By Mohammed Mohammed
Recent investigation and emerging evidence have shown that sex enhancing drugs is becoming one of the major causes of stroke and death among Nigerian men.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has therefore warned Nigerians to desist from the unbridled consumption of performance enhancing substances known as aphrodisiac especially during sex.
NAFDAC, says consumption of such substances could lead to stroke or sudden death.
The agency’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye gave the warning and advice in her Christmas and New Year goodwill messages to the nation.
According to her, the preponderance of sex enhancing drugs and substance otherwise referred to ‘manpower’ in the market is becoming alarming.
Adeyeye, acknowledged that most of the performance enhancing drugs are not registered with the agency, adding: ‘’They are smuggled into the country. If they were registered, the producers and peddlers alike would not be doing what they are doing in the supermarkets, social media platforms and on the streets.”
NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Mr. Sayo Akintola, in a statement quoted Adeyeye as lamenting that many men have died using performance enhancing drugs.
She added that relatives of deceased in most cases would blame their death on witches in the village.
Adeyeye, condemned the false the claim by the producers of the products that they have no side effects, insisting that majority of the products did not go through the approval process of the Agency.
‘’Many people are ignorant of the possible damage that misuse of aphrodisiacs or use of unregistered drugs could cause’’, said Prof Adeyeye, adding that there are manufacturing and quality guidelines, and mandated regulations that control the production, importation, exportation, advertisement, and the use of such products.” She said.
Unbridled intake and consumption of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system, noting that the use of the products could potentially affect the blood pressure of the body, which she says can trigger high blood pressure.
The NAFDAC boss added: ‘’When you have a disproportionate flow of blood to a particular part of the body and lasting longer than normal, they tend to disrupt the normal flow of the circulatory system’’.
Explaining further, she added that the liver is responsible for breakdown of drugs while the byproduct of all waste goes down through the kidneys.
‘’When these things are used especially with some herbal medicines that don’t have dosage and professional prescription, it can lead to internal organ damage. It can hurt the liver and the kidneys, leading to untimely death’’ she warned.
The way the body system works, she explained: ‘’everything should function the way God designed it. When they begin to disrupt those functions overtime it affects the imbalance and the ecosystem of how the body physiology works and can lead to unintended consequences.’’.
‘’For those who have certain health risks, like people that are hypertensive, or people that have heart disease, there is more of anxiety that the drug could stimulate into the system, and with anxiety, that can lead to changes in the physiology of the body and can lead to stroke or sudden stoppage of the heart. These happen in cases when men suddenly slump during sexual intercourse as reported in Rivers and Cross Rivers States recently’’, she said in a tone laden with grief.
‘’There are a lot of side effects. Every drug is a potential poison. Every drug has one side effect or the other. These are chemical products with side effects. In some cases there are associated Adverse Drug Reactions, which means it could lead to death or more serious organ damage depending on usage’’, she said. She insisted that ‘’it’s not all cases of sudden death that are caused by witches and wizards in the village; but in most cases they are caused by what we eat or drink carelessly’’
In the spirit of Christmas and New Year festivities, she urged Nigerians to eat right and drink right to avoid health complications after the annual events.
Adeyeye recalled that over N3 billion of falsified and banned drugs and unwholesome food products were seized by NAFDAC recently at the Lagos trade fair complex where no fewer than 20 trailer loads of such banned and unwholesome products were carted away by officers of the agency’s investigation and enforcement directorate led by Mr. Kingsley Ejiofor.
She disclosed: ‘’Worse still they are counterfeited. When something is counterfeited, the manufacturers don’t care about quality. They add what they are not supposed to add or add more than what they are supposed to add. Invariably, the user is the loser.”
She said the agency has however ordered 40 units of a detecting device, TRU SCAN, worth 70,000 dollar each for use on the field to spot check the medicines. She explained: ‘’The device will show you whether a drug is 5mg or 50mg. Before, it would only show you that it’s X-drug, it will not show you the level. This device is both qualitative and quantitative!
NAFDAC, according to her is the first agency in the world to use the Tru Scan which does quantitative spot check on the chemical content in the medicines. It will show the chemical level of the drug.
‘’This is part of the multifaceted approach we are adopting in fighting the preponderance of banned and falsified drugs in the country’’, she said, blaming the menace on people that want to make quick money at the expense of the health and lives of undiscerning consumers.
‘’We will ensure we minimize falsification of drugs to the level that will give a lot of confidence to the consumers.” Adeyeye, said.
