Beware of diet supplements – they could harm you
A study says that consumption of diet supplements is sending about 20,000 Americans to Emergency Rooms (ER) every year.
A large new study by the United States federal government found that illnesses caused by dietary supplements lead to more than 20,000 ER visits a year, or about 50 people everyday. This is the first study done over a 10-year period to document the extent of illnesses and hospitalisations due to use of dietary supplements.
Many are young adults who developed cardiovascular problems after taking supplements for weight loss and energy enhancement. Among the illnesses were severe allergic reactions, heart trouble, nausea and vomiting, which were due to supplements that included amino acids, herbal pills, vitamins and minerals.
Roughly 10%, or about 2,150 cases yearly, were serious enough to require hospitalization, the researchers found. In comparison, hospitalizations due to prescription drugs are responsible for 30 times as many trips to the emergency room each year.
One finding was that ER visits caused by diet supplements occurred predominantly among young people, whereas those for pharmaceutical products occurred in large part among older adults, said Dr Andrew Geller, a medical officer at the division of health care quality promotion at the CDC and the lead author of the study . ‘The contrast is striking,’ he said.
Half of these cases among people aged 20-34 were caused by a supplement that was marketed for weight loss or energy enhancement, commonly producing symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations and irregular heart rhythms. These products typically contain a variety of herbs and extracts and are widely advertised online, in magazines and on TV with names like Hydroxycut, Xenadrine, Raspberry Ketones and Black Jack Energy, the researchers said.
Weight loss and energy supplements have in the past led to serious problems, including one outbreak in 2013 that caused sickness in 97 people, caused at least one death and three liver transplants.
The dietary supplement industry is a rapidly growing ($32 billion a year) that has attracted increased scrutiny in the past year and call for tougher regulation of herbal products.
The new study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and led by health authorities at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Written by: Dr. Ajay Sati.
