Dietary supplements lead to 23,000 annual visit to the ER: study

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Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration have found that over 23,000 patients visit emergency rooms annually due to problems caused by the consumption of dietary supplements such as multivitamins, diet pills, and energy boosters, the Washington Post reports.

The study, which is the first of its kind, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and showed that these people who fall victim to dietary supplement complications suffer from heart palpitations, chest pain, choking, or other problems. The study also showed that most of the patients were either young adults, children, or elderly people.

The market for herbal and complementary nutritional products is highly unregulated, which is a cause for concern, as there are over 55,000 products on the market as of 2012. In fact, surveys reveal that as much as 50 percent of American adults consumed at least one dietary supplement in the last 30 days. The New York Times reports that dietary supplements amount to a burgeoning $32 billion industry, and that's just per year.

Dr. Andrew Geller, lead author of the study and medical officer in CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, told CBS News, "People may not realize dietary supplements can cause adverse effects but each year thousands of people are treated in emergency departments because of adverse events related to these supplements."

For the study, Dr. Geller and his team of researchers tracked 10 years worth of emergency room visits at a large network of hospitals across the country, and analyzed the visits linked to dietary supplement intake. According to the New York Times, researchers found that such injuries reported included severe allergic reactions, heart trouble, nausea and vomiting, linked to the consumption of a wide range of supplements such as herbal pills, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Around 2,150 or 10 percent of cases annually warranted hospitalization. Researchers also found that prescription drug-related injuries accounted for 30 percent more trips to the ER annually.

Results showed that over 25 percent of ER visits were by adults aged 20 to 34, and half of these cases were caused by weight loss or energy enhancement supplements, which common symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations and irregular heart rhythms. Results also showed that a number of emergency visits were by children who accidentally accessed supplements such as multivitamins that were not meant for them.

Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School commented, "This is very disheartening. What we’re seeing from this study is that the system has failed. It’s failing to protect consumers from very serious harms."

Dr. Andrew Greenberg, director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston told CBS News said when taking supplements, more doesn't necessarily mean better. He recommended, "Show your doctor what you want to take and discuss it with them because it's very hard for a lay person to understand what the ingredients are within a supplement."