FDA issues health warning as wellness supplement dubbed ‘gas station heroin’ causes SEIZURES in dozens of Americans

Americans are being warned to avoid a ‘wellness supplement’ after patients suffered from seizures and loss of consciousness.

Neptune’s Fix claims to improve brain function and ease anxiety, depression, pain and opioid use disorder. 

But the drug it contains, tianeptine — an opioid alternative branded ‘worse than heroin’ — is not approved for use in the US because of the risk of addiction.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — who issued the warning — said tianeptine can also deliver an intense high like an opioid. They said the drug may also contain other harmful ingredients that have not yet been detected.

Eight states — including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio — have already banned the drug used in Neptune’s Fix, while Florida named it a Schedule 1 substance this year — putting it on a par with heroin and LSD.

Neptune’s Fix is often found sold at gas stations, but has also been reported on sale in delis, vape shops, tobacco shops, convenience stores and online.

Poison chiefs in New Jersey say they have received 23 calls about severe reactions to tianeptine since June this year — with more than half linked to Neptune’s Fix.

FDA chiefs say tianeptine can deliver a high similar to that from other opioids.

But they warn many patients quickly get hooked because they can rapidly build up tolerance against the so-called supplement.

Poisonings with tianeptide have surged over the last two decades, rising from reports of just 11 poisonings between 2000 and 2013 to 151 by 2020.

Health officials warn people who take Neptune’s Fix can suffer from confusion, sweating, a fast heartbeat, blood pressure spikes, nausea, vomiting and agitation.

Some may also suffer a notable slow-down in breathing and, in rare cases, a total shutdown of the respiratory system leading to a coma or death.

At least four deaths have been reported in people who took the ‘supplement’ since it appeared in the US in the mid-2010s.

Michigan lawmakers took action on the drug in 2018, banning its sale amid reports of poisonings in their state.

But the FDA was accused of being slow to act, with emails released under the Freedom of Information Act showing it took nine months for the agency to warn the public after it first received reports. 

Michigan police reported the drug was ‘worse than heroin’ because it could deliver a high similar to opioids — but they would rapidly build up tolerance against it.

Former user Alyssa Wood, from Michigan, told a hearing in 2018: ‘The withdrawal that I experienced from heroin was [overshadowed] by the withdrawal from this poison.’

Dr William Rushton, from the University of Alabama’s toxicology program, previously said: ‘We were having to put a lot of people in the intensive care units because the withdrawal symptoms were so bad and often included delirium — requiring high doses of sedating medications.’

Florida moved to declare the supplement a schedule 1 drug this September.