No, I’m not living in a cave, I knew about the FDA’s stance on Hydroxycut days ago and the subsequent recall. In fact, this case brought up memories of the unfortunate death of a pro baseball player that had liver issues, didn’t eat for a few days and dawned a special suit to make him sweat and yet ephedra was blamed for his death. Oh but wait, surely this case is different.
So here’s the low-down: the FDA states that millions of people have taken hydroxycut over the years and there are 23 reported health problems and one death. Wow, that’s scientific. So if someone dies of lung cancer from smoking a few packs a day for decades, can their family blame it on the municipal water supply? So therein lies the main problem. We really don’t know what the people using hydroxycut are experiencing their adverse event reports from. It could be the hydroxycut, it could be other dietary supplements they are consuming, prescription medications known to affect the liver (Accutane for instance) or it could be their frequent trips to the neighborhood pub to down a few beers. Or, it could be a combination of many factors.
I’m not defending Hydroxycut nor the company that makes it, I have no ties to either one. But, the media frenzy over how harmful Hydroxycut is, given the lack of any scientific evidence, is rather alarming. Let’s put this in perspective: 1 person who was taking Hydroxycut has died over the past several years. We don’t know what caused the death. From what I could find on the internet, in 2006 alone there were 13,470 fatalities in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver (BAC of .08 or higher). That figure doesn’t involve liver cancer from alcohol consumption or any other alcohol-related deaths. Over thirteen thousand. What about the deaths associated with tobacco, aspirin, pain killers, anti-depressants.. the list goes on and on. Yet none of these substances have been banned.
I stand by the FDA’s decision to warn consumers about Hydroxycut and the company’s subsequent voluntary withdrawal. But, cause and effect shouldn’t be underestimated and the FDA should at least indicate that they don’t know if the adverse reports are indeed related to Hydroxycut or potentially due to other causes. Every time something like this comes up people point their fingers at the dietary supplement industry as a whole. That’s like saying you should never consume a beverage because some idiot who drank too much alcohol and then decided to get behind a wheel crashed and killed three people. It’s not the beverage it’s the alcohol. And in this instance let’s remember it isn’t the entire dietary supplement industry but one particular supplement and maybe not even the supplement but the actual users of that supplement needing a scapegoat.