Controversial Supplement Being Endorsed by Carter

Minnesota Viking star Cris Carter is a pitchman for a dietary supplement that includes a stimulant medical experts say has potentially dangerous side effects.

The stimulant, yohimbe, is an ingredient in Mo’ Power, a performance-enhancing product Carter sells on his Web site. The Pro Bowl receiver touts Mo’ Power as “the ultimate in botanical technology” and points out it does not contain anabolic steroids.

According to Food and Drug Administration, yohimbe is a tree bark marketed in a number of products for body building and “enhanced male performance.” The stimulant can lead to serious adverse effects, the FDA warns on its Web site, including renal failure, seizures and death.

A laboratory analysis of Mo’ Power was conducted for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Medical experts interviewed by the paper recommended against using the product, saying it has enough yohimbe to raise blood pressure, speed up the heart or interfere with the body’s ability to cool itself. Those side effects could increase a user’s risk of heart attack, stroke or heatstroke.

“This is a risky compound,” Dr. Christopher Foley, a physician who is an editor of a medical journal about alternative medicine, said in Sunday’s edition of the Star Tribune. “It has no place in any athletic enhancement supplement. I would not, under any circumstances, recommend this product.”

Mo’ Power also is recommended by Keith Johnson, the Viking chaplain, on Carter’s Web site ( athleteshealth.com ).

Viking tackle Korey Stringer died of heatstroke complications in August. According to his agent, toxicology tests revealed Stringer had no traces of dietary supplements in his body at the time of his death.

But those supplements have been the focus of intense scrutiny in recent months, especially in relation to football players. At least three football players who died this year--Florida State’s Devaughn Darling, Northwestern’s Rashidi Wheeler and Curt Jones, who played for a Utah-based indoor team--were found to have traces of the herbal stimulant ephedrine in their systems when they died.

In September, the NFL added ephedrine to its list of banned substances, following the lead of the NCAA and International Olympic Committee. The NFL policy bans the use or distribution of products that include ephedrine, unless they are prescribed for medical use by a team physician. Also, teams and players are banned from endorsing manufacturers or distributors of those substances

Yohimbe is not on the NFL’s list.