Dietary Supplements Send Thousands to ER Each Year
Dietary Supplements Send Thousands to ER Each Year
Oct. 14, 2015 -- Dietary supplements send an average of 23,000 people to the emergency room each year, a new study estimates. It’s the first time anyone has come up with national numbers on the problem.
The study found supplements for weight loss and energy were the most dangerous, and heart issues were the most common problem with those kinds of supplements. Women, preschoolers, and seniors were at greatest risk.
“People may not realize that dietary supplements can cause any adverse events, but every year thousands of Americans are treated in emergency rooms for symptoms attributed to dietary supplements,” says Andrew Geller, MD, a medical officer at the CDC who led the study.
Supplement manufacturers say that rather than indicting dietary supplements, the study actually shows they’re not so bad.
“We know over 150 million Americans take dietary supplements each year,” says Duffy Mackay, ND, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade organization. “If you look at the projected number of emergency room visits and do the math, we’re looking at far less than one-tenth of one percent of supplement users will visit the ER,” he says.
That’s true, says Geller, except that dietary supplements are exempted from safety testing because they’re supposed to be completely harmless.
“Dietary supplements are regulated under the presumption of safety. Twenty-three thousand trips to the ER is still too many,” he says.
The number of dietary supplements has exploded in recent years, largely due to a law passed in the 1990s that weakened government regulation of them.
That law, called DSHEA, for the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, also expanded the definition of what could be considered a dietary supplement. The result is that some products on the market today contain sketchy or even illegal ingredients -- including prescription drugs -- that may or may not be listed on the bottle.
The FDA can recall products if they become aware of a hazard. But a study published last year found that about two-thirds of recently recalled products were back on store shelves less than a year later, and they contained the same illegal ingredients, suggesting that the laws regulating dietary supplements are so weak that some manufacturers just ignore them.
For example, the FDA warned consumers in 2013 that a supplement called “Reload” -- reportedly taken by former NBA player Lamar Odom before he was found unresponsive in a Nevada brothel this week -- contained the drug sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.
The study found supplements for weight loss and energy were the most dangerous, and heart issues were the most common problem with those kinds of supplements. Women, preschoolers, and seniors were at greatest risk.
“People may not realize that dietary supplements can cause any adverse events, but every year thousands of Americans are treated in emergency rooms for symptoms attributed to dietary supplements,” says Andrew Geller, MD, a medical officer at the CDC who led the study.
Supplement manufacturers say that rather than indicting dietary supplements, the study actually shows they’re not so bad.
“We know over 150 million Americans take dietary supplements each year,” says Duffy Mackay, ND, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade organization. “If you look at the projected number of emergency room visits and do the math, we’re looking at far less than one-tenth of one percent of supplement users will visit the ER,” he says.
That’s true, says Geller, except that dietary supplements are exempted from safety testing because they’re supposed to be completely harmless.
“Dietary supplements are regulated under the presumption of safety. Twenty-three thousand trips to the ER is still too many,” he says.
The number of dietary supplements has exploded in recent years, largely due to a law passed in the 1990s that weakened government regulation of them.
That law, called DSHEA, for the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, also expanded the definition of what could be considered a dietary supplement. The result is that some products on the market today contain sketchy or even illegal ingredients -- including prescription drugs -- that may or may not be listed on the bottle.
The FDA can recall products if they become aware of a hazard. But a study published last year found that about two-thirds of recently recalled products were back on store shelves less than a year later, and they contained the same illegal ingredients, suggesting that the laws regulating dietary supplements are so weak that some manufacturers just ignore them.
For example, the FDA warned consumers in 2013 that a supplement called “Reload” -- reportedly taken by former NBA player Lamar Odom before he was found unresponsive in a Nevada brothel this week -- contained the drug sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.
Source...