# Dietary Supplements May Cause Liver Damage



## Ozarkgal (Dec 22, 2013)

An interesting article on some findings regarding dietary supplements causing liver damage.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/us/spike-in-harm-to-liver-is-tied-to-dietary-aids.html?_r=0


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## Old Hipster (Dec 22, 2013)

A lot of dietary supplements taken to excess can cause problems.

I really don't take any, I take a Vitamin E and D oil capsule, but not daily and the mister takes CoQ10 because he is on a stain drug (which I wish he wasn't on).

But I have to have yearly blood tests for my TSH levels and they also check everything, and except for once my Vitamin D being a bit low, everything is always within range.


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## SeaBreeze (Dec 22, 2013)

Excerpt from the article...



> Dr. Victor Navarro, the chairman of the hepatology division at Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, said that while liver injuries linked to supplements were alarming, he believed that a majority of supplements were generally safe. Most of the liver injuries tracked by a network of medical officials are caused by prescription drugs used to treat things like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, he said.
> But the supplement business is largely unregulated. In recent years, critics of the industry have called for measures that would force companies to prove that their products are safe, genuine and made in accordance with strict manufacturing standards before they reach the market.
> 
> But a federal law enacted in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, prevents the Food and Drug Administration from approving or evaluating most supplements before they are sold. Usually the agency must wait until consumers are harmed before officials can remove products from stores. Because the supplement industry operates on the honor system, studies show, the market has been flooded with products that are adulterated, mislabeled or packaged in dosages that have not been studied for safety.
> ...



This is just another ploy for the FDA to get its controlling, money hungry fingers into the supplement industry...something the big pharmaceutical companies/government have been trying to do for a long time.  They don't want any competition from an industry that can offer someone a non-toxic and safe way to treat their illnesses.  That way, if they scare the public enough, so they're begging them to watch over and protect them....they have future doctors writing scripts for vitamin C that THEY can profit from.  And meanwhile we can pay $60 for 10 - 1,000mg ascorbic acid capsules, instead of $10 for 60 capsules at the health food store.

Every reasonable person who takes supplements knows to stay away from concoctions which promise weight loss, or promise a muscle building miracle .  We lose weight by eating less, eating healthier and getting exercise.  We gain muscle by using our muscles with weight bearing exercises.  I've been using numerous supplements, vitamins and herbs basically all my life now, and will continue to use them.  My mother had me taking a cheap one-a-day vitamin when I was a young kid.

I have to laugh when these jokers try to scare people into fearing vitamins and supplements.  There was a bogus "study" recently on multi-vitamins recently, saying they were useless.  Well it's funny that the "studies" were funded by the government/pharmaceutical companies themselves.  And...they used the cheapest low dose garbage to get their biased results, not a quality multi-vitamin/mineral supplement that can be purchased in a health food store.

They get people shaking in their boots that this horrible supplement industry is so reckless and irresponsible, anything they put out may kill us.  Well, just look at all the prescription drugs and vaccines that the FDA has put out on the market in an irresponsible manner, because they were money hungry.  Google the amount of illnesses, deaths and liver damage from prescription drugs and vaccines that had the blessing of the FDA.  Then Google the amount of deaths cause by vitamins and supplements.

They jump on one incident, that may or may not have been the ill effect of a supplement for weight loss or muscle building and they blow it out of proportion to make their greedy case.  Just like the gun control lobby jumps on every shooting to get rid of guns, so only the powers that be have the guns and the vitamins.  Well, how about the dangerous mind altering prescription drugs that many of those shooters were on before and during their violent crimes??


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## Old Hipster (Dec 22, 2013)

I agree we have more, well everything, to fear from Big Pharma. 

But I also couldn't help but think of my mom who was taking so much Vitamin D she was getting toxic from it and also a few years ago ginseng was playing hell with her BP and heart, causing rapid heartbeat.

I don't think herbal supplements need to be regulated, but a person should, as with all things, do a bit of research into anything they might be taking.
Especially anything Big Pharma is pushing! 

I was taking some herbal supplement years ago, when I was having some health problems, hoping it would help, I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Jeez.  Holy cow, it was like I was hopped up on amphetamines ! yikes I had to quit taking it right away. Maybe it will come to me later today what the heck it was, this was about 14 years ago, so good luck with that.


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## SeaBreeze (Dec 22, 2013)

I agree Old Hipster, we should all be responsible to research the side effects and drug interactions of any supplements we may take.  The information is out there on many supplements.  Although side effects may be mild in some cases, overdosing or using it with a prescription drug can intensify negative results. 

 St. John's Wort can raise blood pressure, and make you sensitive to sunlight...we must be smart when using anything.  If I'm prescribed a medicine by the doctor, I'll do my own research on the side effects, and make my own decision to use the medication or not.  Thankfully I'm not on any of those things, but I recall being given a nose spray for hay fever, that had steroids in it and many negative side effects...did not use it.


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## Ozarkgal (Dec 22, 2013)

I'm not a pill taker of any kind, and do my best to resist any drugs or supplements, but lately I have had to resort to a pain killers as needed, and do take a Mega Red krill oil and a B-100 most days.  Can't say that I have noticed a discernible effect for what they're touted for from any of them .


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## SifuPhil (Dec 22, 2013)

In the New York _Times_, yet - I used to trust that paper. 

I spent my career trying to raise awareness of natural healing methods and to get people off the 'scripts. Big Pharma evidently has gotten to the point where they can't prove the effectiveness of their own compounds, so they now have to start a smear campaign against the natural ones. 

Yes, of course you can get liver damage from supplements - if you don't bother to check out the purity of the compounds involved and/or take abusive amounts of it. Compare it to the 'scripts. 

Ah, you know what? The mood I'm in today, I'm not even going to go there. Good job, Sea - you said most of what I would have said.


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## Anne (Dec 22, 2013)

SifuPhil said:


> In the New York _Times_, yet - I used to trust that paper.
> 
> I spent my career trying to raise awareness of natural healing methods and to get people off the 'scripts. Big Pharma evidently has gotten to the point where they can't prove the effectiveness of their own compounds, so they now have to start a smear campaign against the natural ones.
> 
> ...




Phil, are you ok???   Is it the holidays??


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## SifuPhil (Dec 22, 2013)

Anne said:


> Phil, are you ok???   Is it the holidays??



Not so much the holidays, although that's certainly a part of it. More that my roomie has been having some major medical problems over the past few weeks - mini-strokes, she learned she has diabetes, had a stent put into one side of her neck and goes in on the 8th for the other side - and that all of her supposed "friends" aren't around now to give her rides to the hospital and the medical center. 

Just on the down-side of my manic-depressive personality.


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## Anne (Dec 22, 2013)

SifuPhil said:


> Not so much the holidays, although that's certainly a part of it. More that my roomie has been having some major medical problems over the past few weeks - mini-strokes, she learned she has diabetes, had a stent put into one side of her neck and goes in on the 8th for the other side - and that all of her supposed "friends" aren't around now to give her rides to the hospital and the medical center.
> 
> Just on the down-side of my manic-depressive personality.



Oh no; hope that she will be ok.  Too bad about her friends - some do seem to disappear at times like that; but then, it could be they are just very busy right now.
Wish there were something we could do, but will keep her in my thoughts.


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## SeaBreeze (Dec 22, 2013)

Must be tough for both you and your roomie Phil.   Sounds like she's got those fair weather friends.  Natural stuff for diabetes that she may consider is cinnamon, bitter melon and chromium picolinate.  Vitamin k2 can help to keep calcium out of the arteries, which should help with the TIAs, also coconut oil internally.  Not being pushy here, just a few reminders that may help her out.  Sending warm and healing thoughts out to you both. :rose:


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## Ozarkgal (Dec 22, 2013)

Sorry about your roomie, Phil..I guessed there was a problem, and chalked it up to the holidays which have a way of getting some people down.  It sucks that she has this problem, and particularly so during the holidays.  Maybe her friends will come through for her, it may take a little intervention on your part to explain to them that they are needed.  Real friends usually come through when they understand the circumstances.  Does your roomie have any family that could help?

Hope things resolve and hoping the best for both of you.


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## SifuPhil (Dec 22, 2013)

Ozarkgal said:


> ...  Does your roomie have any family that could help?



She has a sister that is pretty much useless and a brother who is still getting over burying his longtime lady-love, so family is pretty much out at this point. 

Sea, I appreciate the herbal remedies and I'll mention them to her, but she's a died-in-the-wool pill-popper so i don't hold much faith in her using them. She might surprise me, though. 

Anne, that was my thought as well, that this is a bad time to get sick with everyone running around like maniacs. I'm also down that I don't drive anymore, as I could have been more of a help, but history is history. 

Thanks all for your thoughts - it's appreciated.


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## WhatInThe (Dec 29, 2013)

I get the impression some of these are nothing but a case of abuse. The one article referenced a teenage boy in search of a better body. Steroids are already a problem with youth. I think they rationalize abuse or over use of legal supplements as it is not steroids. Anything can be abused.

Those congressional hearings on steroids on baseball came about because an out of shape and over weight pitcher want to be abused and crammed his body with supplements and died. Then his teary eyed wife complained to congress. Worse case this fool would've had to work to work a regular job like most Americans. He abused his body in pursuit of his dream to play a game for a living while accumulating fame and fortune.


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