For the article of this week this week, we review a paper that outlines some dangers of taking off the shelf supplements. This paper specifically looked at a dietary fat loss supplement named, Lipokinetix. This dietary supplement was marketed as a way to increase your metabolism and aid in fat loss. However, it seems like it was just as likely to cause liver damage. This supplement resulted in numerous people going into liver failure and unfortunately it resulted in one customer needing a liver transplant since the damage completely destroyed their liver. 

How can something like this happen? How can such a dangerous supplement be allowed to be sold to the public?

Well, dietary supplements don’t need to be evaluated by the FDA like normal prescription medications do. It’s simply up to the developer of the supplement to claim if it’s healthy or not. Therefore, it’s easy for companies to release dangerous supplements onto the market. It’s not until a particular supplement causes multiple documented cases of inflicting some sort of health issue that the FDA becomes aware of it and takes it off the shelf. However, by then, numerous people have most likely already suffered the ill effects of this certain supplement. 

Be careful when buying supplements and do your research on the companies that make the supplements you like to buy. To learn more about this topic listen to this week’s podcast.