The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC) has urged Nigerian men to desist from using performance-enhancing substances, known as “aphrodisiac”, in order to impress their female partners.
The is contained in a statement for the Christmas and New year goodwill message to Nigerians by the the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye.
The statement was released to the Newsmen on Sunday by the agency’s resident media consultant, Mr Olusayo Akintola.
Adeyeye decried the preponderance of performance-enhancing drugs, otherwise known as “Manpower’’ in the local parlance, in the Nigeria market.
According to Adeyeye, most of the performance-enhancing drugs are not registered with NAFDAC, and that some of them were smuggled into the country.
“If they were registered, the producers and peddlers would not get it to the supermarkets, social media platforms and on the streets.
“Many men have died using such drugs and their relatives would blame their death on some imaginary witches in the village. Some of the producers of these drugs will claim they have no side effect.
“Majority of these products did not go through the approval process of the agency, the agency will not relent in running after the peddlers of such dangerous drugs until they are brought to book for violating the regulations,” Adeyeye said.
She said that most human beings have the need for intimacy and for a healthy sexual life and this determines their overall wellbeing.
She said that If there are physical or psychological problems to a person’s sexuality, it can hamper their self-confidence.
According to her, many people today have been caught in the web of such circumstances, leading them to seek a way out of the wood and that in recent times, the use of aphrodisiacs has become the range.
She said that many people are ignorant of the possible damage the misuse of aphrodisiacs or use of unregistered drugs could cause.
She noted that there are manufacturing quality guidelines and mandated regulations that control the production.
According to her, unbridled use of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system and that the use of the products could potentially affect the blood pressure of the body.
“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,” she said.
Adeyeye further said that aphrodisiacs could also interact with other drugs in the system and cause problem for the liver which could be responsible for breakdown of drugs while the byproduct of all waste goes down through the kidneys.
She said that when these things are used especially with some herbal medicines that don’t have dosage and professional prescription, it could lead to internal organ damage, as well as hurt the liver and the kidneys and this could cause untimely death.
She said that the way the body system works, everything should function the way God designed it.
She said “when we begin to disrupt the functions of the body organs 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 can lead to changes in the physiology of the body, stroke or sudden stoppage of the heart.
“These happen in cases when men suddenly slump during sexual intercourse as reported in Rivers and Cross River 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 could lead to death.
“It is 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,” she said.
Adeyeye, however, urged Nigerians to eat right and drink right, especially in this festive season, to avoid health complications after the annual events.
The NAFDAC boss recalled that over N3 billion worth of falsified and banned drugs and unwholesome food products were seized by the agency recently at the Lagos trade fair complex.
She added 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 Barrister Kingsley Ejiofor.
According to her, some of the drugs impounded at the trade fair complex were performance-enhancing drugs and that most of them are counterfeit.
The director general said that 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, and in the end, the user is the loser.
Adeyeye disclosed that the agency has ordered 40 units of a detecting device, TRU SCAN, worth US$70,000 each for use on the field to spot fake medicines.
According to her, the device will show you whether a drug is 5mg or 50mg and that the device is both qualitative and quantitative.
The NAFDAC Director General said that the agency is the first agency in the world to use the Tru Scan which does quantitative spot check on the chemical content of medicines and chemical level of the drug.
According to her, this is part of the multifaceted approach the agency is adopting in fighting the preponderance of banned and falsified drugs in the country.
She blamed people that want to make quick money at the expense of the health and lives of undescerning consumers.
She added that the agency would ensure minimized falsification of drugs to give confidence to consumers.