HEALTH officials have issued a stark warning about a weight-loss supplement that has been linked to liver failure and death.
Anyone who has any OxyElite Pro should not use it, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said .
The manufacturers of the supplement, USP Labs, recently changed the ingredients of the supplement so it no longer contains DMAA - the substance linked to the death of British marathon runner Claire Squires.
The 30-year-old collapsed a mile from the finish line at the London Marathon on April 22 last year. The hairdresser, from North Kilworth, Leicestershire, suffered cardiac failure after taking supplement Jack3D which contained 1,3-dimethylamylamine (DMAA).
However since the manufacturer changed the ingredients, there have been a number of cases of liver problems associated with the "popular" sport supplement, the MHRA said.
The reformulated product contains aegeline, a substance recently been linked to 56 cases of acute hepatitis in the US, which led to two users suffering liver failure and the death of another, the MHRA said.
The medicines regulator has issued a public warning about "serious liver and heart problems" associated with the two versions of OxyElite Pro.
The MHRA has urged people not to use or buy the product and is contacting retailers to "quarantine" all available stock until authorities can investigate further.
Last year the regulator took steps to remove products containing DMAA from the market.
Nimo Ahmed, the MHRA's head of intelligence for enforcement, said: "OxyElite Pro is a potentially dangerous sports supplement and people should not use it.
"We have asked retailers to quarantine any available stock."
The American company USP Labs was not available for comment on the MHRA's indictment of the product.
But on October 8 it responded to concerns raised about its product, saying: "The cluster of liver issues in Hawaii is a complete mystery and nothing like this has ever been associated with OxyElite Pro in all of the years our products have been in the market."
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