From: about

May 28, 2009

There's some interesting language in the Food and Drug Administration's bulletin urging consumers to stop using Hydroxycut products.

Hydroxycut is a substance used in a line of diet aids (marketed in numerous ways). It's been found that Hydroxycut can cause liver damage, cardiovascular problems, kidney failure, and seizures. Liver injury, in particular, is a risk even at recommended dosages.

What's interesting, however, is that no one yet knows exactly what it is in Hydroxycut that's causing the problems. Says the FDA: "The agency has not yet determined which ingredients, dosages, or other health-related factors may be associated with risks related to these Hydroxycut products. The products contain a variety of ingredients and herbal extracts."

And that's really the problem. Because it's a supplement, Hydroxycut doesn't get the regulatory attention of a drug. And nobody really knows what parts of the formula account for possible health issues.

There's no doubt that it's difficult to draw the line between what should get serious scrutiny by the FDA and what shouldn't: The agency is generally unable to keep up with the flood of products that companies want to get to market. When new substances aren't billed as "cures" and have no drugs in them, it might seem reasonable to give them a quicker route to store shelves. But it's also clear that many of these supplements do have drugs buried in their formulas (and hidden from regulators). At what point, if any, do we need to expand the regulatory reach to cover weight-loss products in general?