Hydroxycut Recall
Written by Sam · Filed Under Supplements 2,238 views
Hydroxycut Recall
Just a few days ago the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) made an official warning to dieters and bodybuilders to immediately stop using Hydroxycut diet pills as the widely sold supplement has been linked to 23 cases of serious liver damage and at least one death.
This comes as a major shock to Iovate (the manufacturer of Hydroxycut) which has been marketing these diet supplements so heavily that it is the number 1 diet pill on BodyBuilding.com.
Because of this warning Iovate has agreed to remove the entire line of their thermogenic products (the entire list is included at the bottom of this article). However, it is important to note that on their web site the company does feel that 23 cases over several years is a very small number relative to the many millions of people who have used Hydroxycut products over the years.
They have also used legal wording to state that the reports only coincide with the timing of serious liver-related problems when these people started using Hydroxycut products. However, the FDA has counteracted with the statement that all these patients were otherwise healthy and their symptoms began after they started using Hydroxycut and that is why the recall is so important.
The question then for consumers is why does the FDA not implement some kind of regulation over supplements to ensure the safety of everyone who can purchase them?
Personally I think this is an ethical matter which has been completely over-run by drug and supplement companies who have grown to such massive cash behemoths that they are able to influence the FDA’s decisions.
The drug and supplement companies know that consumers are always looking for that new “magic” pill that will make their fat disappear and muscles grow over night. Therefore, these corporations are creating “new” products all the time and if each one of their products were to go through FDA regulation there would be such a major back-log of approval that everything would come to a stand-still.
This is nothing short of a serious ethical and moral debate that can be argued for years, but the supplement and drug companies have so much money to throw at legal firms that the FDA has no chance in creating some kind of “fair” system that can still keep the safety of people in mind. (Decide for yourself whether you agree with this by watching the highly acclaimed documentary “The Corporation” winner of 28 International film awards).
Where Does the Hydroxycut Recall Leave Us?
So with all this said and done I have to refer back to one of the first articles I wrote for this site entitled “Diet Pills – My Sincere Advice”. As adults we should have the choice to decide what supplements we want to try, that is a right we should all have. If you are training regularly there is no doubt that dietary supplements can help you achieve these goals (like whey protein, creatine and L-Glutamine).
After all, it is increasingly difficult these days to get all the nutrients our bodies need to recover and grow from the food we eat because of the processes used in the agricultural industry that strips away a lot of these nutrients (vitamins, minerals and amino acids). Supplements can help us achieve all our daily requirements, that is not in question here. So….
I hope you get one thing out of this article, and that is that you first try sleeping right, eating healthy and exercising regularly before you begin to consider taking supplements. This is the main reason I wrote Secrets of the Ripped Man and why I am looking forward to writing a women’s edition soon as well. Using a little time to increase your knowledge about your body and health is far more constructive then jumping from one supplement or drug to another especially when they can have serious consequences like this recall of Hydroxycut.
This is definitely my most controversial article to date and I’d like to know what your opinion is on this matter! Leave a comment below…
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Honestly, the last thing in the world I would ever want to see is the FDA having the power to make decisions on nutritional supplementation. They have to much power as it is, and why in the world would anyone trust the judgment of the FDA to begin with? People need to wake up and take a look at the statistics of how many people die a year because of over the counter and prescription medication that you don’t hear about, but then there are 23 dealths that are some how linked to a nutritional supplement and the whole world gets blasted with how dangerous they are.
Researchers found mention of 4,825 deaths and approximately 21,000 serious injuries due to medications among voluntary adverse event reports submitted by doctors to the FDA between January and March. These numbers were 38 percent higher than the quarterly average for 2007 and a striking 200 percent higher than the first quarter of 2007! HELLO, something is very wrong here!
In regard to the Hydroxycut recall, I agree with you that we should have the right to choose our supplements. In addition to the problem of not being able to to get adequate vitamins and minerals due to our ‘factory farming’, seniors such as I am, have the added problem of not being able to absorb them as well as we did when we were younger. For both these reasons we need to have access to supplements for our good health. What concerns me about the Hydroxycut recall is that there are a number of other items that the FDA does not shut down, but allows them to be sold with a warning. Every day I see ads on TV for prescription drugs that end with a long list of the bad side effects that may happen to anyone that takes them. Why did Hydroxycut get recalled, instead of being allowed with a warning on the label?
Since Hydroxycut has been recalled what is the next best weight loss solution on the market? I am really interested in finding something to increase my energy and get me moving like a “happy pill”. I have checked around and there are many claims but I’m just not sure which one will really do the job. I really need a boost mentally as well as physically. Thank-you in advance.
Hi Susan, check out my article on Top 5 Diet Pills as well as my review on Fubar which has some pretty good ingredients that are a little less harsh. Of course, before taking any of these thermogenic enhancers please make sure to read my sincere advice on diet pills. Let me know how it goes.