Apparent death from supplement overdose: news analysis

[jim mcnamara]

TL;DR

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/death-rep-tom-mcclintock-wife-points-supplements-dangers-rcna45009

A non-technical opinion piece that claims there are many fatal and near-fatal events, ~23000 total, in the US every year -- with regard to supplement consumption/abuse. Additionally, it explains US labeling requirements and available remediation for problems related to supplement usage. Which is why it is here in Medical, and not in Discussion.

 

[Sanborn Chase]

There ain't no law west of the Pecos, Jim.

 

[Jarvis323]

Summary: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opini...ock-wife-points-supplements-dangers-rcna45009

A non-technical opinion piece that claims there are many fatal and near-fatal events, ~23000 total, in the US every year -- with regard to supplement consumption. Additionally, it explains US labelling requirements and available remediation for problems related to supplement usage. Which is why it is here in Medical, and not in Discussion.

Simple minded people will read such an article and conflate the dangers of shady weight loss supplements containing meth-like chemicals, with things like Vitamin B supplements. It would be interesting to filter out the deaths due to product mislabeling/contamination, as well as the deaths due to supplements which are unrelated to basic health, such as stimulants, weight loss supplements, body building supplements, sexual enhancement supplements, etc, and then analyze deaths prevented by using supplements, deaths stemming from deficiencies, and compare with deaths from taking supplements. The sheer number of deaths due to Covid-19+Vit.D would be nice to know.

 

[jim mcnamara]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3972416/ - meta-analysis
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind-healthprofessional/ poop sheet for practitioners
Rates of Vit D3 associated deaths in the US are very low, India uses Vit D2 and there are reported problems with it. D3 seems to be much less problematic there.

US mortality rates are really very low, so as an example, so let's say:
US death rate is 2/year associated with vit D3, and 150000/year for Covid-19. You cannot do meaningful statistical analysis on data like that, IMO.

Since Vit D3 problems are rare they make news. News reporting of this on a scale of quality

+1 -> +10:  
-5.

...off the scale. My opinion of course.

CDC expert panel on Vitamin D:
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/pdf/vitamin_d_expert_panel_meeting.pdf ... bring coffee it's long and detailed

 

[Sanborn Chase]

Re:"My opinion of course." Always a valuable commodity!
But white mulberry leaves? Really? If my wife began ingesting some arcane vegetation...but as prospects narrow with age perhaps an element of panic sets in. (There's some evidence eating the leaves of morus alba may induce mild hallucinations, which may be a reasonable reaction to your husband becoming involved in politics.) We're all wandering around in the wilderness.

 

[jim mcnamara]

White mulberry may also increase the side effects of cholesterol-lowering medications and should be used with caution in patients using benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or antidepressants

-- drugs.com
And there are some other known drug morus alba interactions.

This kind of falls into what the attending physician put on the death certificate -examples: either
"death from" primary cause
or
"death with" secondary (came after) the separate primary