When you think about dietary supplements you probably associate them with health benefits and improvements to wellbeing. Supplements are taken alongside your regular diet to provide you with the vitamins and minerals that are so important for our bodies to function properly. It probably doesn’t even cross your mind that some of the supplements could actually have properties that can damage us from the inside.
It is the case that consuming vitamins and minerals in very high doses can be very dangerous for us. There is the issue that you can overload your liver or find the vitamins producing unwanted side-effects aside from their natural intent. Many people are not aware that taking over the recommended daily allowance of some popular supplements can cause liver damage. But if you are worried, there is a new database that contains very valuable information of what supplements can do to you.
LiverTox, the new database launched by the National Institutes of Health, has a searchable database of around 700 medications. The user-friendly website provides evidence-based data in a clear and succinct manner. One of the claims it makes is that taking kava, comfrey, valerian, vitamin A, niacin and even green tea in high doses, can be linked to liver disease.
Acetaminophen is one of the most popular over-the-counter pain relievers and more than 25 billion doses are sold every year. However, strong doses have been linked to toxicity in the liver. And when medication causes liver injury it can be very difficult to diagnose and treat. The new database is ideal as an educational tool for both patients and doctors as it provides relevant and impartial information about what vitamins and minerals can be doing to your liver.
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