FDA, Weight-Loss Company Announce Recall

By Rachel Stockton

There will be four less male supplements on the market after this weekend; the FDA and the distributors of the drug, Young You Corp., announced a recall of the supplements on July 17. They purportedly contain an active ingredient not indicated on the outside label. The supplements are distributed as Slimbionic, One Weight Loss Pill 30, SlimDemand and Botanical Weight Loss, according to the FDA.

The executive director of Young You stated that the company had no knowledge that the product contained sibutramine, the drug in question. The Chinese manufacturers of the supplements, he contends, added it without informing the company that they had done so.

Although sibutramine is an FDA approved drug, Young You was not marketing the supplements as such; therein the problem lies.

Sibutramine is not without its own specific set of side effects; the New York Times reported in 2006 that it works by stimulating the neurotransmitters in the brain that govern satiety. Popping a pill a day helps keep weight gain at bay; those who take it feel sated shortly after consumption.

However, the drug is known to be a significant health risk to those with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and other circulatory problems. Reportedly, sibutramine elevates the blood pressure in some; the FDA believes the drug also has the potential to interact negatively with nitrates contained in other drugs.

The Center for Disease Control maintains that one-fifth of the population in the United States could be classified as "obese;" however, medical experts believe that there are only a few morbidly obese individuals that would greatly benefit from a weight loss drug. In most cases, the drug is prescribed in an effort to mitigate some of the chronic health problems associated with overweight, such as diabetes.

Sidney Wolfe, the head of the consumer watchdog Public Citizen's Health Research Group, told the New York Times that using weight loss drugs provide no "long-term benefit." In essence, there is significant risk for results that aren't exactly extraordinary. The British Medical Journal states that drugs like sibutramine only account for a weight loss of 9-13 pounds over diet alone.

For most people, Wolfe touts a pretty logical, old fashioned weight loss approach: eat 200 calories less and burn 200 calories off with exercise. Simple math, really. And, while it's not exactly as easy as popping a pill, the long term benefit leaves sibutramine lying in the dust.