Dietary supplements send thousands to the ER each year – WPEC

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12)

Bad reactions to dietary supplements are sending tens of thousands of Americans to the ER every year, a new 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.

Consumer Reports also studied the use of supplements. They found supplements can cause organ damage, cardiac arrest and cancer.

These latest results now have many doctors warning their patients about taking supplements.

Two years ago, when Chris Herrera was fifteen, he lost 56 pounds while taking a green tea extract billed as a fat burner.

According to his mom, Lourdes Gonzalez, his eyes turned yellow and medical tests showed his liver was failing.

"Having to hear the doctor tell me every day that Christopher had a 50% chance of dying and not making it, it was hurtful," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said doctors blamed the green tea extract. Herrera eventually recovered.

That wasn't the case for Logan Stiner.

Logans mother, Katie Stiner, says her healthy 18-year-old son suddenly died while taking a powdered caffeine supplement.

"He had no idea what he was doing. None," said Stiner.

"One of my biggest concerns is that people think that a supplement is meant to replace food, and it is not," said Karen Hartung, Lead Clinical Dietitian at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.

Hartung added some people misuse supplements, "People have shown they are dying from these supplements."

When people don't, Hartung says, they end up in the emergency room. "They may be overdosing or they are going into cardiac arrest because they took a pre-workout or they are taking a fat burner, and you just don't know the long term effects of that."

In fact, the recent study by the CDC found weight loss and energy products accounted for about 72 percent of visits for patients between ages 20 and 34.

The most typical patients were young adults or unsupervised children ingested the supplements.

The most common symptoms were chest pain, palpitations, and elevated heart rate.

Unlike prescription drugs, manufacturers don't need to prove safety and effectiveness for supplements.

In the United States, supplements can't be marketed for the treatment or prevention of diseases they don't get scrutinized and approved by the FDA like prescription drugs but, many people take them to address a range of symptoms or to boost general health.

About half of adults used at least one dietary supplement in the past month, and people spend billions on herbal or complementary nutritional products every year, according to the researchers.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which represents the supplement industry, maintains that "overwhelmingly dietary supplements are safe and play a valuable role in helping Americans live healthy lifestyles."

If you take supplements, Hartung recommends the following:

With the help of an expert panel of independent doctors and dietary-supplement researchers, Consumer Reports identified 15 supplement ingredients that are potentially harmful.

The risks include organ damage, cancer, and cardiac arrest.

The severity of these threats often depends on such factors as pre-existing medical conditions, as well as, the quantity of the ingredient taken and the length of time a person has been exposed to the substance.

Many of the ingredients on this list also have the potential to interact with prescription and over-the-counter medications, such as cholesterol-lowering statins and blood-thinning drugs like aspirin and Warfarin (Coumadin and generic).

According to Consumer Reports, experts agree that none of these supplement ingredients provide sufficient health benefits to justify the risk. Even so, Consumer Reports found all 15 ingredients in products available online or in major stores such as GNC, Costco, CVS, Walmart, and Whole Foods.

The following are the 15 ingredients identified by Consumer Reports:

Aconite

Caffeine Powder

Chaparral

Coltsfoot

Comfrey

Germander

Greater Celandine

Green Tea Extract Powder

Kava

Lobelia

Methylsynephrine

Pennyroyal Oil

Red Yeast Rice

Usnic Acid

Yohimbe

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Dietary supplements send thousands to the ER each year - WPEC