Apparently the lawsuits are piling up against the maker of the notorious diet supplement called Hydroxycut. Hydroxycut earned a reputation as being a pretty serious appetite suppressant and energy booster, and also earned a rep as helping a lot of people shed extra pounds. However, now it’s earned a rep of a different nature, and it’s not so good for the long standing company. Complaints and reports were coming in to the FDA of people taking the diet supplement and reporting liver damage.
The FDA allegedly investigated, but has not as of yet found which ingredient is the culprit in the supplement, which is mostly made of green tea extract and an african herbs called ma huang and guarana. Although ephedrine has been banned here in the US, I thought that ma huang contained the powerful stimulant.
Apparently that one is allowed to slip through though because I’ve seen this ingredient on numerous diet supplements and even some energy boosting drinks.
I’ve taken some supplements with these ingredients in them, and they usually don’t agree with me, but I wasn’t aware of them causing liver damage. Of course, it could also be any one of the other ingredients in Hydroxycut that was causing the apparent damage to the liver.
The company voluntarily recalled all of their products under the label Hydroxycut, but there are murmurs that they may have just repackaged the formula and put it back on shelves. Whether that is true, I don’t know. The company did say that the FDA did not identify the ingredients responsible for the liver damage and that the recall was a voluntary recall. My advise would be to stay away from the product or it’s likeness until this issue is resolved. It could still even be on shelves where the recall wasn’t heeded in it’s old formula too, so be on the lookout and avoid it. You can never be too cautious.
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