Photo/Illutration Benikoji used in Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s "Benikoji coleste-help" supplements (Provided by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.)

After learning that a Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. supplement containing benikoji has been linked to nearly 100 hospitalizations and at least four deaths, customers are sharing their own frightful experiences with the product.

Last fall, a woman, 58, living in Tokyo, saw advertisements online and on TV for “Benikoji coleste-help” from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical. Taking note of the name “coleste-help,” she headed for a local drugstore.

Due to a chronic illness, she was taking several medications every day, including one to lower her cholesterol. Since she wanted to reduce the number of her medications, the advertisement’s promise that the product “lowers bad cholesterol” caught her attention.

She thought since it was a pharmaceutical company’s product, it might be a good idea.

When she asked the clerk at the drugstore about the supplement, the clerk told her the store no longer had it in stock.

She thought to herself, “It’s selling well.”

She found the supplement online and purchased it.

A few days after she started taking the recommended dosage, the woman began to feel terribly heavy and sluggish. She did not even want to go to work.

Even when she went to the bathroom, she did not feel refreshed. Her hands and eyelids became swollen.

After continuing to take the supplement for about 10 days, she told her family doctor about her condition. When she explained that she was taking the supplement, the doctor advised her to stop.

Although still unsure if the product was the cause of her health problems, she thought, “Maybe it wasn’t right for me.”

When she stopped taking the supplement, her health recovered.

About the string of health problems reported among those who have taken “Benikoji coleste-help,” she said, “I knew it.”

The woman still worries about the long-term effect it may have had on her body. However, when she called the company’s hotline, the staff she talked to only spoke about a refund, and she has not received a satisfactory answer.

“I would rather be told what the risks are than be told about the money,” she said. “I took those supplements because I wanted to be healthy.”

A 62-year-old woman in Chiba Prefecture underwent a similar ordeal.

“I trusted it because it was a supplement from a familiar manufacturer,” she said.

She had taken “Benikoji coleste-help” every day for more than a month last fall.

She purchased the product on the recommendation of her favorite pharmacy because her cholesterol level was high.

About a week after she started taking the supplement, she began to experience symptoms such as frequent urination, swelling in her legs and dizziness.

She stopped taking it.

“I have to wonder about the system in this country that allows such products to be marketed,” she said.

A man in his 50s in Ibaraki Prefecture took the supplement for about 10 months from the beginning of last year. He gradually began to experience pain in his fingertips. When he stopped taking it, the pain disappeared, he said.

Some people have taken the supplement without noticing any negative effects. Even among those people, concerns are rising.

A 34-year-old woman living in Yamagata Prefecture started taking “Benikoji coleste-help” about three years ago after a medical checkup diagnosed her LDL cholesterol level, known as bad cholesterol, as high.

When she was retested while taking the supplement, her numbers fell within the normal range, and when she stopped taking it, the numbers rose again.

She realized the product was effective and continued to take it daily from then on--up until a few days ago when the news broke that the supplement was being recalled.

So far there is nothing wrong with her physical condition. However, since she had been taking the recalled supplement for a long time, she went to a hospital on March 27 for a blood test.

“Will I be compensated if my health condition grows worse in the future?” she wondered. “Since the company sold the supplement, I hope it will take responsibility for it until the end.”

(This article was written by Mihoko Terada, Ariha Noma and Maho Fukui.)

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