Okay, so you’re fat, and you’re determined to take off the extra pounds. But, just how desperate are you to lose weight? Some choose to do it the right way. And others, well, they move too fast, with many making a trip to the ER.
Dietary supplements for example, might promise to help you lose weight, build muscle, and boost energy, but they could also send you to the emergency room. According to a new study from the FDA and CDC, some 23,000 ER visits each year are attributed to everything from herbal pills to vitamins that cause cardiovascular problems, severe allergic reactions, and vomiting, particularly in young adults. They tracked ER visits from 63 hospitals over 10 years, per the New York Times and Time, and found about 10% of patients needed to be hospitalized; the study didn’t review whether any deaths occurred. Though prescription drugs send 30 times as many people to the ER annually, most are older adults; 28% of people who visited the ER because of supplements were 20 to 34, and half of those visits involved weight-loss or energy aids, per NBC News.
So, while you might be in a rush to slip into that size 8-10, or lose the belly fat in 30 days, think about whether possibly losing your life in the interim is worth the temporary results not losing weight the healthy way will give you.