Journal of Hepatology
Volume 47, Issue 4 , Pages 444-446 , October 2007

Slimming at all costs: Herbalife®-induced liver injury

  • Felix Stickel

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationTel.: +41 31 632 8715; fax: +41 31 632 4997.

References 

  1. Kessler RC, Davis RB, Foster DF, Van Rompay MI, Walters EE, Wilkey SA, et al. Long-term trends in the use of complementary and alternative medical therapies in the United States. Ann Intern Med. 2001;135:262–268
  2. Tindle HA, Davis RB, Phillips RS, Eisenberg DM. Trends in use of complementary and alternative medicine by US adults: 1997–2002. Altern Ther Health Med. 2005;11:42–49
  3. Mokdad AH, Serdula MK, Dietz WH, Bowman BA, Marks JS, Koplan JP. The spread of the obesity epidemic in the United States, 1991–1998. JAMA. 1999;282:1519–1522
  4. Stickel F, Patsenker E, Schuppan D. Herbal hepatotoxicity. J Hepatol. 2005;43:901–910
  5. Bjelakovic G, Nagorni A, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Bjelakovic M, Gluud C. Meta-analysis: antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention of colorectal adenoma. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2006;24:281–291
  6. Stickel F, Schuppan D. Herbal medicines in the treatment of liver diseases. Dig Liv Dis. 2007;39:293–304
  7. Ashar BH, Rice TN, Sisson SD. Physician‘s understanding of the regulation of dietary supplements. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:966–969
  8. Favreau JT, Ryu ML, Braunstein G, Orshansky G, Park SS, Coody GL, et al. Severe hepatotoxicity associated with the dietary supplement LipoKinetix. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136:590–595
  9. Stevens T, Qadri A, Zein NN. Two patients with acute liver injury associated with use of the herbal weight-loss supplement Hydroxycut. Ann Intern Med. 2005;142:477–478
  10. Bjornsson E, Olsson R. Serious adverse liver reactions associated with herbal weight-loss supplements. J Hepatol. 2007;47:295–297
  11. Elinav E, Pinsker G, Safadi R, Pappo O, Bromberg M, Anis E, et al. Association between consumption of Herbalife® nutritional supplements and acute hepatotoxicity. J Hepatol. 2007;47:514–520
  12. Schoepfer AM, Engel A, Fattinger K, Marbet UA, Criblez D, Reichen J, et al. Herbal does not mean innocuous: Ten cases of severe hepatotoxicity associated with dietary supplements from Herbalife® products. J Hepatol. 2007;47:521–526
  13. Benichou C, Uclaf R. Criteria of drug-induced liver disorders: report of an international consensus meeting. J Hepatol. 1990;11:272–276
  14. http://www.who-umc.org/DynPage,aspx?id=22682.
  15. Lucena MI, Camargo R, Andrade RJ, Perez-Sanchez CJ, De la Cuesta FS. Comparison of two clinical scales for causality assessment in hepatotoxicity. Hepatology. 2001;33:123–130
  16. Mahler H, Pasi A, Kramer JM, Schulte P, Scoging AC, Bär W, et al. Fulminant liver failure in association with the emetic toxin of Bacillus cereus. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:1142–1148
  17. De Smet PA. Herbal remedies. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:2046–2056
  18. Bjornsson E, Olsson R. Outcome and prognostic markers in severe drug-induced liver disease. Hepatology. 2005;42:481–489

☆ The author declared that he does not have anything to disclose regarding funding or conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript.

PII: S0168-8278(07)00406-0

doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2007.07.010

Journal of Hepatology
Volume 47, Issue 4 , Pages 444-446 , October 2007

Article Tools