L Tryptophan

A Japanese chemical manufacturer was ordered to pay more than $2 million to four people who used L-tryptophan, a food supplement linked to a rare blood disorder that killed at least 27 people. The state arbitration panel's order late Monday was the nation's first damage award against manufacturer Showa Denko Co., said Turner Branch of Albuquerque, N.M., vice chairman of a steering committee for attorneys representing L-tryptophan victims.

IT'S a Thanksgiving Day ritual -- lolling around after dinner complaining that the turkey has made you sleepy. This myth (yes, it's a myth) emerges from the fact that turkey contains the amino acid tryptophan, which can play a role in sleep. But to have this effect, tryptophan must be taken on an empty stomach -- and in much higher doses than one can consume in food. It may, however, have another effect. A new study suggests this natural substance may have an effect on the immune system.

DEAR FOOD EDITOR: I was greatly disturbed by the April 26 column "Food & Common Sense" by Dr. Jean Mayer and Jeanne Goldberg that insinuated L-Tryptophan, when taken as a nutritional supplement, is hazardous to health. They claimed a rare blood disorder that created a recent wave of illness and death was brought on by the vitamin supplement form of L-Tryptophan, and they discounted the possibility that a contamination in a particular batch might have been the cause. The same day their column appeared, an article in the Washington Post reported that Centers for Disease Control researchers had traced all of the fatalities and illnesses in question to contaminated L-tryptophan made by a Japanese manufacturer--Showa Denko Co. Theoretically, people who maintain a diet of properly prepared, well-balanced meals, organically grown in environmentally pure conditions--and who get plenty of rest and exercise--may not need nutritional supplements.

The FDA is planning to restrict health claims of nutritional supplements such as we find in health food stores and pharmacies. Currently, a vitamin or food supplement can (and frequently does) make healing claims that have absolutely no scientific evidence to support them. Remarkably, the FDA has been able to do nothing to stop this. Why? Because our congressman, Elton Gallegly, authored and pushed successfully a bill to prohibit the FDA from doing the job it should do. He authored a bill that prohibited the FDA from taking stronger steps to protect the public for a one-year period.

Consumers should stop taking the food supplement L-Tryptophan while authorities investigate at least 30 illnesses that may be associated with the product, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday. The product, sold over the counter in tablet and capsule form, has been used by some people with sleeping problems or premenstrual syndrome, the FDA said.

The rare blood disorder linked to the dietary supplement L-tryptophan appears to be caused by impurities found in the supplements, and immune-system weaknesses that make some individuals more susceptible to the illness, federal health officials said Wednesday. The officials said they found chemical contaminants in all of the L-tryptophan samples they studied. Any of the dozens of impurities could have played a role in the illness, they added.

A Burbank couple on Monday filed a $30-million lawsuit against a Japanese manufacturer of the dietary supplement L-tryptophan, alleging that impurities in the product severely disabled the woman. Mike and Cecile Gracy filed suit in Burbank Superior Court, claiming that Showa Denko of Tokyo produced impure batches of the supplement in late 1988 and early 1989 that caused Cecile Gracy to develop eosinophilia-myaglia syndrome, a potentially fatal muscle and blood ailment.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it will not allow L-tryptophan back on the market, despite a call by the Costa Mesa-based National Nutritional Foods Assn. to lift the agency's ban on the food supplement. The FDA's statement in Washington came despite news that a study will be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. indicating that an epidemic of a potentially fatal blood disorder may be linked to only one manufacturer of the food supplement.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded its recall of the dietary supplement L-tryptophan to include even small dosages, declaring that the substance poses a "major public health problem" and can be fatal. The agency cited 1,411 reported cases of the newly recognized condition eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, or EMS, which has been linked to L-tryptophan. Nineteen deaths have been reported. "EMS can cripple. It can cause great pain.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday denied a petition that sought to stop it from approving genetically engineered products. The agency said there is no evidence the products endanger the public. The Foundation on Economic Trends filed the petition in August, 1990, after more than 1,500 people became ill and more than two dozen died after taking L-tryptophan, an amino acid used as a remedy for insomnia, appetite control and depression.

Two years after taking the over-the-counter sleeping aid L-tryptophan, schoolteacher Betsy DiRosa began suffering skin blotches, joint and muscle cramps, tingling in her arms and legs, even damage to her heart and lungs. The symptoms remain with DiRosa and with thousands of other victims of L-tryptophan, which was lifted from shelves across the country in 1989 and is now the focal point of about 1,500 lawsuits brought by victims of the debilitating disease EMS, for which L-tryptophan is blamed.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday denied a petition that sought to stop it from approving genetically engineered products. The agency said there is no evidence the products endanger the public. The Foundation on Economic Trends filed the petition in August, 1990, after more than 1,500 people became ill and more than two dozen died after taking L-tryptophan, an amino acid used as a remedy for insomnia, appetite control and depression.

A Japanese chemical manufacturer was ordered to pay more than $2 million to four people who used L-tryptophan, a food supplement linked to a rare blood disorder that killed at least 27 people. The state arbitration panel's order late Monday was the nation's first damage award against manufacturer Showa Denko Co., said Turner Branch of Albuquerque, N.M., vice chairman of a steering committee for attorneys representing L-tryptophan victims.

Suits Against Japanese Firm Allege Poisoning: Dual lawsuits were filed in state and federal court against Showa Denko K.K. of Japan on behalf of roughly 120 people who allege that they or members of their family were poisoned by L-tryptophan, an amino acid that was banned in the United States last April.

Last July, Cecile Gracy was an excited Burbank bride-to-be who vowed to get in shape before her September wedding. So she began exercising, dieting and taking a health supplement called L-tryptophan. Gracy had taken the over-the-counter product in 1984 after her doctor recommended it for sleeping difficulties and cramps. The tryptophan proved so effective that she figured it would help her become a healthy, fit bride.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it will not allow L-tryptophan back on the market, despite a call by the Costa Mesa-based National Nutritional Foods Assn. to lift the agency's ban on the food supplement. The FDA's statement in Washington came despite news that a study will be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. indicating that an epidemic of a potentially fatal blood disorder may be linked to only one manufacturer of the food supplement.

Two years after taking the over-the-counter sleeping aid L-tryptophan, schoolteacher Betsy DiRosa began suffering skin blotches, joint and muscle cramps, tingling in her arms and legs, even damage to her heart and lungs. The symptoms remain with DiRosa and with thousands of other victims of L-tryptophan, which was lifted from shelves across the country in 1989 and is now the focal point of about 1,500 lawsuits brought by victims of the debilitating disease EMS, for which L-tryptophan is blamed.

Researchers Tuesday presented the strongest evidence to date linking the dietary supplement L-tryptophan made by a Japanese manufacturer to an epidemic of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome in the United States in the fall of 1989. They also announced that specific impurities in the tryptophan produced in late 1988 and early 1989 by the chemical company, Showa Denko of Tokyo, is being investigated as a possible cause of the potentially fatal blood and muscle ailment.

A Costa Mesa-based association representing the health food industry went to Washington on Monday to lobby for the lifting of a federal ban on the sale of tryptophan, a food supplement used as a treatment for insomnia and premenstrual syndrome. Health food products containing manufactured tryptophan were removed from the market in November at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because people using the products were coming down with a rare disease.

A Burbank couple on Monday filed a $30-million lawsuit against a Japanese manufacturer of the dietary supplement L-tryptophan, alleging that impurities in the product severely disabled the woman. Mike and Cecile Gracy filed suit in Burbank Superior Court, claiming that Showa Denko of Tokyo produced impure batches of the supplement in late 1988 and early 1989 that caused Cecile Gracy to develop eosinophilia-myaglia syndrome, a potentially fatal muscle and blood ailment.