Researchers Warn That Chemical Muscle Builder Can Be Deadly

Nutritional supplements containing the industrial solvent 1,4-butanediol are both addictive and deadly, according to Minnesota researchers. The chemical is currently viewed as a “safe” alternative to gamma-hydroxybutyrate, a purported aid to muscle building and weight loss that has been banned because of its dangers.

The team reports in today’s New England Journal of Medicine on eight cases of 1,4-butanediol poisoning encountered in the Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room in the last seven months of 1999. Symptoms included addiction, withdrawal, vomiting, urinary and fecal incontinence, agitation, combativeness, loss of consciousness, respiratory depression and death. Supplements taken by the patients included Thunder Nectar, NRG3, Serenity and InnerG.

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II