A dietary supplement found in body building products and other ‘health improvers’ could be a short cut to a wide shouldered coffin according to American reserachers.
The supplement known formally as 1,4-butanediol or BD has been directly implicated in 71 deaths with another 40 or so being investigated as suspicious, according to Deborah Zvosec, lead researcher of the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she said, because many people with overdoses don’t seek treatment.
BD is also used as an industrial solvent and while there has been little formal study, promoters claim it is a natural and nontoxic way to build muscle, improve athletic performance, increase libido and sexual performance, reduce wrinkles, reverse baldness and reduce stress, depression and insomnia. Suprise suprise, none of these claims have been proven but it is apparently a very good solvent!.
The sale of its chemical cousin, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but it was ‘replaced’ by a similar product called gamma-butyrolactone (GBL).
In January 1999, the FDA warned that GBL was also dangerous and it was voluntarily recalled only to be repalced in turn with BD. In May 1999, the FDA issued a warning about 1,4-butanediol supplements as well, the researchers said. However “extensive marketing continues on the Internet, and the use of all three compounds, sometimes interchangeably, has increased.”
The chemical is listed on ingredient labels as tetramethylene glycol, butylene glycol or sucol-B, and it is contained in products with the following brand names; Thunder Nectar, InnerG, Amino flex, Rejuv@Nite, Liquid Gold, Thunder, Serenity, X-12 and N-Force. Although it’s ‘benefits are unproven it has been shown to be directly linked to sudden swings between wild, combative behavior and an abrupt loss of consciousness, as well as nausea and incontinence. Oh, and death.
Probably best not to finish the jar then Mr Gladiator.