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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : September 10, 2018 8:50 AM IST
Few supplements can be harmful for health © Shutterstock
A few days back scientists checked whether a range of supplements used as a workout or weight loss aids may actually be harmful to those who take them. According to the Medical News Today report, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has asked all the athletes to not take any drugs or supplements that include higenamine, a beta-2 agonist that may have toxic effects on the heart.
Many dietary supplements still contain substance like aconite that naturally occurs in certain plants, despite the fact that higenamine is banned by the WADA, and that it might be harmful to people's cardiovascular health.
The researchers including a senior research scientist John Travis at NSF International in Ann Arbor, MI have revealed that not only higenamine is a widely used supplement ingredient, but also that companies that produce such supplements do not properly list the dosage at which this ingredient is used.
Travis reportedly said that they are requesting competitive and amateur athletes, general consumers too to think twice before consuming a product that contains higenamine. He also said that beyond the doping risk of athletes, some of these products contain extremely high doses of a stimulant with unknown safety and potential cardiovascular risks.
The researchers have looked into 24 supplements for weight loss or pre-workout that listed higenamine also known as norcoclaurine and demethylcoclaurine. And they have noticed that they featured widely varying and unreliable amounts of this substance. Unfortunately, of all the supplements that the researchers looked at, only 5 products mentioned an exact quantity of higenamine. Though, Travis and his team found that listed quantities were incorrect when the supplements were tested.
The study co-author Dr Pieter Cohen reportedly said that some plants like ephedra, contain stimulants. If you take too much of the stimulants found in ephedra, it can have life-threatening consequences. Similarly, higenamine is a stimulant found in plants. When it comes to higenamine, we don't yet know for certain what effect high dosages will have in the human body, but a series of preliminary studies suggest that it might have profound effects on the heart and other organs.
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