As more people find themselves using more vitamins, supplements, and everyday medications, more related health issues keep cropping up.
And a recent spate of reports highlights a particular danger for one part of your body: the liver.
“As cases of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) are on the rise, experts are warning of the hidden dangers associated with some common medications and supplements,” Fox News reported Monday.
The outlet added, “Statistics show that DILI, also known as toxic hepatitis or hepatotoxicity — which is known to be a significant cause of acute liver failure — has been growing in Western countries since the 1960s.”
“Even medications that have been tested for safety and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can potentially cause liver injury in rare cases,” Fox reported.
Just days earlier, on May 27, NBC News had posted a similarly alarming report regarding these health ramifications.
The outlet spoke to Robert Grafton, a former medical technologist who noticed signs of liver failure in himself and largely traced it back to various supplements and vitamins he had been taking.
“I stopped taking everything, thank goodness,” Grafton said. “If I hadn’t known, if I was not in the medical field, I might have thought, ‘Oh, I think I’m getting sick. I need to take some more of these supplements to help me feel better.’”
Despite stopping, symptoms worsened and test results pointed toward devastating liver failure.
It turned out to be a case of DILI.
“It is estimated that between 13.9 and 19.1 cases of DILI occur for every 100,000 people, according to recent research published in the journal Toxicology Reports,” Fox noted.
The triggers of DILI can vary, from the vitamins and supplements that Grafton had been taking, mentioned above, to aspirin, the common over-the-counter painkiller.
Those with health conditions are more susceptible to DILI, but as Grafton — someone who began taking his health seriously after having children — shows, it can hit very healthy people, too.
Fox News medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told his network that the unregulated nature of supplements could betray some of their purported health benefits.
“The biggest problem with herbal supplements is that the amount you are taking of active chemicals isn’t strictly regulated, so you don’t know exactly what you are getting,” he said. “And since several of the supplements are metabolized through the liver, there is now an increasing incidence of liver toxicity in users.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, “nearly all classes of medications” can cause DILI.
“It is important to recognize and remove the offending agent as quickly as possible to prevent the progression to chronic liver disease and/or acute liver failure,” the NIH warned.
As Fox reported, signs of liver disease include “nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, generalized itching, dark urine and jaundice, although some people may notice no signs.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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