"THE HEART OF THE MATTER"
a special program of the National Emergency Medicine Association (NEMA)

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Week: 581.4 

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Yetley, Dir., Office of Special Nutritionals, FDA 

Topic: "Chompers" supplement advisory

Host/Producer: Steve Girard 

NEMA: A supplement warning from the FDA...coming up... 

SPOT: For 15 years, the National Emergency Medicine Association has worked against stroke, heart disease and trauma. Join the effort, call 800-332-6362.

NEMA: The Food and Drug Administration wants you to know there's a health alert out for a product called "Chompers"...part of the Arise and Shine product package...This is Dr. Elizabeth Yetley of the FDA...  

YETLEY: we issued a health alert on. Because "Chompers" contained...said that it contained plantain, but in reality contained digitalis. So our health alert was not to use the product AChompers until we could identify and make sure that it did not have digitalis in it.  

NEMA: And what can digitalis do to someone who doesn't need the drug?  

YETLEY: It is a powerful heart stimulant...it can cause a heart blockage or abnormal heart rhythms that can, under certain circumstances, be life threatening. So, as an over the counter dietary supplement, it is not an appropriate product, ingredient...and it is potentially harmful.  

NEMA: The Chompers segment of the Arise and Shine package was intended to have laxative properties. I'm Steve Girard at The Heart of the Matter.