Nigerians have been advised by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) that taking performance-enhancing substances known as’manpower’ to impress their sexual partners can lead to stroke or sudden death.

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the NAFDAC Director-General, said in a statement on Sunday that many men have died as a result of the overuse of performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals, with their deaths being blamed on fictional witches. She claims that the majority of these performance-enhancing medications are smuggled into the country and are not registered with NAFDAC.

“The use of performance-enhancing drugs otherwise known as “Manpower’’ in the local parlance, to impress partners can lead to stroke and even sudden death. 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.

“In recent times, the use of aphrodisiacs has become the range. Many people are ignorant of the possible damage that misuse of aphrodisiacs or use of unregistered drugs could cause”

Adeyeye debunked claims that such drugs have no side effects, stating that the majority of the products did not go through the approval process of the Agency.

According to her, the abuse of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system, especially its effect on the blood pressure. She warned that aphrodisiacs often interact with other drugs in the system, explaining that the liver is responsible for breakdown of drugs while the byproduct of all waste goes down through the kidneys.

“When there’s a disproportionate flow of blood to a particular part of the body that lasted longer than normal, they tend to disrupt the normal flow of the circulatory system

“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, hurt the liver and the kidneys thereby leading to untimely death.

“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,” she said.

“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.

She vowed 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.

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