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American Morning

Some Experts Say Herbal Supplements Carry Dangers Consumers May Not Know About

Aired June 14, 2002 - 08:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In the battle to lose weight, herbal supplements increasingly are a popular way to shed pounds, but some experts say they carry dangers consumers may not know about, and that is the subject of this morning's "House Call" segment, and we have a guy on call right now for you, Dr. Sanjay Gutpa, who will help us better understand what the problem is with this stuff.

Now, the supplement we're talking about is Ephedra.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ephedra, and it's as big deal. You know, summer time especially, people are trying to lose weight. Really big deal, $14 billion industry every year, herbal supplements. Twelve million people probably take Ephedra in this country. A lot of them may not know it, because it's in all sorts of supplements, often pitched as a performance enhancer, a weight loss aide, energy booster, all good reasons to take it. And the best thing of all, you really don't need a prescription. You can get it over the counter.

But that may be changing. A well-know public advocacy group is taking charge at Ephedra, and at really the whole herbal supplement industry.

Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE, PUBLIC CITIZEN: We asked the FDA to ban all products in this country that are sold as dietary supplements, that contain Ephedra. It is a huge market, and it's responsible for more adverse reaction reports than any other dietary supplement. There are more deaths. There are more strokes. There are more heart attacks from Ephedra than from all the other dietary supplements put together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: That are some pretty serious charges, as you can hear, Paula. He's trying to link Ephedra to all these strokes, heart attacks, even deaths. I should point out, there has been a lot of expert analysis of this, and it's really hard to link Ephedra to these things, but even the Ephedra Association representatives from that industry concede that there probably needs to be some change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YVES SIEGNER, EPHEDRA EDUCATION COUNCIL: If you have federal standards and they're enforced, then everybody is forced to play with the same rules. We feel that we've done as much as we can and as good a job as we can without the federal standards so far.

GUPTA: It really is amazing to think that the herbal industry, this huge industry, has been unregulated so far. The FDA has to prove that a supplement is unsafe. The company doesn't have to prove that it's safe before it goes to market, and just because it's natural, just because it's over the counter doesn't make it safe. We're finding that out more and more.

ZAHN: A couple of things I don't understand. I guess that it's in all these products. What exactly is it, and why is it so dangerous?

GUPTA: Right, so Ephedra, it is an herb. It's something that comes from a plant. It's part of something called ephedrine. But here's the thing, it also is the same active ingredient that people find in speed. In fact, there's not a huge difference between Ephedra and speed in terms of its chemical makeup.

So it can cause all sorts of different adverse effects, such as insomnia, tremors, heart attacks, heart disease, strokes, and maybe even deaths like we read here. And this is what they're starting to find. It's been associated with all these things, but it's very hard to prove, because no one has gone back and said this directly causes these things, but you get a lot of people who are having those symptoms who also taking Ephedra.

ZAHN: People are also taking varying amounts of this stuff. Doesn't that make it harder to trace?

GUPTA: That's part of the other reason I think the Ephedra industry thinks this needs to be regulated. Because you're right, you could pick up one bottle and it have a certain dose of Ephedra in it, and the same bottle from the same lot, the same product may have a different dose of Ephedra in it. So all of a sudden, you may get a higher dose of Ephedra than you thought, and that may be causing some of these effects as well.

ZAHN: So regulation is one thing, but what are the chances that the lobby would be powerful enough to ban Ephedra altogether?

GUPTA: This is a big deal. That's exactly right. No one is predicting that probably Ephedra will be banned all together. They think that probably some stop gap measure will happen, something like perhaps you'll need a prescription, or perhaps the warning label will have to be larger, or perhaps you'll go to the Ephedra industry, and say, you have to have the same concentration of Ephedra in all these bottles so people know what they're getting.

We don't know what is going to happen precisely, but we do think whatever is going to happen is going to happen soon. The FDA has been petitioned. They're supposed to respond really any day now. ZAHN: Let me really put you on the spot here. Let's say you had a patient who was 100 pounds overweight. Would you be comfortable prescribing anything that would have Ephedra in it, or allowing them to simply buy this stuff over the counter to aid them in trying to lose this weight, which you know is very harmful to their health.

GUPTA: Absolutely. And I think that you make the perfect point, because as a doctor, I think someone regulating that, someone observing that, someone looking for the adverse effects; I think it's very controlled and it's very safe.

The problem is in the complete deregulation of it, people just buying it sort of willy nilly, taking it, interacting with other medications. They think it's over the counter, it's safe, it's natural, so they don't even tell their doctor that they're taking it. A lot of times it's interacting with other medications they're doctors are prescribing. If I'm -- or a doctor someone who is charge of that, sort of overseeing all of that, I think it makes it a lot safer, and it can be a very effective weight loss tool.

ZAHN: A reasoned analysis, I might add. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, have a good weekend.

GUPTA: Yes.

ZAHN: Thanks for spending a little time with us in New York.

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