New Study Links 15 Common Dietary Supplement Ingredients to Deadly Health Risks

A new study may have you scanning your cupboards for dangerous dietary supplement ingredients.

Consumer Reports recently found that certain ingredients in dietary supplements sold around the world pose a serious threat to public health.

The report specifically claims that 15 common, legal ingredients can lead to health risks like heart palpitations, allergic reactions, and pain.

One of the most problematic ingredients is caffeine. As CBS News reports, 18 year old Logan Stiner died after he overdosed on a caffeine powder supplement he purchased online.

Logan’s mother later said, “If it could kill someone like Logan, it has no borders – it will kill again.”

Most people recognize the dangers of caffeine. But the report outlines many other common ingredients found in everyday nutritional supplements. Let’s take a closer look at what the report found – and how they found it.

Consumer Reports Shows Dietary Supplement Use “Sends Thousands” to the ER Every Year

According to the study from Consumer Reports, thousands of people experience severe health complications every year because of ingredients in nutritional supplements.

To put that report together, Consumer Reports assembled an expert panel of independent doctors and dietary supplement researchers.

This team eventually narrowed down a list of 15 supplement ingredients that are potentially harmful. These ingredients are found in supplements available to legally purchase online or in major retailers like GNC, Costco, CVS, Walmart, Whole Foods, and others.

Consumer Reports actually goes into great detail about how they picked their 15 ingredients, including the criteria of their entire selection team. They also ensured that major retailers carried supplements with each of these ingredients. You can read their methodology here.

Without further ado, let’s find out the 15 ingredients you should always avoid.

Consumer Reports Picks “15 Ingredients to Always Avoid”

If you see the following ingredients in a nutritional supplement you’re about to buy, you should think again. Here are the 15 ingredients you should always avoid when shopping for dietary supplements.

-Aconite: Also known as Aconiti tuber, aconitum, angustifolium, monkshood, radix aconiti, or wolfsbane. This supplement claims to reduce inflammation, joint pain, and your risk of gout. However, it comes with significant risks like nausea, vomiting, weakness, paralysis, breathing and heart problems, and death.

-Caffeine Powder: Caffeine, at the right dose, can stimulate athletic performance, improve attention and focus, and promote weight loss. However, taking too much caffeine, or combining it with other stimulants, can lead to seizures, heart arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, and death.

-Chaparral: Also known as creosote bush, greaseweood, larrea divaricata, larrea tridentate, and larreastat. This extract promises to help you lose weight while improving inflammation and treating common skin rashes. However, it’s been linked to kidney problems, liver damage, and an increased risk of death.

-Coltsfoot: Also called coughwort, farfarae folium leaf, foalswort, tussilago farfara. This herb claims to relieve cold symptoms and a sore throat while also treating laryngitis, bronchitis, and asthma. However, the Consumer Reports study found that it’s a possible cancer-causing chemical (carcinogen) and leads to liver damage.

-Comfrey: Also known as blackwort, bruisewort, slippery root, or symphytum officinale, this herbal extract claims to relieve coughing, heavy menstrual periods, stomach pain, chest pain, and even cancer. In reality, it can lead to liver damage along with an increased risk of cancer and death.

-Germander: Germander claims to be an effective weight loss agent and a treatment for stomach problems, but it’s also been linked to liver damage, hepatitis, and death.

-Greater Celandine: This compound claims to alleviate stomach problems, but the Consumer Reports study shows that it has a big risk of damaging your liver.

-Green Tea Extract Powder: Also called camellia sinensis, green tea extract powder is a popular ingredient found in many weight loss supplements. However, research has shown that it can lead to dizziness, ringing in the ears, a reduced absorption of iron, higher blood pressure and heart rate, worse symptoms of anemia and glaucoma, and death.

-Kava: Also known as ava pepper, awa, kava kava, or piper methysticum, this common Pacific crop is used to reduce anxiety and improve symptoms of insomnia. Research shows that it can cause enormous liver damage while also exacerbating symptoms of Parkinson’s and depression. It can also impair your driving ability. Like other ingredients listed here, it’s also linked to a higher risk of death.

-Lobelia: Lobelia is traditionally used to improve respiratory problems like asthma. Some also use it to help them quit smoking. Unfortunately, lobelia is linked to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, rapid heartbeat, confusion, seizures, hypothermia, coma, and death.

-Methylsynephrine: Also known as 4-MHP or Oxilofrine, this ingredient promises to help you lose weight, boost your energy, and enhance athletic performance. However, risky side effects include an abnormal heart rate and rhythm along with cardiac arrest. It’s also thought to be particularly risky when taken with other stimulants.

-Pennyroyal Oil: This uncommon ingredient is found in supplements that improve breathing and digestive problems, but it’s also been linked to liver and kidney failure, nerve damage, convulsions, and death.

-Red Yeast Rice: Claims to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and prevent heart disease, but can lead to a significantly higher risk of kidney and muscle problems, liver problems, hair loss, and an increased risk of side effects from cholesterol management medication.

-Usnic Acid: Also known as beard moss, tree moss, or usnea, usnic acid is traditionally used for weight loss and pain relief, but it can have significant long-term damaging effects on your liver.

-Yohimbe: This popular compound can be found in supplements that treat erectile dysfunction, low libido, depression, and obesity. However, studies have shown that it can raise blood pressure, quicken your heart rate, and increase your risk of headaches, seizures, liver and kidney problems, heart problems, panic attacks, and death.

You’ll notice that “death” is a risk on pretty much every ingredient listed above. Is that diet pill you purchased online really worth the risk of death?

None of These Ingredients Provide Sufficient Health Benefits to Justify the Risk

Perhaps the most damning part of the Consumer Reports study is that few of the ingredients provided any meaningful benefits – or at least, the benefits weren’t enough to justify the risk, in the eyes of researchers.

Ultimately, if you want to protect your health, look out for the 15 ingredients listed above the next time you’re going shopping online or in-store.