Claire Squires: amphetamine stimulant 'had role' in runner's fatal heart attack

Southwark inquest hears fit 30-year-old unwittingly risked her life taking legal supplement Jack3d which had DMAA elementThe unexplained death of Claire Squires, a fit and healthy 30-year-old, one mile from the end of the London marathon last year, caught the country's imagination. In less than a week, tens of thousands of people had donated so much money to her chosen charity, the Samaritans, that her total surged from £500 to more than £1m.On Wednesday a coroner ruled that the most likely cause off her death was a single dose of Jack3d, a performance-enhancing supplement that at the time was legal to buy, possess and use.That supplement, with its amphetamine-type effects, was to be banned four months later by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, though the organisation had first received complaints about the supplement's main active ingredient six years before.At the inquest at Southwark coroner's court, the coroner Philip Barlow said he hoped the publicity around Squires' death would draw attention to the dangers faced by those who innocently endangered their health by buying even legal performance enhancing products.Simon Van Herrewege, Squires' partner, said she had purchased the Jack3d powder online, where it was advertised as workout aid or a weight-loss supplement that boosted energy, concentration and metabolism.Neither Squires nor Van Herrewege knew at the time that the powder – which users added to water – contained the amphetamine-like st...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Charities Sport News Drugs in sport UK news Athletics London Marathon Source Type: news