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Have you ever taken a dietary supplement?
This includes not just weight loss supplements, but also vitamin and mineral supplements.
You’re not alone if you have, they’ve been rising in popularity over the years as people try to get all the vitamins they need.
However, according to a study published by the New England Journal of medicine and led by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these dietary supplements are pretty risky.
In fact, they’re responsible for more than 20,000 emergency room visits per year. Several of these cases involved young adults who had taken weight loss or energy enhancement supplements, who experienced cardiovascular problems.
This study is the first of its kind, and it seems like it may be a good thing that it happened. The supplement industry is growing, and it’s now worth $32 billion a year. Over the past year, there have been calls for stricter regulation on these pills.
The study looked at ER visits at hospitals around the country over a period of 10 years. They then analyzed data from all of the cases in which dietary supplements were implicated.
They found a range of injuries applied to them, including nausea and vomiting, severe allergic reactions, and heart trouble.
These weren’t just from shady weight loss supplements, either.
These were from herbal pills, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
Of course, prescription pills are responsible for 30 times as many trips to the ER as supplements are.
Common supplements that sent their users to the hospital were ones like Hydroxycut, Xenadrine, and Raspberry Ketones.
The problem with these supplements, say experts, is that they’re so poorly regulated. Many of them contain toxic chemicals. So much so that supplements have surpassed amphetamines and Adderall in being associated with cardiovascular problems.
However, unlike these prescription stimulants, supplements aren’t required to have warnings about cardiac side effects on their labels. They’re also not required to regulate the size of the pills, which leads to choking-related ER visits.
The study only tracked ER visits, not deaths, so there’s no data on that at this time.
Duffy Mackay, a spokesman for the Council for Responsible Nutrition (a supplement trade group), said that the FDA is to blame. Change the laws, he says, and the industry will change their pills.
“The current law as it’s written had everything in it to make this change,” he said.
In the meantime, do some research on what’s in those supplements before taking them.
