Man was given two weeks to live after taking popular weight-loss product. - Polidicks

[QUOTE]A Western Australian man has told how he lost his liver after taking popular weight-loss products widely available in protein powders and supplements. Matthew Whitby was two weeks from death and needed an emergency liver transplant after taking a protein powder containing green tea extract and a supplement with garcinia cambogia — a tropical fruit used in weight-loss supplements. Green tea extract is a concentrated form of the popular tea and is favoured for its purported weight loss properties and anti-oxidant effects. Mr Whitby was so close to death after taking a protein powder and supplement containing the extract that he had to accept a donated liver with Hepatitis B. Taxpayers will have to foot the estimated $150,000 bill for Mr Whitby's liver transplant, yet Australian products containing green tea extract typically contain no warnings. Source: [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-14/man-faced-death-after-taking-popular-weight-loss-product/7162378[/url] [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]But in some susceptible individuals, doctors say it can cause liver failure even in moderate doses, and has been reportedly linked to dozens of cases of liver failure around the world.[/QUOTE] Jesus fucking Christ. He's 27 and he's going to have to take meds for the rest of his life for this. And he's a dad. This whole "let's stick random extracts into things and call it healthy" scene needs regulation and fast.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;49734517]Jesus fucking Christ. He's 27 and he's going to have to take meds for the rest of his life for this. And he's a dad. This whole "let's stick random extracts into things and call it healthy" scene needs regulation and fast.[/QUOTE] Considering worldwide estimates of only 1/5th of the world's pharmaceutical industry is actually regulated, no shit we need to step it up.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;49734517]This whole "let's stick random extracts into things and call it healthy" scene needs regulation and fast.[/QUOTE] The problem with blanket regulation is that it can back-fire in the sense that companies can claim they have more credibility or some level of endorsement from the government. "We're regulated, so we must be as useful as 'regulated paracetamol (or any actual regulated med)'."

[QUOTE=Bradyns;49734626]The problem with blanket regulation is that it can back-fire in the sense that companies can claim they have more credibility or some level of endorsement from the government. "We're regulated, so we must be as useful as 'regulated paracetamol (or any actual regulated med)'."[/QUOTE] Unfortunately, consumers have to be more conscious than ever of monitoring supplements, drugs, etc for legitimacy. Especially in less developed countries.

No worse than the kid here who wanted to make his own "healthy" coffie by drinking pure caffeine powder in water then dying of a heart attack Ya people should eat healthy, but cramming all sorts of powders and supplements ontop of that, just for looks isn't good I guess the difference between the snake oil salesmen of yesteryear and today is that they have access to actual chemistry instead of just spirits and cocaine

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;49734517]Jesus fucking Christ. He's 27 and he's going to have to take meds for the rest of his life for this. And he's a dad. This whole "let's stick random extracts into things and call it healthy" scene needs regulation and fast.[/QUOTE] i can already see the headline tyrannical BIG PHARMA bans yet another LIFE-SAVING PLANT in name of "PUBLIC SAFETY"

[quote]Preclinical and human data implicate the catechin component of green tea as the culprit of hepatotoxicity. Approximately 10% of the green tea extract is composed of catechins; of these, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is present in highest concentration. There is great variability in the concentration of green tea extract, EGCG and other components among marketed products, which may explain while some products have been implicated in hepatotoxicity. Exposure of rat hepatocytes to EGCG has been shown to induce mitochondrial toxicity and generation of reactive oxygen species. The association of liver injury with higher doses of green tea (as in extracts) suggests a component of direct hepatotoxicity, perhaps in the context of some degree of host [B]susceptibility exacerbated by environmental features such as obesity, fasting or glutathionine depletion.[/B][/quote] [url]http://livertox.nih.gov/GreenTea.htm[/url]

[QUOTE=Sableye;49734679]No worse than the kid here who wanted to make his own "healthy" coffie by drinking pure caffeine powder in water then dying of a heart attack Ya people should eat healthy, but cramming all sorts of powders and supplements ontop of that, just for looks isn't good I guess the difference between the snake oil salesmen of yesteryear and today is that they have access to actual chemistry instead of just spirits and cocaine[/QUOTE] Isn't it more so that it preys on the weakness that people want the easy way out. So, instead of just eating as little unprocessed food and excercising midly to high, they buy weird juices,powders and buy appliances that do fuck all for you.

In America the dietary supplement market is so unregulated it makes me sick. They can literally sell you saw dust and whatnot.

This killed people in Hawaii two years ago. Killed. More than twenty. You'd figure the FDA and others would get their shit together. [URL]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supplements-and-safety/[/URL]

[QUOTE=Kaelnukem;49734852]Isn't it more so that it preys on the weakness that people want the easy way out. So, instead of just eating as little unprocessed food and excercising midly to high, they buy weird juices,powders and buy appliances that do fuck all for you.[/QUOTE] Some of them do work. I took Alli and a handful of other cheap ones years ago when I was trying to lose weight as a teenager, in addition to dieting (crash dieting, basically) and exercising (when I had the energy, which wasn't often since I wasn't eating hardly anything), and I went from about 230 pounds down to 175 in only two months. The lowest I got down to was just under 150 pounds, but that was excessive, and I went back to eating again as quickly as I could. The thing is, there's got to be a line drawn between these supplements and medications that have actual validity to them and the ones that are just snake oil bullshit reminiscent of something out of the 19th century. And that's not happening. The market is too loosely regulated, not only in terms of the quality of products but the prices that are charged for them as well. Shit, this isn't just true of weight loss supplements, it's also true for these musclehead/"fitness" supplements they sell. "BURN FAT AND BOOST YOUR METABOLISM; GET A FUCKING SIX PACK, ARMS LIKE TREE TRUNKS, AND TONS OF ENERGY FOR THE GYM". I have a friend that somehow managed to fuck his aorta up with the combination he was taking. It's stupid in general, spoken as somebody that once used the ones for weight loss. I don't think they've harmed me in the long run, but I don't know for sure. In hindsight, just eat food like a normal person (or cut back if you're eating too much), go outside into the real world and do physical labor (factory work got me into shape), take time to rest and recuperate... that's all you need. You don't need to use supplements, you don't need to try these fad diets, you really don't even need to pay for a gym membership. Willpower, common sense, and bouts of strenuous activity are the bare essentials.

[QUOTE=27X;49736710]This killed people in Hawaii two years ago. Killed. More than twenty. You'd figure the FDA and other would get their shit together. [url]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supplements-and-safety/[/url][/QUOTE] Blame an organization thats not given the resources to do its job. Its probably an impossible job to begin with.

Heres my advice, If you think you need some form of supplement, ask a doctor

I was expecting 2,4-dinitrophenol. Shame that people aren't more aware of the dangers those things can have. [editline]13th February 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Rangergxi;49736804]Blame an organization thats not given the resources to do its job. Its probably an impossible job to begin with.[/QUOTE] The burden of proving a drug's efficacy/safety generally falls upon the applicant, so in theory there shouldn't be a lot of problems here. The issue is a complex though. There's not a feasible way to test the safety of every plant-derived product. We can't outright ban/regulate all products that haven't been tested thoroughly, as many products have legitimate (time-tested/ethnobotanical) uses.

[QUOTE=Kaelnukem;49734852]Isn't it more so that it preys on the weakness that people want the easy way out. So, instead of just eating as little unprocessed food and excercising midly to high, they buy weird juices,powders and buy appliances that do fuck all for you.[/QUOTE] No like there are plenty of people that eat healthyish diets but they also will top that by taking all these weird powders. Like I've had to go into gnc a few times and just reading the labels in there makes me want to back out slowly, there's no way you can drink 15 lbs of protein powder and vitamins without doing something bad to your organs and the guys I know that do that start in like Jr high and have done it all through college, like we are talking years of the stuff not a few months and we simply do not know the long term effects of taking massive doses of supplements are

Well, At least he's already a father. Still it's strange that they would keep a liver with Hep B in storage rather than destroy it. I guess at the end of the day, they want to save lives and if its not actually fatal then it's OK.

Instead of taking those green tea powder, he should've just drank real green tea instead.

[QUOTE=Passing;49737063]Well, At least he's already a father. Still it's strange that they would keep a liver with Hep B in storage rather than destroy it. I guess at the end of the day, they want to save lives and if its not actually fatal then it's OK.[/QUOTE] Probably keep em for researching cures and whatnot

[QUOTE=Govna;49736756]Some of them do work. [B]I took Alli and a handful of other cheap ones years ago when I was trying to lose weight as a teenager, in addition to dieting (crash dieting, basically) and exercising (when I had the energy, which wasn't often since I wasn't eating hardly anything), and I went from about 230 pounds down to 175 in only two months. The lowest I got down to was just under 150 pounds, but that was excessive, and I went back to eating again as quickly as I could.[/B] The thing is, there's got to be a line drawn between these supplements and medications that have actual validity to them and the ones that are just snake oil bullshit reminiscent of something out of the 19th century. And that's not happening. The market is too loosely regulated, not only in terms of the quality of products but the prices that are charged for them as well. Shit, this isn't just true of weight loss supplements, it's also true for these musclehead/"fitness" supplements they sell. "BURN FAT AND BOOST YOUR METABOLISM; GET A FUCKING SIX PACK, ARMS LIKE TREE TRUNKS, AND TONS OF ENERGY FOR THE GYM". I have a friend that somehow managed to fuck his aorta up with the combination he was taking. It's stupid in general, spoken as somebody that once used the ones for weight loss. I don't think they've harmed me in the long run, but I don't know for sure. In hindsight, just eat food like a normal person (or cut back if you're eating too much), go outside into the real world and do physical labor (factory work got me into shape), take time to rest and recuperate... that's all you need. You don't need to use supplements, you don't need to try these fad diets, you really don't even need to pay for a gym membership. Willpower, common sense, and bouts of strenuous activity are the bare essentials.[/QUOTE] I did keto and went from 200 to 150 in 6 months. It isn't the supplements, it was the exercise and dieting dude.

^ this, that shit will take a while to pass out of you passively. You need to work it out else yer just stockpiling all kindsa weird shit in ya

If it's legal, it's shit. General rule of thumb regarding supplements.

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;49734622]Considering worldwide estimates of only 1/5th of the world's pharmaceutical industry is actually regulated, no shit we need to step it up.[/QUOTE] i mean a lot of the world is china... isn't that the number 1 country where you can buy online pharmaceuticals

[QUOTE=Bradyns;49734626]The problem with blanket regulation is that it can back-fire in the sense that companies can claim they have more credibility or some level of endorsement from the government. "We're regulated, so we must be as useful as 'regulated paracetamol (or any actual regulated med)'."[/QUOTE] That could be dealt with if it becomes an issue of misleading consumers. Tobacco's regulated, after all, and I don't know about down in Australia but up here cig packs are required to carry big scary bold attention-grabbing warnings about the health risks of tobacco. Meanwhile, here in Canada, energy drinks can get around labeling requirements with two bastardly tricks: 1) By classifying their product as a "natural health product" instead of something that counts as [U]food[/U], they completely bypass the need for a standard nutritional label telling you the calorie count and so on. [URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2w8utv/til_coke_was_sued_for_the_unwarranted_health/"]Coca-Cola got their ass sued off for messing around with this with vitaminwater in Canada while simultaneously getting sued for misleading and unwarranted health claims.[/URL] This may have toughened up a bit but they still get away with shit. 2) By lumping all the active "medicinal" ingredients into one combined additive, they can avoid telling you the breakdown of proportions of the taurine, guaranine, ginseng, caffeine, and whatever other shit they claim is a stimulant. In some cases, it's been pretty much 90%+ caffeine and then slight amounts of the rest to legally satisfy the label's advertised contents. This can have medical consequences if you're sensitive to one of the compounds and don't know how much of it you're actually ingesting. Some drinks do not do this and actually break it down ingredient by ingredient. [QUOTE=uitham;49741706]i mean a lot of the world is china... isn't that the number 1 country where you can buy online pharmaceuticals[/QUOTE] If you're in the states, apparently the hot thing is buying medication from Canadian pharmacies, which can bypass restrictions and be much cheaper than going through the US system. Seems like it's shady and often not legal depending on the medications, but that won't stop people.

[QUOTE]Taxpayers will have to foot the estimated $150,000 bill for Mr Whitby's liver transplant, yet Australian products containing green tea extract typically contain no warnings. [/QUOTE] I'm not sure what the point of this line is. Is it trying to say they would they rather let the guy die? Or is it trying to saying they should have a warning because of the cost of the liver transplant? What's the point of mentioning the cost of the transplant?

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;49741877]If you're in the states, apparently the hot thing is buying medication from Canadian pharmacies, which can bypass restrictions and be much cheaper than going through the US system. Seems like it's shady and often not legal depending on the medications, but that won't stop people.[/QUOTE] The only reason Canadian medication is cheaper is that US companies don't enjoy government protection from foreign competition in Canada. Which forces them to set a competitive price rather than 10-15 times what anyone else in the world pays for the same drugs as happens in the US.

[QUOTE=Morgen;49742271]I'm not sure what the point of this line is. Is it trying to say they would they rather let the guy die? Or is it trying to saying they should have warning because of the cost of the liver transplant? What's the point of mentioning the cost of the transplant?[/QUOTE] Australian newspapers love to talk about how "the taxpayer" is getting screwed over for every little thing. Creating problems when there is none.

[QUOTE=da space core;49736846]Heres my advice, If you think you need some form of supplement, ask a doctor[/QUOTE] When I was in university I was friends with a couple of MMA guys, and the amount of supplements and test boosters they fuck with, with no doctor's guidance are insane. I remember one guy was taking something where the packaging was shaped like a grenade. If that doesn't scream legitimacy I don't know what does. People get all spooked by anabolic steroids but at least if you're getting them from a legit source you know there's a good bit of research. With some shit you get in a grenade they could be slinging ground up bull cocks and Mexican ephedra for all you know And then they'd get all preachy about how weed is good because it's 'all natural' lmao