Dietary supplements send thousands to ER each year
By Mary Brophy Marcus, CBS News
Bad reactions to dietary supplements are sending tens of thousands of Americans to the ER every year, a study shows.
More than 23,000 visits to emergency rooms occur annually due to complications from taking dietary supplements such as herbal or complementary nutritional products, vitamins, and minerals, according to scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who coauthored the study. About 2,154 of the visits resulted in hospitalizations, the scientists reported.
The research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, used surveillance data collected from 63 emergency departments across the country between 2004 and 2013.
Free market my butt. Regulate!
Orin Hatch and Utahs policies affect the world.
I take lots of supplements, some are recommend by my doctor.
I read the CBS report and found this:
The ER visits commonly involved young adults between ages 20 and 34 who’d taken weight loss or energy products. The most common symptoms were chest pain, palpitations, and elevated heart rate.
Two years ago, when Chris Herrera was fifteen, he lost 56 pounds while taking a green tea extract billed as a fat burner. His mom, Lourdes Gonzalez approved.
“His pants size went down dramatically. He probably decided to take more on his own without letting me know,” she told CBS News.
But then his eyes turned yellow and medical tests showed his liver was failing. Doctors blamed the green tea extract.