Doctors believe a health supplement is to blame for a 23-year-old Texas woman's sudden, acute liver failure.
Emily Goss said that in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, she had each day been taking about four pills containing an herbal supplement meant to support hormonal balance, weight management and fertility.
Goss’ case is not the first documented instance of supplements causing damage to the liver and other internal organs. Herbal and dietary supplements-induced liver injury now accounts for 20 percent of cases of hepatotoxicity in the U.S.
“Currently, however, the majority of HDS-associated liver injur[ies] are due to multi-ingredient nutritional supplements, and the component responsible for the toxicity is usually unknown or can only be suspected,” according to a 2016 study published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.