A MAN DEVELOPED severe liver injury after taking excessive amounts of the Epsom salts to dissolve his gallstones.
On the advice of naturopathy practitioner, the 38-year-old man was advised to take three tablespoons of Epsom salt with lukewarm water for 15 days for ‘stone dissolution’, according to medical journal BMJ Case Reports.
Epsom salt is a naturally occurring pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate which comes from Epsom in Surrey, England. It is known to have numerous health benefits, such as soothing sore muscles.
The British Medical Journal reports that after the man in India ingested the Epsom salt, he developed a loss of appetite and darkening of the urine from the twelfth day of the treatment and jaundice from the second day after treatment completion.
There was no evidence of underlying sepsis and other organ failures, but a liver biopsy later revealed inflammation and vascular changes suggestive of acute drug-induced liver injury.
Epsom salts overuse
Common adverse effects of Epsom salt overuse include diarrhoea, low blood pressure, renal injury and cardiac arrhythmias.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, there are proposals to crack down on homeopaths, faith healers and fake medical practitioners targeting vulnerable people with treatments that can prove harmful.
Fine Gael’s Kate O’Connell, who is also a pharmacist, said she wants to propose laws that would make it a crime to advertise or offer a cure for cancer or other chronic illnesses with methods that have not passed medical trials.
“Ireland is a hotbed for this kind of stuff because we have nothing to stop it,” O’Connell told TheJournal.ie.
“It ranges from all sorts of practices, from telling people to take Epsom salts for gallstones, which is very dangerous and not safe, to more serious elements such as cancer patients being told to do x, y, or z,” she said.
“Almost all cancer patients I have come across have been targeted in some way by alternative therapies,” O’Connell added.
Dr David Robert Grimes, cancer researcher with Queen’s University Belfast and Oxford University, told TheJournal.ie that the case mentioned above, and other far more serious cases, often go unreported.
“It really is the tip of the iceberg to what is going on,” said Dr Grimes, who explained “complementary therapies” often undermine medical treatments.
“Often these cases are under-reported because maybe the patient would not have survived anyway. These kind of cases are happening all the time,” he said, adding that just a few months ago there were reports that people were giving their children bleach to cure autism.
Dr Grimes said the issue is a major bugbear of his, due to the level of harm it can cause.
‘What’s the harm?’
He said it is frustrating to be asked the question, “sure, what’s the harm?”
“What harm is there in taking homeopathy for cancer, it’s just water, or just some supplement or stupid diet? It can cause a lot of harm,” he said.
It becomes a problem for the patient who changes their mindset that these alternative therapies are the only thing that is helping them and they end up dropping out of their conventional treatment plans, because real treatment can be tough and have bad side effects, he explained.
Dr Grimes said he hoped any new laws introduced would ban dangerous treatments prescribed by unqualified practioneers.
Ireland is quite the anomaly in Europe, he said, pointing out that many other countries such as Sweden have strict regulations as regards prescribing treatments.
In the UK, anyone advertising or offering bogus cancer cures can be jailed for three months or fined.
He said proliferation of “crank” treatments has got worse over the years with the advent of social media.
Years ago, adverts would be taken out in newspapers and other publications, which would be regulated or taken down by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI).
However, now people are selling their services on social media sites, which are a lot more difficult to regulate, said Dr Grimes.
“Social media really has made things a lot worse,” he added.
The selling of services and treatments online is almost impossible to police, explained O’Connell, but she said other jurisdictions have been able to deal with the problem.
“This has been dealt with in other countries, and we can deal with it too. I think the jail time and fines is sufficient enough to deter people from these practices,” she said, adding that people, who are seeking some sort of hope in the face of great odds will often pay a lot of money for these treatments.
“People will pay for anything to get what they see as extra time,” she warned.
“Profiteering from people’s vulnerabilities and illnesses is happening – it is a free for all in Ireland and it needs to end,” concluded O’Connell.
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