How safe are these products claiming to enhance male performance?

Apart from the spam from Nigeria alerting me to the imminent arrival of untold riches, the most common emails bring news of the latest way in which I can swell up to such a size that even an elephant would be impressed. Not that I would want to impress an elephant, of course. But the theory is that women will swoon in anticipation of encountering an enhancement of epic proportions - or pass out in pain at the attempts to put something so big into such a normal-sized space. No matter which is likely true, there is one common factor between countries.

Almost without exception, the medicine approval and regulatory bodies only look at medications. If something is packaged as a natural or herbal product, there is no need to go through the local regulatory procedures. Anyone can put such products on to the market and, depending on the local controls on advertising, make whatever claims will impress the gullible. Let's just pause for a moment. That means there are no clinical trials to prove that these products are safe or, indeed, that they have any effect. Worse, mass advertising often makes outrageous claims without any real penalty. So, it takes something fairly spectacular to provoke a government into taking action.

The Canadian authorities have just issued a warning to local consumers not to use two local products alleged to enhance male sexual performance. So far, nothing exceptional. Except that these products did actually have an effect. The reason? The manufacturers added a little viagra to the mix. Now the irony of the Canadian authority's intervention is complete. Having approved viagra as a medication for distribution in Canada, the same authority orders the withdrawal of a product because it contains viagra. To use the more formal language of the regulators, these products contained an undisclosed pharmaceutical ingredient that should only be made available on prescription and under the supervision of a physician. Putting a human face on this, suppose that Joe, one of those men with problems in his plumbing, also has problems with blood pressure or has recently had a heart attack, adding any amount of the little blue pill into the mixture could have dangerous results. The whole point of consulting a physician before taking any drug is to reduce the risk there will be adverse side-effects.

On many levels, the sale of these products gives cause for concern. The first and most obvious is the failure to warn the public that an "all natural" product was actually a pharmaceutical product in disguise. Then we have issues with the labels that contained incomplete information about the "ingredients". However, it is relatively unusual for a "manufacturer" to include viagra in its pills to ensure that they did actually work. If nothing else, it shows a remarkable degree of trust in viagra to deliver the promised enhancements.