Woman, 71, develops hepatitis after taking turmeric supplements to prevent a stroke

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...king-turmeric-supplements-prevent-stroke.html

Woman, 71, develops hepatitis after taking turmeric supplements to prevent a stroke

Unnamed pensioner had abnormally high enzyme levels in her liver
Doctors were initially baffled as to what was causing her liver damage
Her enzyme levels only declined after she stopped taking the supplements
Just over a year later, her enzyme levels were back to normal without treatment

By Alexandra Thompson Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 06:37 EDT, 18 September 2018 | Updated: 09:39 EDT, 18 September 2018

An elderly woman developed hepatitis after taking turmeric supplements for eight months.

The unnamed 71-year-old, believed to be from Arizona, suffered no symptoms but was referred to a specialist when a routine check-up found she had abnormally high enzyme levels in her liver.

Doctors were baffled as to what was causing the woman's liver damage until she admitted to taking 'low cost' turmeric supplements after reading the staple Indian spice reduces the risk of stroke.

The woman only stopped taking the supplements after her own internet research revealed the bright yellow spice can cause liver damage...

 

[Lizw]

This is a belated reply, but I wanted to note that what the woman was taking was not turmeric, but only a highly concentrated extract of one of the active constituents of turmeric (the curcuminoids), with all the other active and supporting components stripped out. There are multiple potential interactions even with whole turmeric (though liver damage is not among them). High concentrate curcumin extracts have all those same interactions at proportionately higher levels. This woman was taking not only multiple prescribed medications but reportedly also some other supplements. So it's impossible to determine at this point what combination of interactions caused her liver damage, but the high concentration of curcumin certainly had something to do with it.

I mention this only because the misundertanding between turmeric and curcumin has led many people to quote this article as a reason for not using turmeric (which is a food) in their diets.