Adverse Effects of Continuous Usage of Health Supplements

Health May 23, 2024

This post was last updated on August 26th, 2024

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It is common knowledge that prescribed drugs have side-effects although more often the side-effects are lower as compared to the benefit it gives to the patient.

And that is the reason why they are prescribed. However, when you are deficient in a particular vitamin or multiple vitamins and nutrients, doctors may prescribe health supplements.

It can be in the form of a protein powder, multivitamin pills, and so on. In situations when it is impossible to avoid supplements, they must be taken according to the advice of the health experts and only till the prescribed time. However, many people continue taking health supplements, and these in the long run can cause adverse effects on the overall health of a person. More often these are the supplements used for weight loss or weight gain, to increase height, energy levels or build muscles.

Health risks caused due to supplements

A study reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System says that more than a thousand patients reported adverse effects of health supplements between January 2004 and April 2015. These were mostly the supplements recommended for muscle building, weight loss, or boosting energy levels.

Shockingly, around 40% of these supplements led to severe medical outcomes and some also proved to be fatal. The studies further confirmed that the severity of such medical outcomes after taking health supplements was three times more than taking multi-vitamin dosage.

A few other studies have linked muscle-building and weight-loss supplements with some serious side effects like testicular cancer, stroke, liver damage, and in certain cases even death.

Side effects that are quite common

A few side effects are most commonly linked with health supplements. They include chest pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, and vomiting. Other adverse side effects of health supplements are shortness of breath, rashes, diarrhea, slurred speech, joint or muscle pain, and blood in the urine.

These are all severe side effects and can further cause serious damage to the body if the intake of health supplements is not stopped immediately.

Supplements can interact with drugs

It is very important to share with your health expert details about all the medications that you are taking regularly before starting any of the health supplements prescribed by him.

It is because vitamins and other health supplements can interact with the regular drugs you are taking and lead to serious side effects. For example, research has proved that Vitamin K supplements can reduce the effectiveness of blood thinners. On the other hand, Vitamin E can increase the risk of bleeding in people using blood thinners.

Saint John’s-wort has been found to reduce the effects of some antidepressants, statins, and heart medications.

Age can make a big difference

The side effects and drug interaction problems are more common with old people. On average every adult of 60 or above is on some sort of regular medication. So there are high chances of drug interaction. Also, old people cannot metabolize compounds present in supplements and drugs as efficiently as young people.

Hence excessive intake of health supplements can lead to more problems for people who are old as their kidneys might fight it hard to throw the excess residues of supplements outside the body quickly.

Sources