‘Natural Doesn’t Always Mean Safe’: Why Herbal Supplements Put Your Liver at Risk

THE supplements of herbs They have become an alternative that has gained popularity in recent times. Made from plant sources, they are often said to be beneficial to health. health and it can help treat minor ailments.

Among the effects promoted in this type of product are those that promote weight loss, help with joint mobility and strengthen the immune system.

However, although they are often considered “natural,” they are not completely safe for the body. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration The FDA considers herbal supplements to be foods, not drugs, so they are not subject to the same oversight in their manufacturing and other processes.

Rosario Ligresti, chief of gastroenterology at Hackensack University Medical Center, reiterated: Medical News Today that these types of products “they are not regulated at all” and it exists “false sense of security” around them.

“We think that, Since the ingredients are “natural,” they must be safe . However, it is important to remember that Natural doesn’t always mean safe. “Some natural ingredients can be toxic in high doses or interact with medications.” Ligresti explains.

And now research from the University of Michigan has revealed that the use of these products has triggered a worrying phenomenon in the United States.

Nearly 16 million American adults, or 5 percent, have taken a potentially liver-damaging herbal supplement at least once. Among them are those that contain green tea extract and turmeric.

The results of the study were recently published in the JAMA Network Review .

In their study, the researchers sought to understand the prevalence and clinical characteristics of adult consumers of botanical supplements that are potentially hepatotoxic. That is, they can cause injury or damage to the liver.

“The use of dietary and herbal supplements (DHS) accounts for an increasing proportion of drug-induced hepatotoxicity cases” they indicate in the survey.

To answer their questions, they analyzed medical data from 9,685 American adults, with an average age of 47.5, who between 2017 and 2020 participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which aims to monitor the health and nutrition status of the general U.S. population.

These data included exposure to prescription drugs and herbal supplements.

The team specifically focused on supplements that may be hepatotoxic. These include: turmeric or curcumin, green tea extract, red yeast rice, garcinia cambogia, ashwagandha and cimicifuga racemosa (also known as black cohosh).

“These are the most commonly reported hepatotoxic plants, but their prevalence and reasons for their use in the general population are unknown,” the authors explain.

Alisa Likhitsup, associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study, told Medical News Today that it’s still unclear how these products may cause liver damage.

“As a practicing hepatologist, I have seen patients who have suffered liver injuries from dietary supplements and some have been fatal and required emergency liver transplants. Data from the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network indicate that rates of liver injury from herbs increased from 7% in 2004-2005 to 20% in 2013-2014. Therefore, I was interested in analyzing the prevalence and seeing how many Americans were consuming these products,” the researcher added.

“In a previous study, we found that there were a large number of incorrect labels on some of these products” Robert Fontana, a professor at the same university and another author of the study, detailed in a statement. According to the researcher, they carried out chemical analyses of the products and found a difference “of 50% between the ingredients indicated on the label and what they actually contain, which is quite alarming.”

In the recent study by the team led by Likhitsup, it was identified that 58% of participants used botanical supplements – identified as HDS – in the past 30 days .

Meanwhile, 5% reported consuming 1 of 6 potentially hepatotoxic supplements in the past 30 days. The latter percentage equates to 15.6 million American adults.

This is similar to the estimated number of patients who have been prescribed potentially hepatotoxic drugs, such as simvastatin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the authors say.

The study also identified characteristics of consumers of these types of products: they are generally between 40 and 60 years old, have a university degree and are less likely to be below the poverty line. They were also more likely to suffer from diseases such as arthritis, thyroid disorders and cancer, compared to those who did not use these products.

Potentially hepatotoxic products containing turmeric were the most used by study participants. This was followed by those containing green tea extract, ashwagandha, garcinia cambogia, red yeast rice and cimicifuga racemosa.

But what are the reasons that drive American adults to use these specific supplements?

According to the authors, most of them choose them themselves and not on the recommendation of health professionals. The most frequently cited reasons for using them were “improve health”, “prevent health problems” and “strengthen immunity” .

Most turmeric supplement users said they were doing so for joint health or arthritis, while green tea users said they wanted to improve their energy.

Considering these findings and the growing popularity of herbal supplements, the study concludes that “Physicians should be aware of the potential adverse effects resulting from the consumption of these largely unregulated products.” .

They also urged government authorities to strengthen “regulatory oversight over how plants are produced, marketed, tested and monitored among the general population.”