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Pete took eight tablets, and that night, he felt too sick to go out
with his friends. Instead, he stayed behind at the motel. Several hours
later, when Pete’s friends returned, they found him dead on the floor.
The medical examiner discovered that Peter Schlendorf had died from
a lethal overdose of the stimulants ephedrine, pseudoephedrine,
phenylpropanolamine, and caffeine—all ingredients in the herbal
supplement Pete had taken.
WHAT’S IN YOUR
HERBAL SUPPLEMENT?
An estimated twenty thousand herbal products are sold legally in
the United States. Nearly one-fifth of American adults take herbal
products, according to a study published in the
Journal of General
Internal Medicine
. And herbal supplement manufacturers, which earn
at least $5 billion from supplement sales each year, make all kinds of
fantastic claims about their products. They say their supplements can
do everything from relieving stress and anxiety to curing hyperactivity
disorders in children and Alzheimer’s disease in adults.
Many manufacturers claim to do it with all-natural ingredients. The
word
natural
sounds appealing to most Americans. It sounds healthy.
What could be wrong with an all-natural product? However,
natural
does not always mean safe. A poisonous mushroom, for example, is all
natural. A pie made from rhubarb stalks can be yummy, yet the leaves of
the rhubarb plant cause kidney failure and seizures.
As with other dietary supplements, the FDA has no authority to
approve herbal supplements before manufacturers market them to the
public. Instead, the FDA receives reports of “serious adverse events”
(disability, hospitalizations, or death) from health-care providers
and consumers. The FDA is responsible for investigating the safety
of a supplement only after it receives an adverse event report. The
organization received 600 reports of serious adverse events in 2008. It
also received about 350 reports of moderate or mild adverse events. The
number of all adverse events may be as high as 50,000 each year, the
FDA estimates. Many people don’t connect their illness or condition to
dietary supplements. They believe that most supplements—especially
herbal supplements—are safe.
Many of the active ingredients in herbal supplements are actually
