Since its inception, Vitacost has refused to sell any dietary supplement product that contains nutrients proven to cause harm at recommended levels, regardless of their popularity and potential for increased sales.Case in point: ephedrine alkaloids, also referred to as ephedra or Ma Huang.
These substances, commonly found in diet aids and energy enhancers, have been shown to cause rapid heartbeat, blurred vision, dizziness, lightheadedness, high blood pressure, slurred speech, numbness of body parts, seizures, memory problems, cardiac arrest and even death.
And now, an important scientific study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has concluded that the use of ephedra is dangerous, and even life threatening. In fact, at least 54 deaths and about 1,000 reports of complications have been linked to ephedra since the mid-1990s. One of the researches, Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, stated, "They're uncommon events, but they're serious." He concluded, "The substance is unreasonably hazardous as marketed.''
One of the missions of vitacost.com and the Nutraceutical Sciences Institute (NSI) is to provide you with top quality products. Another mission, which we
take very seriously, is to make sure that we recommend products that are
safe, and to warn you about products that may not be safe. The recent FDA
reports about Comfrey are an example; we recommended to you over 1 year ago
that this product was unsafe for internal consumption.
As many of you have commented upon, we have also argued against the use of
ephedra, or ma huang, as a nutritional supplement. Our concerns were
primarily the 800 adverse events reported to the FDA. We believe the side
effects, cardiovascular problems, are quite significant. Thus, we have
always made a concerted effort to provide you with safe alternatives, such
as Nutrislim and Nutrislim Thermogenic.
We do listen to our customers, and many of you have told us that you have
safely used products containing ephedra, with good results. You have
suggested that it would be more convenient to have the ability to purchase
products such as Synergy 2000 at the same site were you could purchase diet
supplements containing ephedra. We were prompted to re-address the issue of
whether we should carry ephedra-containing products. And when we look at the
data, it seems that many of the early adverse events were associated with
improper dosage, improper usage, or bad manufacturing. Recently, there has
been a dramatic increase in the use of ephedra-containing products, yet the
number of adverse events has not risen. It is entirely
plausible that the recommended limits on the combination of ephedra and
caffeine (usually found in the form of guarana) have resulted in a safer
class of ephedra products.
While we continue to believe that products such as Nutrislim, Nutrislim Thermogenic and Bitter Orange contain ingredients that are safe alternatives to ephedra, we also believe that we have a responsibility to our customers to provide them with products that they want, but to inform them about risks and benefits. Therefore, vitacost.com will now carry certain products containing ephedra
which come from reliable manufacturers and are manufactured within the
guidelines set forth for the safe use of ephedra. We will not prominently
recommend them, and we will continue to warn against adverse effects. We
hope that you take the warnings seriously; your good health is our greatest
concern.
You can read the actual case files of these, often-tragic reactions to these substances by reviewing the FDA documents we’ve provided for you using the links below:Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (HFS-456), Food and Drug Administration
An overview from the FDA about the dangers of ephedra.
The Scientific Advisory Board of vitacost constantly reviews the medical literature looking not only for beneficial nutrients to offer for sale but also for injurious ingredients like ephedra. You can trust viacost to offer you, not only safe products, but products that we have individually evaluated for quality, purity and potency.
Look for our in-depth Product Reviews: Our Scientific Advisory Board has painstakingly reviewed the formulas of many of our products and provides you with a rating based on the:
- superiority of nutrient levels
- forms of nutrients used
- expected overall effectiveness of the formulation
- safety of the formulation
- value compared to other similar products
To ensure purity and potency we pick several products at random each month and send them for a third party lab analysis. We post the results so you can be sure that you’re getting what is on the label.