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American Morning
FDA Calling for Warning Labels on Products that Contain Ephedra
Aired March 03, 2003 - 08:43 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: The death of baseball player Steve Bechler is bringing yet more controversy to the ephedra issue. Now the Food and Drug Administration is calling for warning labels on products that contain the diet supplement.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is off, so Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from CNN Center with that story, along with some eye-opening research about some kids who have been diagnosed as having ADHD. This is a story that I think a lot of parents are going to be interested in listening to this morning.
Elizabeth, good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Paula, many parents and doctors have been concerned for years that too many kids are diagnosed with ADHD, actually put on Ritalin, when in fact there's something else may be going on. This study says, maybe they're just exhausted.
Let's take a look at what this new study says. It was published in the Journal of Pediatrics. They found that 25 percent of children ages 5 to 7 with mild ADHD also snored. That's a huge percentage. Some of these kids even had sleep apnea. That's where the breathing's actually obstructed. ADHD they found can often get better after the sleep apnea is treated.
Let me try to put this all together here. When kids snore, when anyone snores, often, they're getting very poor quality sleep. Sometimes people are even, when they're snoring, they even wake up for a couple of seconds on and off during the night, and don't even realize it, but they wake up feeling sort of groggy, and then these kids later in the day might demonstrate some poor behavior that later gets diagnosed as ADHD.
So the message from the doctors who wrote this story, is if your child has ADHD, listen and watch them sleep, and if they snore, bring them to their physician, because snoring can be treated -- Paula.
ZAHN: I just saw a graphic on the lower third of the screen that said the boys are three times more likely to have this problem than girls? Do we understand why?
COHEN: No, they don't understand why boys are more likely to have this problem than girls. I mean, some people say, well, boys are actually just sort of more hyper than girls, if you look at 4 to 6- year-old boys, they're just sort of more hyper. It's not exactly known why boys would be more likely to have this problem.
ZAHN: Back to the ephedra issue now. Did that FDA announcement come as any great surprise?
COHEN: Well, it came as something of a surprise and something of a disappointment also. On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson made this big speech on ephedra.
And what he said was there should be a warning label on ephedra on the front of the bottle that warns about all of the things that can happen when you take it, including death. He did not, however, call for a ban. And that disappointed many people.
Let's listen to what Secretary Thompson had to say on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: I would not take this. I would not give it to my family. And I don't know why anyone would take these products. Why take the risk?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, the ephedra industry supports these labels, even though they would mention there is a possibility of death if you take ephedra.
However, many doctors said that Secretary Thompson missed the boat here, that he should have called for a ban. Ephedra has been reported by doctors and by patients to the FDA as possibly being linked to 88 deaths and more than 1,400 illnesses.
Paula mentioned Steve Bechler. He died of heat stroke two weeks ago, and ephedra didn't cause it, but the in examiner said he was taking ephedra and may have been a factor in his death -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, keep us posted on the debate, won't you?
COHEN: Absolutely.
ZAHN: Goodbye. Thanks for filling in for Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Ephedra>
Aired March 3, 2003 - 08:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The death of baseball player Steve Bechler is bringing yet more controversy to the ephedra issue. Now the Food and Drug Administration is calling for warning labels on products that contain the diet supplement.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is off, so Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from CNN Center with that story, along with some eye-opening research about some kids who have been diagnosed as having ADHD. This is a story that I think a lot of parents are going to be interested in listening to this morning.
Elizabeth, good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Paula, many parents and doctors have been concerned for years that too many kids are diagnosed with ADHD, actually put on Ritalin, when in fact there's something else may be going on. This study says, maybe they're just exhausted.
Let's take a look at what this new study says. It was published in the Journal of Pediatrics. They found that 25 percent of children ages 5 to 7 with mild ADHD also snored. That's a huge percentage. Some of these kids even had sleep apnea. That's where the breathing's actually obstructed. ADHD they found can often get better after the sleep apnea is treated.
Let me try to put this all together here. When kids snore, when anyone snores, often, they're getting very poor quality sleep. Sometimes people are even, when they're snoring, they even wake up for a couple of seconds on and off during the night, and don't even realize it, but they wake up feeling sort of groggy, and then these kids later in the day might demonstrate some poor behavior that later gets diagnosed as ADHD.
So the message from the doctors who wrote this story, is if your child has ADHD, listen and watch them sleep, and if they snore, bring them to their physician, because snoring can be treated -- Paula.
ZAHN: I just saw a graphic on the lower third of the screen that said the boys are three times more likely to have this problem than girls? Do we understand why?
COHEN: No, they don't understand why boys are more likely to have this problem than girls. I mean, some people say, well, boys are actually just sort of more hyper than girls, if you look at 4 to 6- year-old boys, they're just sort of more hyper. It's not exactly known why boys would be more likely to have this problem.
ZAHN: Back to the ephedra issue now. Did that FDA announcement come as any great surprise?
COHEN: Well, it came as something of a surprise and something of a disappointment also. On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson made this big speech on ephedra.
And what he said was there should be a warning label on ephedra on the front of the bottle that warns about all of the things that can happen when you take it, including death. He did not, however, call for a ban. And that disappointed many people.
Let's listen to what Secretary Thompson had to say on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: I would not take this. I would not give it to my family. And I don't know why anyone would take these products. Why take the risk?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, the ephedra industry supports these labels, even though they would mention there is a possibility of death if you take ephedra.
However, many doctors said that Secretary Thompson missed the boat here, that he should have called for a ban. Ephedra has been reported by doctors and by patients to the FDA as possibly being linked to 88 deaths and more than 1,400 illnesses.
Paula mentioned Steve Bechler. He died of heat stroke two weeks ago, and ephedra didn't cause it, but the in examiner said he was taking ephedra and may have been a factor in his death -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, keep us posted on the debate, won't you?
COHEN: Absolutely.
ZAHN: Goodbye. Thanks for filling in for Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Ephedra>
