The James Esparza Law Firm
Ephedra Lawyers
Salt Lake City, Utah
Metabolife / Ephedra / Ephedrine
Please Note: The pharmaceutical liability attorneys at the James Esparaza law firm have represented countless clients in the Utah area who have been harmed by dangerous drugs, and we can help you, too. However, at this time, we are only accepting pharmaceutical liability cases for the following drugs: Levaquin, Yaz and Yasmin, and Transvaginal Mesh Patches. The link here indicates the drug cases we are no longer accepting so that we may focus our time and resources on victims who have been harmed by Levaquin, Yaz/Yasmin and the Transvaginal patches.
Metabolife is a popular weight loss product that has been taken by millions of people.
The active ingredient in Metabolife — ephedra (or ephedrine) — has serious and life threatening side effects including: high blood pressure, nervousness, dizziness, tremors, increased heart rate/palpitations, headache, stomach upset, chest pain, tachycardia (in which the heart rate is accelerated to above 100 beats per minute), paranoid psychosis, depression, coma, fever, vomiting, hepatitis, respiratory failure, coma, bleeding in the brain, heart attack, strokes, seizures, psychosis, and death.
Ephedra, also known as Ma-Huang, is the herbal form of ephedrine. Because ephedra is classified as an herbal nutritional supplement, rather than a drug, it does not require FDA approval.
Ephedra turns out to be so dangerous, that is has been banned by the NCAA, the NFL and the International Olympic Committee. More importantly, the American Medical Association has recommended that the U.S. government ban ephedra supplements altogether. One medical journal cited ephedra as the most dangerous herbal supplement on the market.
At
least 100 deaths have been linked to ephedra, including
the high profile case of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve
Bechle, and a sixteen-year-old boy who was taking ephedra
to boost his energy and stamina level.
Lawsuits against Metabolife International, Inc., allege
that they company may have withheld important records about
the numbers of people killed or injured by its products.
The FDA had asked for records from Metabolife, which contain
thousands of health problems reported directly to the company
by consumers. Metabolife said 400,000 people had called
the company between 1997 and 2001 and received 13,000 reports
of health-related issues.
