People buy health care products to help them become healthier, or more beautiful and better. However, there are always some illegal businesses who want to take advantage of this mentality. They add some drugs or banned ingredients to health care products in excess, such as:
Recently, Beijing has taken samples of foods and drugs sold on online platforms that claim to have the effects of losing weight, lowering blood pressure and fat, lowering blood sugar, enhancing immunity and improving sleep. After inspection and identification, it was found that they contained sibutramine, phenformin, phenolphthalein, sildenafil and other chemical components.
At present, more than 150 cases have been investigated and dealt with and more than 160 people have been detained.
Today, Dr. Clove invited food safety professionals to tell you about the [problems] in health care products.
Sibutramine: Weight Loss
Sibutramine mainly achieves the goal of losing weight by inhibiting appetite and reducing energy intake.
However, its side effects are very large, ranging from thirst, palpitation and insomnia to nerve injury and mental diseases. Therefore, Europe, America, Australia and other countries and regions have banned this drug one after another.
As early as 2010, the then State Food and Drug Administration had already stopped the production, sale and use of sibutramine preparations and bulk drugs, revoked its approval documents, and recalled and destroyed the listed drugs.
However, seven years later, it is still hidden in weight loss products under various banners and sold in micro-businesses and some offline distribution channels.
For example, in a typical case recently announced by Beijing, a diet drug called DDS caused serious adverse reactions:
After taking it, a consumer became insane and hallucinated in the later period. When cutting vegetables, he cut his hand as a radish and all three tendons were broken.
According to the hospital diagnosis, he suffers from bidirectional affective disorder and irreversible damage to the central nervous system, requiring lifelong treatment.
Phenolphthalein: Constipation
Phenolphthalein is an irritant laxative, which can stimulate intestinal mucosa and intestinal nerve endings, accelerate intestinal peristalsis and promote defecation.
Therefore, it is commonly used clinically to treat habitual constipation.
However, long-term administration of phenolphthalein will produce certain drug dependence and easily cause intestinal dysfunction, which will aggravate constipation after drug withdrawal.
Adding phenolphthalein to health care products will make the effect especially obvious, but this effect will disappear immediately after drug withdrawal, and constipation will be more serious than before.
In the end, we can only rely on taking medicine all the time and increasing the dosage to maintain normal defecation.
Phenformin: Hypoglycemic
Diabetes is a chronic disease that has not yet been conquered. Any health food that claims to be able to quickly control or even reduce blood sugar should be treated with care, often with drugs secretly added.
For example, phenformin, like metformin, is a hypoglycemic drug.
Phenformin was also suspended from production, sale and use by the State Food and Drug Administration at the end of 2016 because it is easy to cause lactic acid poisoning. Like sibutramine, which is used for weight loss, its drug approval documents were revoked and those already on the market were recalled and destroyed.
However, this still cannot prevent non-distribution vendors from secretly adding illegally.
Some [hypoglycemic health products] even claim that they can: do not take medicine, do not relapse, and cure diabetes.
For diabetics, if they listen to these propaganda and stop using drugs, it is no different from murder.
Sildenafil: Strengthening Yang and Resisting Fatigue
The name sildenafil may not have been heard by most people. But when it comes to its common name, no one should not know it. It is Viagra.
It can treat male erectile dysfunction, and drugs such as tadalafil have similar effects.
However, sildenafil has a great impact on the cardiovascular system. In some cases, sildenafil may induce heart disease and even myocardial infarction and death in severe cases.
Health food in our country is approved, but there is no category of “strengthening yang” or improving sexual function. Sildenafil, as a prescription drug, also needs to be purchased and used under the guidance of pharmacists or doctors, and is not allowed to be added to food or health food.
However, in the health food that claims to strengthen the body, resist fatigue and strengthen yang, as long as there is a golden gun that cannot fail, almost all of them have these drugs to help in the dark.
Moreover, criminals may add drugs in excess in order to [achieve remarkable results]. In some cases, the amount of illegal health care products added even reached 3-4 times that of Viagra.
Choose regular channels to guard against being cheated.
People’s thirst for health is getting stronger and stronger. Buying and using health care products has become the choice of many people. However, this also gives many illegal businesses an opportunity. Therefore, when you buy health care products, you must choose formal channels and check the safety marks of products.
Special attention should be paid to the fact that friends circle micro-merchants should not be chosen as the purchase channel of health care products.
On the one hand, it is difficult for tax and industrial and commercial departments to supervise transactions in the circle of friends. Moreover, the general circle of friends cannot provide bills for sales. Once consumer disputes occur, the legitimate rights and interests of consumers are difficult to protect.
On the other hand, the [acquaintances] in the circle of friends and the marketing information they release are not necessarily authentic.
As early as April 2015, the China Consumers Association issued a consumer warning:
Consumers should not easily believe the marketing information in the circle of friends and beware of the scam of “having pictures and truth”.
In particular, food, health care products and other commodities related to personal health and safety should not be purchased easily.
Goods sold in the circle of friends are not necessarily true. For food, medicine, health care products and other commodities involving personal health and safety, we must purchase them carefully.
To prevent being cheated, we must remember the following 4 points:
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Health care products and drugs must be purchased through regular channels, especially on guard against micro-businesses.
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Special care should be taken about health care products that have therapeutic effects. There is a great possibility of illegally adding prescription drugs or even banned drugs. The better the effect, the more terrible it will be.
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Products with hypoglycemic, lipid-lowering, weight-loss and anti-fatigue functions are the hardest hit areas where drugs are illegally added.
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If you suspect that you have bought fake drugs and health care products, consult, complain and report with the local regulatory authorities in a timely manner, and call 12331.