Herbal Fen-Phen (Ephedra) Study on Adverse Effects

July 9th, 2009. By AbiK

There’s an interesting study on Ephedra—aka herbal fen-phen—called “The Relative Safety of Ephedra Compared with Other Herbal Products” by S. Bent, TN Tiedt, MC Odden and MG Shlipak. It was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (3/18/03, volume 138, pp. 468-471). 

In the study, the researchers looked at the number of adverse effects reported to US poison control centers during 2001. Keep in mind, the study is now a few years old as Ephedra has been banned since 2004. But the study was conducted during the time in which Ephedra was still riding high in popularity as a diet supplement.

The results of the study showed:

Products containing ephedra accounted for 64% of all reported adverse effects from herbs even though they represented less than 1% of total herbal product sales. The risk for an adverse effect from ephedra compared with other commonly used herbal products was very high. For example, relative risks for adverse effects from ephedra were 100 times greater than from kava and as much as 700 times greater than from Ginkgo biloba. Types and severity of adverse effects were not described.

The “commonly used” other herbal products that were looked at in the study included Ginkgo biloba, St. John’s Wort, Echinacea, Ginseng, Valerian, Kava and Yohimbe. Of note is that St. John’s Wort was included in the study—many times herbal fen-phen supplements were a combo of Ephedra and St. John’s Wort. The study indicated that the relative risk for an adverse reaction in a person using Ephedra was 370 times greater than the relative risk from St. John’s Wort…and as much as 700 times greater than that of Ginkgo biloba.

We now know that the litany of reported adverse effects for Ephedra—and it’s prescription-only pre-cursor, Fen-Phen—include Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH), and that these effects can show up years after having taking the supplements.

Hard to say whether many herbal products actually do any good—there’s a lot of passionate support for their efficacy—as well as a rich history of their use dating back thousands of years. But medical “proof” is sketchy at best. Given the uncertainty about efficacy, and the certainty that some of these herbal products are not completely innocuous, with minimal information and regulation, it continues to be buyer beware.

Tags: Ephedra, Fen-Phen, herbal fen-phen, PPH

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