Melody Petersen
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 The public hears much about the dangers of viral hepatitis infections, which can lead to liver failure. But viruses such as hepatitis A are not the leading cause of this organ's failure in the United States. Not by far. Instead, most Americans who suffer from liver failure have been poisoned by their medications.
Researchers reported that 51 percent of the cases of liver failure at some two dozen American medical centers in 2003 were caused by a single drug, acetaminophen, which is sold under the brand name of Tylenol and also included in a wide array of other medicines. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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 By 2000 half a dozen articles had appeared whose titles were blunt and pointed such as "Nefazodone-induced acute liver failure"18 and "Acute liver failure ascribed to nefazodone."19 Health Canada warned its nation's physicians that Serzone could cause liver failure in 2001. They removed the drug from the Canadian market in 2003. The Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (CBG) announced in 2002 that because of the danger of liver failure Serzone was going to be removed from the Dutch market.20 Other European countries followed suit, but the FDA never removed Serzone from the U.S. market. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Anne Larson, director of the Hepatology Clinic at the University of Washington in Seattle, and her colleagues examined the records of 662 patients who were treated for acute liver failure at 22 liver centers in the United States over the six-year period from 1998 through 2003.
We make the assumption that over-the-counter drugs are somehow safer.
Marc Siegel, MD
In total, 275 patients (42%) had acetamino-phen-related acute liver failure. Within this group, 48% were unintentional overdoses, 44% were suicide attempts and 8% were of unknown intent, the study found. |
Melody Petersen
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| Instead, most Americans who suffer from liver failure have been poisoned by their medications.
Researchers reported that 51 percent of the cases of liver failure at some two dozen American medical centers in 2003 were caused by a single drug, acetaminophen, which is sold under the brand name of Tylenol and also included in a wide array of other medicines. But dozens of other drugs can cause the liver to fail, as Jerry Houk found out.
Jerry said months after he left the hospital he heard a report that Rezulin had been pulled from the market because of its propensity to ravage the liver. |
| About 80 percent of those suffering from acute liver failure die.
Weighing about three pounds, the dark reddish brown liver is the body's largest internal organ. Among its numerous functions is to act as a filter and remove harmful substances like drugs, insecticides, food additives, and other chemicals from the blood.
The public hears much about the dangers of viral hepatitis infections, which can lead to liver failure. But viruses such as hepatitis A are not the leading cause of this organ's failure in the United States. Not by far. |
Andreas Moritz
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 The dead liver cells are replaced with fibrous tissue, leading to portal hypertension, diabetes and, possibly, liver failure. Because the protein storage does not only occur in the liver sinusoids but also in the capillaries and arteries throughout the body, the risk of a heart attack or stroke increases dramatically.
Cholesterol cannot be considered a culprit for heart disease or any other illness. Because of protein deposits in the sinusoids, liver cells are increasingly cut off from the daily necessary cholesterol supplies, and are therefore forced to synthesize more and more cholesterol. |
| However, they had just spent eight years taking a costly drug with hideous side effects—risking liver failure, muscle wasting, even sudden death. Lowering cholesterol either through drugs or low fat diets does not lower the risk of developing heart disease.
All the major European long-term cholesterol studies have confirmed that a low-fat diet did not reduce cholesterol levels by more than 4 percent, in most cases merely 1-2 percent. |
Bill Sardi
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 Am J Health System Pharm, Volume 56, June 1999] The American Liver Foundation reports that 35% of cases of severe liver failure, which may require organ transplantation, are caused by acetaminophen poisoning [USA Today, August 13, 2001]
Chaparral is widely used as a medicinal tea, and has also been widely used as a dietary supplement. An extract of chaparral has been used as a food preservative. Its widespread use speaks for some level of safety. Liver toxicity associated with chaparral is explainable. |
Bottom Line Health
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| One-third of the patients (35%) who had acute liver failure died, and 27% died without ever undergoing a transplant.
A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM
"This is not a problem of epidemic proportions, [but] there is still a significant problem," says Larson.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and author of False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear, adds, "This is already known. This study just increases our perception that Tylenol is potentially a dangerous drug. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 Fulminant liver failure after administration of the herbal antidepressant kava-kava (Abstract). Dtsch Med Wochenschr; 126(36):970-972. 2001.
Lehmann E, Kinzler E, Friedemann J. Efficacy of a special Kava extract (piper methysticum) in patients with states of anxiety, tension and excitedness of non-mental origin - A double-blind placebo-controlled study of four weeks treatment. Phytomedicine;2:U3-U9. 1996.
Lehrl S. Clinical efficacy of kava extract WS1490 in sleep disturbances associated with anxiety disorders. |
Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
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| Deaths due to liver failure increased to such a number that red flags could no longer be ignored; the blame could no longer be attributed solely to the disease or the noncompliant patient. Finally, the FDA, after requiring four labeling changes over the 3-year span, and permitting the seller to profit to the tune of $1.8 billion5 in this brief marketing period, required the drug to be removed from the market.
How should all those needless deaths be considered? Where does ignorance end and criminal negligence begin? We know who the victims were. Who is complicit in their deaths?
Jay S. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Iron supplements should be used with extreme caution in those with chronic liver failure, alcoholic cirrhosis, chronic alcoholism, and pancreatic insufficiency. Iron should also be used cautiously in those with a history of gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients with elevated serum ferritin levels should generally avoid iron supplements, as should those with an active or suspected infection. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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| Health Canada warned its nation's physicians that Serzone could cause liver failure in 2001. They removed the drug from the Canadian market in 2003. The Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (CBG) announced in 2002 that because of the danger of liver failure Serzone was going to be removed from the Dutch market.20 Other European countries followed suit, but the FDA never removed Serzone from the U.S. market. However, the antidepressant could not withstand the media reports which decimated sales and increased lawsuits. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Severe portal hypertension also has been associated with Comfrey ingestion, and in one case report, death resulted by liver failure (Ridker, 1989; Yeong, 1990).
Misidentification: There have been poisonings caused by misidentifying the leaves of Digitalis purpurea for the broad leaves of Comfrey. Bradycardia, nausea, and vomiting have occurred (Bain, 1985; Couper, 1977). dosage
Mode of Administration: The crushed root, extracts, and pressed juice of the fresh plant are used as semi-solid preparations and poultices for external use. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 Another drug in this class, Rezulin (troglitazone), was found to cause liver damage and liver failure, and was withdrawn. |
| It is implicated in tens of thousands of cases of liver damage, including around 450 deaths, every year, and is the single largest contributing factor to liver failure that requires liver transplants. This drug is included in many multi-drug, over-the-counter (OTC) combinations, and taking even slightly more than the recommended amount can seriously damage your liver. Acetaminophen should never be combined with alcohol, due to their combined effects on the liver. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Acetaminophen poisoning is the number-one cause of hospital admissions for liver failure in the United States. Think what people who drink and then take Tylenol for a hangover are doing to their poor liver. Though many establishment medical types will tell you acetaminophen is "safe" in reasonable doses, I'm a hardliner on acetaminophen: If you have—or suspect you have—liver problems, the only safe dose of acetaminophen is zero. I rank it right up there with trans fats.
2. Do a periodic detoxification. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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 Unchecked, hemochromatosis can lead to liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, infertility, psychiatric disorders, and even cancer. Unchecked, hemochromatosis will lead to death.
For more than 125 years after Armand Trousseau first described it in 1865, hemochromatosis was thought to be extremely rare. Then, in 1996, the primary gene that causes the condition was isolated for the first time. Since then, we've discovered that the gene for hemochromatosis is the most common genetic variant in peopie of Western European descent. |
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D.
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 The powerful protective effect of SNMC was demonstrated in another study of 18 patients with subacute liver failure due to viral hepatitis. Subacute liver failure is a very serious condition, typically fatal in nearly 70% of patients. However, among patients given intensive treatment with SNMC, the death rate was only 28%.10
The injectable form of licorice has been intermittently available in the United States, depending on how vigorously the Food and Drug Administration has chosen to enforce its opinion about what constitutes an "unapproved drug. |
Andreas Moritz
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| Besides causing cardiovascular problems, Tylenol is actually the most common cause of liver failure, not hepatitis C, as you might believe. Tylenol 3, which is given to women for postnatal pain, can produce deadly concentrations of morphine in their breast milk. A lawsuit over the death of Toronto newborn Tariq Jamieson, who died as a result of opiate toxicity in his mother's breast milk, is shedding new light on the dangers of prescribing such drugs as Tylenol 3 to breastfeeding mothers. Tariq died after 11 days of breastfeeding, according to National Review of Medicine, June 15, 2007. |
Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
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| Because our reporting system for adverse events is so poor and based on voluntary reports of clinical occurrences, the sudden rise in Type 2 diabetic deaths due to liver failure went unheralded. Between mid-1997 and its withdrawal from the U.S. marketplace in 2000, 63 deaths attributed to this drug were confirmed.4
Rezulin received FDA approval in a field already crowded with drugs. It offered no real improvement for most Type 2 diabetics over drugs already on the market. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Mattei A, Rucay P, Samuel D, Feray C, Reynes M, Bismuth H, Liver transplantation for severe acute liver failure after herbal medicine (Teucrium polium) administration. J Hepatol, 22:597, May. 1995
Rizk AM, Hammouda FM, Rimpler H, Kamel A, Chemical composition of the wild Egyptian plant Teucrium polium L. Pharmazie, 22:540-1, Aug. 1974
Rizk AM, Hammouda FM, Rimpler H, Kamel A, Iridoids and flavonoids of Teucrium polium herb. Planta Med, 22:87-8, Apr. 1986
Rizk AM, Hammouda FM, Rimpler H, Kamel A, On the essential oil of Teucrium polium L. Pharmazie, 22:351-2, May. |
Marshall Editions
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 Liver enzymes should be taken if liver failure or incompetence is present, which is determined by a blood test.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Herbal tea: Combine 8 g of Jin Yin Hua (honeysuckle flower), 5 g of Bo He (field mint), and 3 gof Can Cao (licorice) in a pot and add boiling water. Drink the tea three to four times a day, swishing it around and holding it in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. Young babies with oral thrush should drink 1-2 oz of tea twice or three times a day.
Acupuncture: This is not appropriate for treating oral thrush. |
Andreas Moritz
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| In addition to these symptoms, impotence, retinopathy, renal failure, liver failure, polycystic ovary syndrome, elevated blood sugar, systemic Candida, poor wound healing, peripheral neuropathy, etc., have since been turned into separate diseases, requiring specialized treatments and specialists to administer them. Although this may greatly serve the medical and pharmaceutical industries, it causes untold suffering and costs many lives.
Diabetes afflicts over 8 percent of the American population. |
Bottom Line Health
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| They cite statistics from the United Kingdom, that show a 30% reduction in the number of patients admitted to specialty centers for severe acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure in the four years after OTC sales of acetaminophen were restricted to 16 g. More severe restrictions in France also resulted in improvements.
Education is also needed, the study authors state. "We think it's important to educate the public—and even physicians, when they give a patient a narcotic-acetaminophen combination," Larson says. |
| Example: The leading cause of acute liver failure isn't alcohol or hepatitis but an overdose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.
OTC drugs can be dangerous even when taken in the recommended dosages. Here are common OTC medications and their dangers...
NSAIDs
The class of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) relieve pain, tenderness, inflammation and stiffness.
Popular brands: Ibuprofen is in Advil, Ex-cedrin IB, Midol Cramp, Motrin and Nuprin... naproxen is in Aleve.. .fetoprq/femsinOrudisKT. |
| Marc Siegel, MD
In total, 275 patients (42%) had acetamino-phen-related acute liver failure. Within this group, 48% were unintentional overdoses, 44% were suicide attempts and 8% were of unknown intent, the study found.
The median dose ingested was 24 grams (g) —the equivalent of 48 extra-strength tablets. Some patients, however, reported taking significantly less than that, suggesting that smaller doses may also be hazardous.
People who had unintentionally overdosed tended to be older, were taking several medications containing acetaminophen, and waited longer to seek help. |
| An overdose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is now the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States, accounting for at least 42% of all cases that are seen at liver centers, researchers report. Approximately half of these cases are due to unintentional poisoning as opposed to attempted suicides, the researchers add.
Compared to the millions of acetaminophen tablets taken by Americans every day, the number of poisonings still remains low. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 This list did include one case of liver failure, one case of hepatitis, and one case of elevated liver enzymes. These cases were related to unspecified amounts of black cohosh and unspecified products. Some studies on animals reported increased liver weights associated with very large doses over an extended period of time.
Australia, Canada, and selected European countries have elected to require a warning label on black cohosh about liver effects. |
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