On May one, 2009, the FDA issued a recall of fourteen differing kinds of Hydroxycut products made by Iovate Medical Sciences. All these products were promoted as helps for weight reduction, fat burners, energy enhancers, and minimal cost diet products in grocery stores, drug stores, and bargain stores all over the U. S. and in 70 other nations. This Hydroxycut recall was based on reports turned into the FDA concerning heavy liver problems as well as a death that have been associated with the drugs.

Some sites will tell you that the Hydroxycut recall was completely voluntary on the part of Iovate ; however, remember the FDA was pivotal in making it happen. Many reports of issues related to diet drugs are never passed along to the FDA, because the agency isn’t set up to monitor products like these which technically aren’t medications. However, when enough reports of health problems filter into the organization, they do take notice and proceed to deal with it. In fact, public health is their first concern.

Reports of 23 cases of serious liver damage and one death, all related to Hydroxycut, were sufficient to get the FDA interested. Unfortunately, it requires a few years for enough cases to get to the agency in order for it to act. The one death they looked into was of a teen-aged boy back in 2007. The Hydroxycut recall didn’t happen until 2009, however, which allowed for time for the FDA to analyze the problem and react. In the meantime , it’s hard telling how many further health problems resulted from people continuing to use the diet supplement.

All of this information might cause you to wonder if the system is set up the way it should be. Should the FDA policies be modified so they have more control of the diet product industry? Is it right for the firms that make these products to be allowed to publicize that their diet drugs are safe and made only of natural ingredients? This kind of so-so advertising lulls the public into a false sense of complacency. Most folk believe that if a product is sitting on store shelves and available for widespread public use, it must have been tested and proven safe. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case.

The Hydroxycut recall brought the difficulty into public focus, but if there’s a problem with the product, should not the company making the drug be held in charge of safety issues? Should the people be the subject of a barrage of products which will basically be unsafe to their health? After all, prescription medicines, and even many types of over the counter drugs, are required to pass tough perusal by the FDA. Why then are other products which are equally-capable of damaging somebody’s health being authorized on the market without these protects in place?

Apparently you can put any kind of preparation into a glossy carton and call it a diet supplement. We all know that this is true, because we’ve all seen loads of products that have been touted as helping people to lose weight which actually don’t work at all. The diet drug industry is booming to the tune of billions of dollars every year, and people are risking their health taking uncontrolled chemicals. The recent Hydroxycut recall has brought this fact to the public attention like never before making people realize that changes need to made in the system.

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