A new lawsuit against a health food store claims that the fat-burning pills they sold caused a woman to suffer such intense insomnia that she was eventually admitted to a mental hospital because of her strange and erratic behavior, reports the New York Daily News.
The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court on behalf of Sainah Theodore, 26, of Cambria Heights, NY, asks for unspecified damages and names the defendant as Natural Health Food Center in East New York.
Theodore, who studies sociology, and works as an emergency room clerk and Army Reservist, bought a product from the health shop called Natural Lipo X in December of 2012. While she had used the product successfully a year earlier, this round was much different. She stopped taking the pills only five days into the month-long program, and after a few days of light sleep she descended into six consecutive days of total insomnia.
By the middle of December, Theodore was sending her mother aggressive texts message for no reason, revealed to a friend that she was hearing voices, got into arguments with strangers, stopped in the middle of an intersection, destroyed her home’s screen door, and went on to stab pillows and pictures until medics had to be called. Theodore then spent five days in a mental institution and her deployment to Afghanistan was delayed and maybe canceled for good.
The weight-loss pills were sent to a lab for testing, and were confirmed to contained extremely high levels of caffeine, as well as a laxative called Phenolphthalein (restricted from sale over-the-counter), and Sibutramine, an illegal weight-loss stimulant that the FDA banned in 2010 due to its side-effects; one being sleeplessness. These ingredients were not on the product’s label.
Experts say that spiked supplements are nothing new. Illegal and undeclared ingredients can help enhance the product’s performance in an effort to match their appealing promises. Theodore said that’s one of the reasons she brought up the suit; to stop others from going through what she did.
“I just want people to have a warning,” Theodore said. Buyer beware.
We will keep you updated as this story unfolds.
The Parrish Law Firm dietary supplement injury attorney works with northern Virginia residents who have been injured by supplements and are looking for fair compensation. Contact us today for a free case consultation, or call us at 703-906-4229.
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