Mounting evidence suggests that increasing numbers of Americans are falling seriously ill or even dying after taking dietary supplements that promise everything from extra energy to sounder sleep. While the Food and Drug Administration issues periodic warnings about the dangers of individual supplements, no organization or agency has ever made a comprehensive analysis of the sickness and death associated with them. But in attempting the first national survey, The Washington Post collected statistical snapshots from health officials, researchers and advocates reaching almost every state in the country. In 1999, three Florida poison centers logged 549 GHB incidents and two deaths. Last December, Phoenix Suns forward Tom Gugliotta, no relation to this reporter, took a GHB-related supplement, collapsed on the team bus and nearly died at a Portland, Ore., hospital.
Tests continue to reveal dangerous contaminants and poor quality control in supplement ingredients.
California investigators in 1998 found that nearly one-third of 260 imported Asian herbals were either spiked with drugs not listed on the label or contained lead, arsenic or mercury. Last month, state officials discovered five Chinese herbals that contained powerful diabetes drugs. Health professionals across the country complain they cannot be sure how powerful a supplement is because the actual potency of the pill often doesn t match the legend on the label. The weight-loss and energy supplement ephedra, also known as ma huang, and its derivatives are producing a stream of complaints from many states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. New, previously unreleased FDA data implicate about two dozen different ephedra products in 134 cases involving everything from jitteriness, chest pains and insomnia to addiction, stroke and death.