Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

Post by dullcrisp » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 6:03 PM UTC

1920musicman wrote: post #161

epmaybe wrote: post #133

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holy crap, that’s insane. You don’t just accidentally add sildenafil or tadalafil to your supplements. Unless the FDA is misidentifying compounds present in the herbs in these supplements, which seems unlikely but I’m no pharmacology expert.

Adding restricted ingredients to generally available supplements is a known tactic that supplement producers utilize extensively. In the past, this has been a well-known "secret" that bodybuilders basically relied on: buying tainted pre- and post-workout supplements that contain illegal steroids and such. It's a better regulated industry now, but with the explosion in supplement popularity over the last decade I doub…

Post by hammock » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #137

fallingknife wrote: post #95

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But the risk level is very low. The stats I see show less than 20 hospitalizations and 2 deaths per year due to bad supplements. https://time.com/5602125/dietary-supplements-kids/

That article is just a subset of the overall data because it only focuses on those under the age of 25. [1] suggests there are almost 25,000 ER visits and over 2,100 hospitalizations per year due to supplements (although adverse reactions don't necessarily mean tainted or poorly controlled dosage). [1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1504267

Post by stickfigure » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

kayodelycaon wrote: post #2

I’m glad the conclusion says the products lists are not the only ones to which this letter applies. Otherwise Amazon could just remove the products mentioned and make the FDA play wack-a-mole. As a side note, this letter is exactly why I think a regulatory agency like the FDA is absolutely necessary. This stuff can kill people and it is impossible for the average person to protect themselves.

Post by LargeTomato » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #123

lumb63 wrote: post #65

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Calling for Amazon to be banned from selling supplements is extreme, IMO. But they should be accountable for preventing counterfeit items from being sold or marketed as the items they’re counterfeiting. In cases where the authenticity of the item has not been verified, that should be made clear to the buyer. Absence of such an indicator would mean the product is authentic (consumers should IMO be able to rely on prod…

> Calling for Amazon to be banned from selling supplements is extreme If a physical store near you sold fake everything, including supplements, you’d think it extreme to shut it down?

Post by sdbrown » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #154

sdbrown wrote: post #124

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How, in your view, does dilution change the therapeutic index of a chemical? If a drug is effective at 20 milligrams, but at 60 milligrams has a steep rise in the incidence of hypotension, how does taking that same 60 milligrams in a larger volume of filler (e.g. water, or spread across more physical pills) change the fact that you've just taken 60 milligrams?

> how does taking that same 60 milligrams in a larger volume of filler (e.g. water, or spread across more physical pills) change the fact that you've just taken 60 milligrams? It increases tolerance to mismeasurement and mistake. Same reason many pharmaceuticals require multiple pills for minimum dosing despite a concentrated form existing. A child eating a single pill, or you missing that you popped an extra pill in…