Are your supplements safe?

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2003 by David Schardt

(1) Lancet 361: 101, 2003.

(2) Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General: Adverse Event Repairing for Dietary Supplements, An Inadequate Safety Valve. OEI-01-00180, April 2001.

(3) Government Accounting Office: Dietary Supplements Containing Ephedra. GAO-03-10421, July 2003.

CASE STUDY

In 1995, 34-year-old Rosalie Talbert of Anchorage, Alaska, a working mother of four, suffered a stroke at a company picnic. She had been taking a weight-loss product containing caffeine and the herb ephedra on-and-off for three years. After missing six months of work to recuperate, she still had occasional hand tremors. A jury awarded her $13.3 million in damages, the first against a company selling ephedra. Several hundred more ephedra lawsuits are in the pipeline.

CASE STUDY

In 2001, a healthy 45-year-old woman (she was never named in public documents) began feeling nauseated and weak. For about two months, she had been taking kava, which is marketed as a stress reliever. A week later, she was hospitalized with jaundice and hepatitis. Eventually she became the 11th kava taker in Europe and the U.S. who needed a liver transplant. The cases helped persuade the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and France--but not the United States--to restrict or ban the sale of kava.

EIGHT TO AVOID

Despite evidence that these eight products can cause serious problems, most are still available, either over the counter or via the Internet.

* Aristolochic acid. The ingredient in some traditional Chinese medicines is toxic to the kidneys.

* Chaparral. In 1992, the FDA advised consumers to "stop taking chaparral immediately" because it can cause hepatitis.

* Comfrey. It can cause chronic liver disease.

* Ephedra. It has been linked to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks and is 200 times more likely to cause an adverse reaction than all other herbs combined.

* Kava. It's a suspect in liver damage that has resulted in 11 liver transplants over the last several years.

* PC SPES and SPES. These supplements, which held promise as prostate-cancer fighters, turned out to be frauds. They worked like hormones only because they were spiked with hormones, a blood thinner, an antiinflammatory, and several other drugs.

* Tiratricol. In 2000, the FDA warned consumers not to use weight-loss supplements containing this thyroid hormone, which can cause strokes and heart attacks.

* Usnic acid. This "natural" compound (it's found in lichen), which is used in some herbal mixtures, appears to be toxic to the liver.

Sources: Food and Drug Administration (www.cfsan.fda.qov/íms/ds-warn.html) and CSPI.

www.Is-My-Herb-Safe.com

The Internet is crawling with information on dietary supplements. Most of it is designed to sell you something. Here are two of the best sites for reliable information and one site that you shouldn't trust.

* The Good. The Natural Pharmacist (TNP) offers detailed, readable, generally reliable information about the uses and the safety of nearly 500 dietary supplements. TNP is prepared by physicians and pharmacists at Healthgate Data Corporation of Burlington, Massachusetts, which supplies medical information to hospitals and pharmaceutical and health insurance firms. The Natural Pharmacist is available free at the online supplement vendor www.iherb.com and to subscribers of www.ConsumerLab.com, a site that tests whether supplements contain what their labels claim.