All-natural sex pills pose hidden dangers Herbal alternatives to Viagra can be fatal for men on common heart drugs Most Popular * Most Viewed * Top Rated * Most E-mailed
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updated 12:26 p.m. PT, Mon., Nov. 12, 2007 LOS ANGELES - Many of the pills marketed as safe herbal alternatives to Viagra and other prescription sex medications pose a hidden danger: For men on common heart and blood-pressure drugs, popping one could lead to a stroke, or even death.
``All-natural'' products with names like Stamina-RX and Vigor-25 promise an apothecary's delight of rare Asian ingredients, but many work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they are supposed to replace.
That dirty secret represents a special danger for the millions of men who take nitrates -- drugs prescribed to lower blood pressure and regulate heart disease. When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to a heart attack or stroke.
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An Associated Press investigation shows that spiked herbal impotency pills are emerging as a major public health concern that officials haven't figured out how to track, much less tame.
Emergency rooms and poison control hot lines are starting to log more incidents of the long-ignored phenomenon. Sales of ``natural sexual enhancers'' are booming -- rising to nearly $400 million last year. And dangerous knockoffs abound.
At greatest risk are the estimated 5.5 million American men who take nitrates -- generally older and more likely to need help with erectile dysfunction.
Herbal appeal The all-natural message can be appealing to such men, warned by their doctors and ubiquitous TV commercials not to take Viagra, Cialis or Levitra.
James Neal-Kababick, director of Oregon-based Flora Research Laboratories, said about 90 percent of the hundreds of samples he has analyzed contained forms of patented pharmaceuticals -- some with doses more than twice that of prescription erectile dysfunction medicine. Other testers report similar results, particularly among pills that promise immediate results.
While no deaths have been reported, the AP found records of emergency room visits attributed to all-natural sex pills in Georgia, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and elsewhere.
An elderly man in a retirement community north of Los Angeles took an in-the-mail sample and landed in the hospital for four days. A Michigan man sued the maker of Spontane-ES, blaming it for the stroke he suffered 20 minutes after taking a freebie that was advertised as ``extremely safe.'' Tim Fulmer, a lawyer representing Spontane-ES, said the pill did not contain any pharmaceutical and was not responsible for the stroke.
Mark B. Mycyk, a Chicago emergency room doctor who directs Northwestern University's clinical toxicology research program, said he is seeing increasing numbers of patients who unwittingly took prescription-strength doses of the alternatives, a trend he attributes to ease of purchase on the Internet and the desperation of vulnerable men. He said he wouldn't be surprised if there'd been undetected deaths from bad herbal pills.
Some herbal labels warn off users with heart or blood-pressure problems if they have taken their medicine within six hours; some doctors say 24 hours or more would be safer.
The AP often couldn't determine from records whether incidents reported to tracking systems of the federal Food and Drug Administration and state poison control centers involved mixing herbal alternatives with nitrates.
Some men in their 30s who went to emergency rooms after taking herbal sex pills were presumably otherwise healthy, but they showed the transitory side effects of the active ingredients in regulated impotency pharmaceuticals, such as difficulty seeing clearly or severe headaches, records show.
While public health officials don't know the extent of the problem, they agree that incidents are vastly underreported, with national tracking systems capturing perhaps as little as 1 percent of them. Victims may be embarrassed, and doctors rarely ask about supplements.
Since 2001, sales of supplements marketed as natural sexual enhancers have risen $100 million, to $398 million last year, including herbal mixtures, according to estimates by Nutrition Business Journal. Some legitimate herbal mixtures claim to work gradually over weeks; it's the herbals marketed for immediate trysts that often are the problem.
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Tight budgets, weak regulations and other priorities limit the FDA's ability to police the products, often promoted via blasts of e-mail spam and fly-by-night Web sites.
``The Internet poses many enforcement challenges,'' said Dr. Linda Silvers, who leads an FDA team that targets fraudulent health products sold online. ``A Web site can look sophisticated and legitimate, but actually be an illegal operation.''
In many cases, the ingredients used to alter herbal pills come from Asia, particularly China, where the sexual enhancers are cooked up in labs at the beginning of a winding supply chain. The FDA has placed pills by two manufacturers in China and one from Malaysia on an import watch list.
.... more on the website
Posts: 364 | From California | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
The REALLY SCARY thing about this article and the other one I posted today about supplements/herbals is that these stories are no doubt a FRACTION of the known cases out there of fraud.
The brilliant part of the herbal criminals plan is that they put the actual tried and true pharmaceuticals in the herb/supplement - so that the consumer can testify to its effectiveness and buy more!! IT IS SO CRIMINAL and infuriarating. And, of course, it is the sick and suffering who are most vulnerable to this sort of CRIME.
Posts: 364 | From California | Registered: Sep 2005
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JimBoB
Unregistered
posted
I have used Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Yohimbine, Yohimbe, and some herb concoctions that are supposed to help.
With LYME, none of these are the best. However, I do have the best results with yohimbine on a limited basis since getting Lyme. Before Lyme, I had the best results with Yohimbine. Cialis didn't work at all for me. Levitra worked some, BEFORE lyme, but made me just feel REALLY BAD since Lyme.
I do NOT take any heart drugs though. MOST phamaceuticals are NOT good for you, IHMO. Because of the side effects I have had, I for the most part stay away from all abx now.
hardynaka
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8099
posted
"All-natural'' products with names like Stamina-RX and Vigor-25 promise an apothecary's delight of rare Asian ingredients, but many work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they are supposed to replace .
That dirty secret represents a special danger for the millions of men who take nitrates -- drugs prescribed to lower blood pressure and regulate heart disease. When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to a heart attack or stroke . "
I guess the text is clear. Unregulated pharmaceuticals are added to the pills and may cause heart attack. The problem is with impotency pharmaceuticals reacting with people already taking nitrates to lower blood pressure.
As these nasty companies promote fraud, inserting pharmaceuticals in what they call 'herbal pills', the problem can happen as these are totally unregulated.
Probably when you buy Viagra, you can read what are the side effects, bad interactions with nitrates, etc! Not the case for herbal products, marketed as safe.
The article is not going against herbs being unsafe, but on fraudulent companies marketing herbs as safe and at the same time inserting pharmaceuticals in the pills, these being the cause of danger as they're totally unregulated.
Posts: 1086 | From Switzerland | Registered: Oct 2005
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Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
I think this article is intentionally misleading. Maybe I am wrong.
(Sorry, but a lot of this article sounds like a typical cry about `safety' from Big Pharma; that's their usual plea when they are losing market share of something.)
The pursuit of a pleasurable sexual experience apparently makes people do some really stupid things. It is not made clear in the article as to how many incidents arose that were NOT the fault of the product, but of the person taking it.
The possible interactions between drugs and herbs have been discussed many times at LymeNet. And let's face it, you can overdose yourself with anything.
***''...90 percent of the hundreds of samples he has analyzed contained forms of patented pharmaceuticals.''***
I'm not sure what that really means.... ``forms of patented pharmaceuticals''. That could mean that the samples contained the natural `forms' of what Big Pharma puts out. This is not made clear at all.
And the example that Selma gave: ***''...but many work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they are supposed to replace.''***
Again, the ``unregulated versions'' is so cleverly worded, that it could mean drugs..., but it probably means the natural forms of sexual enhancement compounds that Big Pharma would love to sell you at about $20 a pop .
If any of these products actually contain pharmaceutical drugs, or if they contain unsafe amounts of natural `enhancement' herbs/ substances, then those companies deserve what they get!!!!
Most reputable companies that have been around many years will have warnings on the label, like this one (from the back of a Twinlab Horny Goat Weed product:
quote:Not for sale to or use by individuals under the age of 18. Do not use if pregnant or nursing. This product contains yohimbe bark extract which contains yohimbine.
Do not use this product if you are at risk or are being treated for high blood pressure, heart, kidney, thyroid or psychiatric disease, anxiety, depression, seizure disorder or stroke. Consult a health care professional before use if you are taking antidepressants, MAO inhibitor or any other prescription drugs.
Not for use in children, geriatric patients or females. Discontinue use and consult your health care professional if dizziness, sleeplessness, tremors, nervousness, headache or heart palpitations occur.
Taking more than the recommended amount will not improve results and may cause adverse reactions listed in the warning. Discontinue use of this product at least two weeks prior to any surgery.
People can avoid a lot of problems by buying from reputable companies, and reading the label before buying or using. At places like Vitacost, the label is made available for reading before purchase.
And be sure you read articles like this with an eye out for sensationalism. In this case, I'm not sure what to think.
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
Thank you Anneke, Hardynaka, and Mini.
This article is not some sort of slam against alternatives. Sigh...
What this article is saying is that many, I mean MANY!!!! -- makers of these so-called alternative men's enhancement drugs are actually laced with the very ingredients used by the real pharmaceutical drugs.
THAT is the problem.
And for people to whom that is medically contraindicated, that is a HUGE problem!!!!
Here is another clip, from AP newswire. It further clarifies that this is not a clever play on words, but a fact. Fellas out there, please be careful.
Michelle
_________________________________________________
During the past year, the FDA has orchestrated eight recalls of "herbal" pills that contained the ingredients found in Viagra, Cialis or Levitra, or their unregulated chemical cousins. Many of the firms were based around Los Angeles, their offices ranging from an unsigned door in a grungy hall on the fringe of downtown to a gated complex near Beverly Hills.
One recall involved a pill called Liviro3.
The current owner of the drug's marketing and distributing firm said that after he tried the product, he quit his job at a car dealership and bought the brand name and stock of several thousand pills in 2004 for $450,000.
In January, he said, FDA agents seized his stockpile after an agency lab found that Liviro3 contained tadalafil, the main ingredient in Cialis. The man told the AP he'd had no idea the pills were drug-laced.
One prosecution involved V. Vigor Corp., the Long Island-based maker of Vigor-25. While the product was advertised as containing Asian ginseng, lycium fruit and Chinese yam rhizome, FDA testing indicated that the pills contained Viagra.
Company executive Michael Peng had agreed to stop selling Vigor-25 following an FDA agent's visit in late 2004, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. But between then and his arrest in September, at least 4.5 million pills were packaged for distribution, the affidavit said. According to prosecutors, Peng thought he could evade tests simply by switching from the sildenafil citrate he imported from China to Levitra's active ingredient, vardenafil -- a shipment of which U.S. Customs intercepted from Thailand.
Peng, who said through his attorney that he was "unaware that there was anything other than natural supplements" in Vigor-25, faces a charge of misbranding -- in this instance, claiming that a pharmaceutical is a dietary supplement.
Two other pills, Spontane-ES and Stamina-RX, were made by companies run by Jared Wheat, who's facing federal charges in Atlanta that he peddled knockoff pharmaceuticals cooked in a Central American lab. Prosecutors tried to keep Wheat from posting bail by asserting that he contemplated killing an FDA investigator and bribing a prosecutor.
Fulmer rejected those assertions, which did not lead to charges, saying Wheat is hardworking and nonviolent. Fulmer said Wheat's two businesses are legitimate and continue to be successful.
Wheat was granted bond after pledging approximately $7.5 million in cash and property; he's free under home confinement.
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
Talk about JUMPING IN on threads!!! Wow!!!
I have for YEARS posted, like Anneke just did, any dangers that come up with antibiotics and/or herbals and/or supplements people on the board may be using- this was NEVER a alt/abx issue UNTIL NOW and Anneke didn't do it- A REAL SHAME.
Thank you Anneke for caring.
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
Thanks for the clarification, Michelle.
.... and like I said earlier, then those people who 'lace' their herbal products with drugs deserve everything they get.....
It's people like that who give the whole industry a bad name.
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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