Herbal remedies, including supplements, can cause serious harm

More than 150 million Americans take dietary supplements and herbal remedies. Most of them fail to realize that herbal remedies and supplements, can cause serious harm, even death. Kaiser Health News reports on one woman’s death from taking a mulberry leaf supplement.

In December 2021, Lori McClintock, Congressman Tom McClintock’s wife, died after consuming an herb from a white mulberry tree that people tend to think is safe and use to treat diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol. There’s evidence that this herb lowers blood sugar levels. McClintock was 61.

Dehydration resulting from gastroenteritis was the cause of death for McClintock, according to the coroner’s report. Gastroenteritis inflames the stomach and intestines. In McClintock’s case, eating mulberry leaf caused the
gastroenteritis.

The autopsy report did not say whether Lori McClintock took a white mulberry leaf dietary supplement, drank tea brewed from the mulberry leaf or ate fresh or dried leaves. But, it did find a piece of white mulberry leaf in her stomach.

Rep. McClinton said his wife had been dieting and going to the gym to lose weight. She had complained of an upset stomach the day before she died. Side effects of the white mulberry leaf include nausea and diarrhea.

No one has reported a death from consuming white mulberry leaf in the last 10 years, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Of the 148 reported cases of accidental consumption, only one needed follow-up medical care. Since 2004, the FDA has received only two reports of people who got sick from the mulberry leaf; one or both of them needed hospitalization.

Supplement manufacturers can include all sorts of ingredients in their products. And, these ingredients can be harmful on their own or cause harmful interactions with medications you are taking. What’s worse is that the FDA does not subject supplements to the kinds of safety testing that prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines are subject to.

Four in five Americans use supplements. Notwithstanding the risks supplements pose, it’s a $54 billion market in the US. No one tracks the number of supplement products on the market, but the FDA estimates 40,000-80,000.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) have introduced legislation to strengthen oversight of dietary supplements. They want to require supplement manufacturers to register with the FDA and publicly list all ingredients in their products. The dietary supplement industry, for its part, is opposed. Moreover, it wants you to believe that the white mulberry leaf supplement was not responsible for McClintock’s death, suggesting that any number of things might have caused her dehydration.

Here’s more from Just Care:

• Herbal supplements may not be what you think they are
• Avoid supplements, no matter how enticing they might be
• Avoid supplements with these 15 ingredients
• FDA is hiding information on supplements that are dangerous
• Supplements: John Oliver vs. Dr. Oz