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Liver fears over Hydroxycut supplement

-Pharmacy News

02/01/2010 - The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has been urged to reconsider the availability of a weight loss and muscle toning supplement after the first case of it causing liver damage was reported in Australia.

A 23-year old man was admitted to hospital in Sydney with severe acute hepatitis, elevated liver enzymes and jaundice after taking Hydroxycut Hardcore daily for 10 weeks, doctors who treated him reported in a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) published today.

The man, who had been taking the recommended dose of six capsules of Hydroxycut Hardcore per day and no other supplement, recovered after he stopped taking it.

"Hydroxycut contains various ingredients, including extracts of the herbs Garcinia cambogia and Camelia sinesis (green tea root), and the chromium salt, chromium polynicotinate. A recent review cites these three ingredients as possible causes of Hydroxycut hepatotoxicity," Dr N Nudrat Rashid from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Dr Jason Grant from Ryde Hospital wrote in MJA.

They claimed the incident was "the first reported Australian case of acute hepatotoxicity" from Hydroxycut Hardcore, which was bought from "his local outlet of a global nutritional products retailer".

In May 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration advised consumers to immediately stop taking Hydroxycut products after it received 23 reports of serious live injuries, including one death from liver failure.

A TGA spokeswoman, however, said the regulator was not aware of any liver problems associated with Hydroxycut products sold in Australia.

"Surprisingly the authors of the letter in the MJA appear not to have reported the adverse event to the TGA," the spokeswoman said.

She said Australian Hydroxycut products had "different formulations" to the ones sold in US.

"The TGA will be following up the case with the authors of the article to identify the product and the exact nature of the adverse event and continue to review the product," she said.