FDA Warns of Steroids in Vitamin B Supplement

The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to avoid a vitamin B dietary supplement from Healthy Life Chemistry by Purity First because it contains two potentially dangerous anabolic steroids.The agency says the company's B-50 supplements tested positive for methasterone and dimethazine, two steroids sometimes used illegally by bodybuilders. Neither ingredient is listed on the product's labeling.Federal regulators have received 29 reports of side effects connected with the product, including fatigue, muscle cramping and pain. Some of the cases have resulted in hospitalization, but there have been no reports of death or liver failure.
The product is manufactured by Mira Health Products Ltd. of Farmingdale, N.Y. and sold online and in stores. The FDA says the company has declined a government request to voluntarily recall the product.