JustCare

Tag: Herbal

  • Herbal remedies, including supplements, can cause serious harm

    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:

  • If you take supplements, beware of potentially serious supplement-drug interactions

    If you take supplements, beware of potentially serious supplement-drug interactions

    Millions of seniors that take herbal supplements in addition to prescription drugs may be at risk for potentially serious supplement-drug interactions.

    Researchers in the UK polled older adults 65 and older, finding that about one-third of them take at least one supplement in addition to their regular medications. Based on an evaluation of those supplements and drugs, researchers say that one-third of that group are at risk for potentially serious adverse events, they reported in the British Journal of General Practice.

    Some of the adverse events are a risk of bleeding, an increase in blood sugar concentration and reducing the effectiveness of the medication an individual is taking.

    Researchers identified three supplement-drug combinations they say pose a “significant” hazard: calcium and the underactive thyroid drug levothyroxine; peppermint and Prevacid (lansoprazole), which is used for acid reflux; and St. John’s wort and amlodipine, a blood pressure-lowering medication. In the first combination, the efficacy of levothyroxine can be reduced by calcium. Antacids like Prevacid can eat away at protective coatings on peppermint oil pills, potentially leading to nausea and heartburn. And St. John’s wort can reduce the levels of amlodipine in the blood.

    Other potentially serious combinations include fish oil pills and bisoprolol, a beta blocker, as well as glucosamine, a supplement used for arthritis relief, and the diabetes drug metformin. The first combination can lead to a potentially unsafe lowering of blood pressure, while the second can increase blood sugar.

    The study authors conclude that doctors should ask senior patients about supplement use to potentially avoid interactions with medications.

    ___________________________________

    This article originally appeared in medshadow.org.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Herbal supplements may not be what you think they are

    Herbal supplements may not be what you think they are

    The New York State Attorney General’s office just issued a press release revealing that many “herbal supplements” sold in big retail stores are not what they appear to be.  Indeed, many “herbal supplements” sold at Walmart, Target, Walgreens and GNC lack even a trace of the herbs listed on their containers. And, many contain filler ingredients not listed on their labels.

    In the overwhelming majority of cases, DNA testing of store-brand herbal supplements such as Echinacea, St. John’s Wort and Ginseng revealed not even a trace of the herbs listed on the products’ labels. Only 21 percent of the time did the DNA testing confirm DNA from the plants listed on the labels. Walmart-brand herbal supplements were the most misleading, with only 4 percent of the DNA tests showing DNA from the plants listed. More than a third of the tests (35 percent) revealed contaminants and fillers in the products not listed on the products labels.

    Shockingly, the US Food and Drug Administration provides very little regulatory oversight of these supplements. They require that companies selling the products test them only for safety and that their manufacturers adhere to good practices that would keep them from mislabeling the supplements. But, there are no real protections in place for consumers.

    As it is, there is very little data to suggest that these herbal supplements are of any health or wellness value. David Schardt, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest advises “consumers should stop wasting their money in the herbal supplements aisle.”

    The Attorney General has written to each of the retailers to ask that they stop selling these supplements.  It is illegal to sell products with misleading labels.  The question is whether the retailers will be removing the supplements from their shelves throughout the country.  It’s hard to imagine that the problem resides in New York State alone.