These visits resulted in an estimated 2,154 hospitalizations annually in the country, where neither safety testing nor government approval is required before the marketing of dietary supplements, said the study published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dietary supplements increased dramatically in the U.S. market from 4,000 products in 1994 to more than 55,000 in 2012, the most recent year for which data are publicly available, according to background information in the report.
About half of all adults in the United States reported having used at least one dietary supplement in the past month, such as herbals, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
That led to a US$14.8 billion expenditure for herbal or complementary nutritional products in 2007, or one third of the out-of-pocket expenditures for prescription drugs.
The new study, led by Andrew Geller of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed nationally representative surveillance data from 63 emergency departments obtained from 2004 through 2013.
It found more than a quarter (28 percent) of the 23,000 emergency visits for supplement-related adverse events involved young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 years.
Weight-loss or energy products caused more than half the visits in the age group, commonly for cardiac symptoms such as palpitations, chest pain and tachycardia.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
