Evidence How FDA Thwarted Progress (1)

Posted: 2/28/2015

Prologue

This may become a series of blog posts. The U.S. Food And Drug Administration has for over a hundred years exercised way too much control over our food and drugs and excessively and unconstitutionally restricted individual freedom and responsibility.

Trigger

Just read Banned weight-loss drug could combat liver disease, diabetes. This news article is about 2,4 Dinitrophenol, a drug known since World War II to help people, in particular obese people, to lose weight.

To quote from the article:

“After further research [ca. 1920s] suggested the compound spurred obese people to shed pounds, drugmakers in the 1930s included DNP in diet pills that were available without a prescription. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the compound at the end of the decade, however, because it caused side effects such as cataracts and was responsible for a handful of deaths.”

Prohibited By The FDA About 1938

“A drug the U.S. government once branded “extremely dangerous and not fit for human consumption”, see above article.

Because of the FDA prohibition it may have taken only several decades before researchers rediscovered  this drug.

From an article published in 1974 titled “Dinitrophenol and bioenergetics: An historical perspective” we learn:

“Several fatalities, a number of cases of cataract, and other reported toxic effects led to widespread concern about the use of dinitrophenol. The FDA could not take effective action against the drug, however, until after its powers had been expanded by the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The use of dinitrophenol and related compounds for treating obesity was essentially discontinued after the 1930's.”

For reasons of excessive safety concerns, the all powerful FDA prohibited this promising drug! One can speculate that only was the use of this drug discontinued, but also further research into the potential of this drug.

During the most socialist era in U.S. history apparently the FDA was given more power to do harm with the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938.