Saturday, September 27, 2003
By HEATHER NEWMAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
AVE KLAWITTER HAS heard about the pills from California that some video gamers swear help lift their scores. And the 22-year-old gamer from Grosse Pointe, Mich., Woods says he was curious enough to visit the manufacturer's Web site to check them out.
MindFX, a distributor of herbal products based in La Quinta, Calif., is selling three supplements for gamers that promise "energy, brain support" and relaxation after the games are over.
Yet three sets of experts consulted say gamers probably don't get much out of the pills, and one group was concerned about the effects some of the ingredients could have on teenagers.
"I thought about trying them," Klawitter says. But he eventually decided against the pills because they are, after all, drugs, and they're called MindFX. "You shouldn't need anything like this if you're getting enough sleep and eating stuff for energy."
Word of mouth
News of the pills that call themselves "fuel for the mind" is traveling fast via Internet chat rooms, video game events and articles in magazines like PC Gamer. Even a reviewer for the Dallas Morning News encouraged readers "who find that Jolt cola and Cheetos ain't bringing in those high scores like they used to" to give them a try. It's the first time a company has marketed nutritional supplements to people who play video games -- a group that includes a majority of U.S. children.
But according to the independent laboratory experts, the formulas contain at least one ingredient -- green orange extract -- that has been linked to heightened blood pressure and heart palpitations.
At a recent gaming event in Dearborn, Mich., several players said they were aware of the supplements, even though there has been almost no advertising beyond the company's Web site, www.mind-fx.com. MindFX says it's working on ads for campus newspapers and sponsorship of video-game events.
The three formulas -- called Maxx Impulse, Neurocharge and Aftermath -- are considered to be dietary supplements, so they don't have to be tested by any governmental agency.
MindFX says all the ingredients have been on the market since before regulations governing supplements were relaxed in 1994, and it says the company that manufactures the pills -- which also makes well-known national brands such as Nature's Plus -- has done its own research into the ingredients. MindFX isn't marketing the pills specifically to teens, but to gamers in general, it says.
Beginnings
Robert Krakoff, president of MindFX, got into the industry as a representative for the high-end computer mouse Razor, which sponsored gaming tournaments.
"You started to see people train and put a regimen together," he says. "I watched them consume mass quantities of caffeine, pizza and candy bars. They'd get a quick buzz, get jittery, then crash. We saw a need."
MindFX requested bids from the five largest herbal-formula manufacturers, he says.
"We wanted the company we went with to be ultra-conservative. When you're targeting gamers, you're talking about kids as young as 14-15, though our core audience is 18-24," he says. "We wanted to market this as an intelligent alternative to heavy use of caffeine. Some of these products have been around for 35-40 years."
University of Michigan physicians and doctors elsewhere recommended ConsumerLab.com in White Plains, N.Y., as a reputable tester of supplements. Tod Cooperman and William Obermeyer, respectively ConsumerLab.com's president and vice president of research, expressed concern about some of the ingredients in the pills -- especially those in Maxx Impulse, the energy formula.
Concerns about extract
One of the five primary ingredients in Maxx Impulse is green orange extract, which Cooperman and Obermeyer say has many of the same effects as ephedra, a drug that has been criticized for causing heart problems in apparently healthy people.
"It carries a lot of the same risks as ephedra," Cooperman says. "It is also known to be potentially dangerous. I couldn't recommend this for use by a child. Even for adults, there's a potential danger. I wouldn't recommend it at all."
Green orange extract heightens blood pressure and heart rate, which can be a problem for people who have heart trouble they're not aware of or who combine the drug with other ingredients. For example, it becomes more potent when combined with caffeine, Cooperman says. Maxx Impulse contains some caffeine, but it's the equivalent of about a cup of tea.
Research directed by the Michigan Pharmacists Association for this story turned up reports of heightened blood pressure and heart palpitations as a result of green orange extract.
"You could make the same case for any coffee drinker with known or unknown heart problems," Krakoff says. "Stimulants found in caffeine can be lethal for many people with heart problems because it produces the same effects as ephedra."
Maxx Impulse also contains four other herbal substances: cacao fruit extract (a source of theobromine and caffeine), guarana seed extract (which MindFX says is 22 percent caffeine) and two reputed antioxidants: eleuthero and rhodiola.
"What you're seeing here are cocktails," says Cooperman -- a combination of compounds that likely reacts differently in the body than does any of the ingredients alone. "Even if the company has tested the individual ingredients," he says, "that doesn't test the response all of them together may have on people."
Custom blend
Krakoff says the formulas are custom-made for his company.
"We took ingredients from column A and behind door No. 3," he says, to get what MindFX considers to be the best mix to help gamers with energy, long-term cognitive function and relaxation.
But he says the ingredients the company uses were selected in part because they are considered safe. He pointed to a 1987 study that he says shows green orange extract has little effect on heart and lung tissue.
"Every person's situation is unique," Cooperman says. One of the ingredients in Neurocharge, huperzine-A, can cause problems for people with asthma, he says.
"No one knows what the optimal dose of any of these supplements is for children or teenagers," says Dr. Kathi Kemper, a pediatrician at Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C., who specializes in herbal medicine and children. "I see no particular advantage of the pills."
Danger of overdose?
Edward Krenzelok, director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, warned that children under 18 may not follow the directions.
"Americans and people all over the world think if one is good, two or three or nine is better," says Krenzelok, a professor of pharmacy and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. "If a kid takes one of these, would it be harmful? No. Would it give them any edge at all? No. It's a waste of money."
But some gamers online were enthusiastic about the three MindFX drugs, which together cost $80 a month, plus shipping.
"I started taking them about four months ago when I saw a write-up on one of the e-sport Web sites I visit daily," says 20-year-old Scott Kessler of Knoxville, Tenn. "I noticed a lot more energy and a lot more mental focus when I took the Neurocharge for gaming. Perhaps it was psychological, just knowing I was taking something that was for mental clarity and focus, but it worked for me regardless."
Krakoff acknowledges that reaction to the formulas has been mixed.
"A lot of people are poking fun at it," he says. "It's off the wall. No one expected it. They're not quite sure how to react to it. But gamers and competitors are always looking for an edge."