicut has been not only all over magazines but I think on tv too, so this is a bit development and I’m looking around, you are one of the first to address this issue. Not all hydroxicut products seemingly are being recalled. They have a green tea supplement that since it was discounted at the store I picked up a bottle but I won’t take it even though it is not on the list of Hydroxicut products being recalled.