奧多姆服用成分不明的"偉哥"或致命

The NBA star is said to have suffered a stroke after ingesting a mix of cocaine and herbal Viagra. A doctor analyzes what effects mixing those drugs can have on the brain and body.

據報道，NBA球星因攝入可卡因和草藥偉哥的混合物後引起中風。醫生正在分析這些藥物混合後對大腦和身體的影響。

Lamar Odom, NBA star and ex-husband of reality TV fixture Khloe Kardashian, was rushed to the hospital yesterday after losing consciousness at a Nevada brothel. Breaking updates indicate he may have suffered from one or more strokes

奧多姆——NBA著名球星，同時也是電視真人秀演員科勒·卡戴珊的前夫，昨天在內華達州一家妓院失去意識後被送往醫院。不斷更新的新聞前線表示，他可能已中風兩三次。

According to those at the brothel with him, he had been taking large quantities of "herbal Viagra." It is also being reported that he was found to have a substantial amount of cocaine in his system, though no illegal drugs were found near him at the time.

據在場的妓院裏的人表示，他服用了大量"草藥偉哥"，也有報道說，他體內被發現有大量可卡因，雖然當時現場沒有這類非法藥物。

It is difficult to know with certainty exactly what was in the supplements Odom was ingesting. Unfortunately, even Odom himself may not have had much idea what it was he was taking so much of. If the reports of cocaine use bear out, the combination may have been deadly.

現在還難以確定奧多姆注射的藥物中還有什麼成分。不幸的是，就連奧多姆本人也可能不知道他吃了那麼多的藥物到底是什麼。如果關於可卡因的報告被證實，那可卡因和酒精混合的結果可能是致命的。

Unlike prescription medications, herbal supplements are not regulated for safety and efficacy by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Despite the assumptions many make about supposedly natural alternatives to pharmaceutical products, they may contain dangerous quantities of the active ingredients found in the plants from which they are derived. Alternatively, they may contain ingredients totally different from what's on the label, or no active ingredients whatsoever. This year, the Attorney General of New York issued cease and desist letters to several major retailers after DNA analysis showed that supplements being sold supposedly with ingredients like valerian or St. John's wort instead were either unrecognizable or came from totally different plants.

不像處方藥，草藥添加劑的安全性和有效性不受食品和藥物管理局（FDA）監管。無論是大衆猜想的天然替代藥物或醫學合成藥，它們都可能是有毒的，因爲它們的植物提取物中的活性成分多是有毒性的。或者，它們的所含成分可能和藥物標籤上的完全不同，或無任何活性成分。今年，紐約州總檢察長向幾大零售商發出了停售文件，因DNA分析表明，添加劑的成分可能多含有纈草和聖約翰草等成分，這些成分有的無法被檢測，有的可能提取自完全不同的植物。