Over-the-Counter Supplements That Can Kill You!

I love the great reporting here. Of course we don’t get the complete article. “You’d better think twice before taking over-the-counter supplements – it could be a matter of life and death.
Fighting the battle of the bulge? A new Consumer Reports investigation warns that taking bitter orange or country mallow to help the process can have fatal results.
Looking for an aphrodisiac? The magazine says it can be a killer at high doses.
Also on the Dirty Dozen list of legal, nonprescription remedies that can sicken or kill: aconite, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, germanium, greater celandine, kava and lobelia
Read more:
Consumer Reports hopefully has more information, but let’s look at the dirty dozen:
Bitter Orange: yucky, not often used.
Swamp Mallow: not often used.
These two are the only ones that Consumer Reports did a study on, and I’ll be interested to look at the study.
Aphrodisiac: unnamed, but most can affect the cardiovascular system.
Aconite: has been known to be toxic for centuries. I never see it in large doses. Most common at homeopathic dilutions (nontoxic at 12x or greater).
Chapparal: some liver toxicity, already well known.
Colloidal silver: toxic in megadoses, but we have the “blue man” still around despite consuming a ton. Most OTC contain nano-amounts (tiny). It is a metal.
The others are possibly liver toxic. But Germanium is well known, and the others are only modestly problematic. I’m writing a piece on Kava, discussing the issues involved in labeling herbs as harmful. Email me if you’d like a preview.

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