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American Morning
Diet Danger?
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:46 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: New controversy over ephedrine. A Florida medical examiner says a weight-loss supplement containing ephedrine played a role in the death of a young Major League pitching prospect.
Elizabeth Cohen joins us from Atlanta with more on that and more on a new study that says parents with more than two children are more likely to suffer from heart disease.
First, though, to the ephedrine controversy.
What's the latest on that, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest on that is that Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Profo (ph) confirmed what many had suspected, and that is that 23-year-old Orioles' pitcher Steve Bechler had been taking ephedra.
What he said, though, the medical examiner said, is that ephedra did not cause his death. He had other kinds of -- he actually died of heat stroke. His body temperature reached 108 degrees. So ephedra did not kill him, but it may have been a contributing factor.
Let's take a look up here. Other contributing factors to his death. He had borderline hypertension. He had a liver abnormality. He had not eaten very much that day. And when you don't eat very much, that makes you more vulnerable to getting heat stroke, which is what killed him, and also that he took the weight loss product containing ephedrine.
So, in other words, all of these factors -- the ephedra, the liver abnormality, the fact he hadn't eaten very much that day -- contributed to making him vulnerable to heat stroke. It was only 81 degrees out that day, the day that he was practicing and that he collapsed and they had to bring him to the hospital. People can die at heat stroke at that temperature, but many people have said there must have been something else going out.
Now, what the medical examiner has told you there was something else going on. A little bit about ephedrine. It is also called ephedra, and it is an over-the-counter, perfectly legal, very easy to get dietary supplement. And apparently, from what the medical examiner has told us, Steve Bechler was taking it. We don't know how much or when he took it. Autopsy results will help illuminate on that subject -- Paula.
ZAHN: So you got millions of people in America taking this stuff, and doctors really can't predict what kind of reaction you're going to have to the drug, can they?
COHEN: Exactly. That's exactly what happens. As you said, millions of people take this, and some people are perfectly fine, and I asked the doctor, how could that be? How come Ephedra sometimes kill people? And other people take it without a problem? He said think about it this way, how can some people drink 10 cups of coffee and not feel it, and one person can drink a cup of coffee and feel all jittery? Different herbs and drugs will affect different people in different ways.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the other study that might spark a lot of interest this morning. We all know that smoking and being overweight can lead to heart disease. Should we add to that having too many children?
COHEN: It could be. According to a British study, having more than two children puts you at higher risk at heart disease, women more so than men.
Let's take a risk at what the numbers say: For moms, each child that they had over more than two children increased their heart disease risk 30 percent. For dads, each child that they had after two children increased their heart disease risk 12 percent.
Now, why would that be? Well, Let's take a look at the women, because the reasons are different for women than for men, as you might suspect, since women get pregnant and men don't. For women, the more children they had, the more their triglycerides went up. Triglycerides are sort of like bad cholesterol, also the higher their risk of diabetes, and also, their HDL, or their good cholesterol, went down. And so those are -- many people will say those are results of too many pregnancies, that that's the result a pregnancy can have on your body.
Now, for men, it's interesting. What they found is that men, as well as women, had a higher chance of being obese if they had more than two children.
Now, for men, it's hard to say exactly why that would be true. I'm sure we can all posit some theories here, but the bottom line is, is that parents, when they have a lot of children, still need to think about keeping themselves healthy, as well as their children -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks for the warning, Elizabeth. You have two, right?
COHEN: That's right. And two is the perfect number, according to this study.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 19, 2003 - 08:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: New controversy over ephedrine. A Florida medical examiner says a weight-loss supplement containing ephedrine played a role in the death of a young Major League pitching prospect.
Elizabeth Cohen joins us from Atlanta with more on that and more on a new study that says parents with more than two children are more likely to suffer from heart disease.
First, though, to the ephedrine controversy.
What's the latest on that, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest on that is that Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Profo (ph) confirmed what many had suspected, and that is that 23-year-old Orioles' pitcher Steve Bechler had been taking ephedra.
What he said, though, the medical examiner said, is that ephedra did not cause his death. He had other kinds of -- he actually died of heat stroke. His body temperature reached 108 degrees. So ephedra did not kill him, but it may have been a contributing factor.
Let's take a look up here. Other contributing factors to his death. He had borderline hypertension. He had a liver abnormality. He had not eaten very much that day. And when you don't eat very much, that makes you more vulnerable to getting heat stroke, which is what killed him, and also that he took the weight loss product containing ephedrine.
So, in other words, all of these factors -- the ephedra, the liver abnormality, the fact he hadn't eaten very much that day -- contributed to making him vulnerable to heat stroke. It was only 81 degrees out that day, the day that he was practicing and that he collapsed and they had to bring him to the hospital. People can die at heat stroke at that temperature, but many people have said there must have been something else going out.
Now, what the medical examiner has told you there was something else going on. A little bit about ephedrine. It is also called ephedra, and it is an over-the-counter, perfectly legal, very easy to get dietary supplement. And apparently, from what the medical examiner has told us, Steve Bechler was taking it. We don't know how much or when he took it. Autopsy results will help illuminate on that subject -- Paula.
ZAHN: So you got millions of people in America taking this stuff, and doctors really can't predict what kind of reaction you're going to have to the drug, can they?
COHEN: Exactly. That's exactly what happens. As you said, millions of people take this, and some people are perfectly fine, and I asked the doctor, how could that be? How come Ephedra sometimes kill people? And other people take it without a problem? He said think about it this way, how can some people drink 10 cups of coffee and not feel it, and one person can drink a cup of coffee and feel all jittery? Different herbs and drugs will affect different people in different ways.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the other study that might spark a lot of interest this morning. We all know that smoking and being overweight can lead to heart disease. Should we add to that having too many children?
COHEN: It could be. According to a British study, having more than two children puts you at higher risk at heart disease, women more so than men.
Let's take a risk at what the numbers say: For moms, each child that they had over more than two children increased their heart disease risk 30 percent. For dads, each child that they had after two children increased their heart disease risk 12 percent.
Now, why would that be? Well, Let's take a look at the women, because the reasons are different for women than for men, as you might suspect, since women get pregnant and men don't. For women, the more children they had, the more their triglycerides went up. Triglycerides are sort of like bad cholesterol, also the higher their risk of diabetes, and also, their HDL, or their good cholesterol, went down. And so those are -- many people will say those are results of too many pregnancies, that that's the result a pregnancy can have on your body.
Now, for men, it's interesting. What they found is that men, as well as women, had a higher chance of being obese if they had more than two children.
Now, for men, it's hard to say exactly why that would be true. I'm sure we can all posit some theories here, but the bottom line is, is that parents, when they have a lot of children, still need to think about keeping themselves healthy, as well as their children -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks for the warning, Elizabeth. You have two, right?
COHEN: That's right. And two is the perfect number, according to this study.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
