By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians to desist from using sex enhancement substances known as aphrodisiac in order to impress their female partners, stressing that consumption of such substances could lead to stroke or sudden death.
The warning came as NAFDAC said that N3 billion worth of falsified and banned drugs and unwholesome food products were seized by the Agency recently at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex, adding that 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 Kingsley Ejiofor.
It said that some of the drugs impounded at the trade fair complex were performance enhancing drugs.
The agency also cautioned Nigerians to be mindful of what they eat, stating that careless consumption could be very harmful to their health.
The Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the admonition in her Christmas and New Year goodwill message to Nigerians, where she decried the preponderance of performance enhancing drugs otherwise known as ‘manpower’ in the local parlance, in the Nigerian market.
According to Adeyeye, most of the performance enhancing drugs are not registered with NAFDAC.
“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,” she said.
In a statement by NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, in Lagos on Sunday, Adeyeye lamented that many men have died using performance enhancing drugs and their relatives would blame their death on some imaginary witches in the village.
The NAFDAC boss also described as 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 evaluation by the Agency.
She, however, warned that the Agency would not relent in running after the peddlers of such dangerous drugs until they are brought to book for violating the regulations.
“Just like the need to have food and water, intimacy is also a primary requirement in life. Most human beings have the need for intimacy for a healthy sexual life which determines their overall wellbeing. If there are physical or psychological problems to a person’s sexuality it can hamper their self-confidence.
“Many people today have been caught in the web of such circumstances leading them to seek a way out of the wood. In recent times, the use of aphrodisiacs has become the rage.
“Many people are ignorant of the possible damage that misuse of aphrodisiacs or use of unregistered drugs could cause,” said Adeyeye.
According to her, unbridled use of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system, noting that the use of the products could potentially affect the user’s blood pressure.
She stressed that when one has 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.
Adeyeye further warned that aphrodisiacs could also interact with other drugs in the system, explaining that the liver is responsible for the 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.
“The way the body system works, 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’s 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.
“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.
The NAFDAC DG insisted that it is not all cases of sudden death that are caused by witches and wizards in the village, adding that in most cases they are caused by what we consume.
In the spirit of Christmas and New Year festivities, Adeyeye urged Nigerians to eat right and drink right to avoid health complications after the annual events.
