 |
| Claire Squires |
When Claire Squires clicked to buy a tub of Jack3D on the internet, she thought she was buying a perfectly harmless dietary supplement.
Used as a weight-loss aid and workout booster, it contained a controversial substance called dimethylamylamine, or DMAA.
This was marketed in a range of products as a ‘natural’ stimulant, apparently derived from geranium, that could increase performance.
But questions were already being asked about the safety of products containing DMAA, after it was found in the bloodstream of two young US soldiers who collapsed and died while training in 2011.
While it was never proved DMAA caused their deaths, the incidents prompted the US Defense Department to ban sale of products containing it from base stores.
Five days after last April’s London Marathon - and in a development completely unrelated to the tragedy of Miss Squires’ death - the US Food and Drug Administration wrote to retailers of products containing DMAA.
The letter said DMAA was “known to narrow the blood vessels and arteries, which can elevate blood pressure and may lead to cardiovascular events ranging from shortness of breath and tightening in the chest to heart attack”.
It went on: “The agency has received 42 adverse event reports on products containing DMAA. While the complaints do not establish that DMAA was the cause of the incidents, some of the reports have included cardiac disorders, nervous system disorders, psychiatric disorders, and death.”
An official said manufacturers and distributors had “a responsibility under the law to provide evidence of the safety of their products”.
USPLabs in Texas, which made Jack3d and another DMAA-containing supplement called Oxy Elite Pro, went on the offensive. It threatened a law suit against a Max Muscle shop owner who described Jack3d as “an amphetamine-like compound” that “speeds up your heart rate”.
Such comments were “false and disparaging” said a lawyer for USPLabs. A judge has since dismissed the case.
In August the Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration banned use of DMAA, saying a mine worker had “died from taking DMAA, which he’d bought over the internet”.
Risks included “high blood pressure, psychiatric disorders, bleeding in the brain and stroke”, said the TGA.
Later that month the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency followed suit, ruling that Jack3D - pronounced ‘Jacked’ - was “an unlicensed medicinal product”.
“It and all other DMAA containing products need to be removed from the UK market amid concerns of potential risks to public safety,” said the agency.
David Carter, from the MHRA, said: “These products may claim to increase performance but contain powerful ingredients which can have serious side-effects.”
Last month, USPLabs agreed to settle a class action case in the US regarding Jack3d and Oxy Elite Pro, setting aside $2 million to reimburse those who had bought the products.
However, USPLabs has not admitted liability. It continues to maintain that DMAA is a synthetic copy of geranium extract, a matter debated by scientists.
It has created a reformulated version of Jack3d without DMAA, called Jack3D Micro, but still sells the original in the US.
article source: Stephen Adams Telegraph
0 comments: