Dietary Supplements

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday warned consumers against buying or taking dietary supplements containing ephedrine, such as Herbal Ecstasy, saying that the stimulant has been linked to 15 deaths and hundreds of adverse reactions. The FDA issued the alert against only those products advertised as alternatives to street drugs aimed at young people, such as "ecstasy," that promise euphoria, heightened sexual awareness and enhanced athletic performance.

A new government rule threatens pregnant women and their babies by allowing dietary supplements to treat morning sickness without evidence the products are safe, says a petition filed Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration "seems to have thrown caution to the wind and appears willing to endanger unborn babies," said the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and well-known birth defects expert Dr. Godfrey Oakley of Emory University.

The Food and Drug Administration offered assurances Tuesday that dietary supplements will remain widely available, even though it will soon be able to regulate the claims on their labels for the first time. A moratorium that barred the FDA from regulating vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids and other health food store staples expires today.

Starting this summer, the makers of vitamins and dietary supplements will have to do something they've never done before: verify that what they sell is real. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that starting in late August, manufacturers in the $22-billon-a-year industry must conduct tests to show that their products contain all the ingredients on the label -- nothing more and nothing less. Companies must also keep records of consumer complaints.

Federal regulations do a poor job of protecting the public from risks of dietary supplements, and tough new rules are needed, government investigators say. A draft report by the Health and Human Services inspector general's office said dietary supplements do not undergo premarket safety approval procedures of the Food and Drug Administration, and manufacturers are not required to report adverse health effects experienced by people taking the supplements.

San Diego Chargers Coach Don Coryell, ever in search of ways to give his players an edge on the competition, thinks he's hit on a fail-safe method. With the help of a San Diego physician and biochemist, Coryell next month plans to expose his players to a new nutritional regimen that is designed to enhance performance without exposing his athletes to the potentially harmful effects of downing tons of pills. Physician Sheldon S.

Ephedra, a substance common in dietary supplements popular with high school and college athletes, has been linked to at least 80 deaths, and has been targeted in numerous lawsuits against the manufacturers of such products.

Health activists and local residents packed a hearing conducted by Rep. Elton Gallegly in Ventura on Friday to oppose new regulations on dietary supplements and vitamins. The Simi Valley Republican is the co-author of pending legislation to head off the new rules, which are scheduled to go into effect in July. Opponents of the regulations say they would restrict the availability of supplements and in some cases eliminate them from the marketplace.

Dietary supplement companies have begun aggressively targeting children and parents as consumers of their products, among them powerful chemicals designed to help kids gain strength, lose weight or treat illnesses ranging from colds and flu to depression and even attention deficit disorder.

Consumers who painstakingly troll drugstore shelves for just the right vitamin, herb or mineral will soon have some help, courtesy of the federal government. A controversial new ruling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will allow dietary supplement companies to provide more detailed descriptions of the health conditions for which their products are best suited.