FRIDAY, July 14 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that several dietary supplements sold online as "all-natural" remedies for erectile dysfunction, such as Zimaxx, Libidus, Neophase, Nasutra, Vigor-25, Actra-Rx and 4EVERON, can contain prescription medications, such as sildenafil, vardenafil or chemical analogues of the drugs.
The warning follows a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by the FDA, in which the federal agency tested 17 such products. Many contained illegal and unlabeled ingredients, which could interact with nitrate-containing prescription drugs often used in patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other conditions that commonly cause erection problems, the FDA warns.
Patients taking the supplements should be advised to stop. Shipments of several of the drugs into the United States have been halted.
"These products threaten the public health because they contain undeclared chemicals that are similar or identical to the active ingredients used in several FDA-approved prescription drug products," according to an FDA statement. "This risk is even more serious because consumers may not know that these ingredients can interact with medications and dangerously lower their blood pressure."
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