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Woman takes 10x dose of turmeric, gets hospitalized for liver damage (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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A 57-year-old woman spent six days in the hospital for severe liver damage after taking daily megadoses of the popular herbal supplement, turmeric, which she had seen touted on social media, according to NBC News.

The woman, Katie Mohan, told the outlet that she had seen a doctor on Instagram suggesting it was useful against inflammation and joint pain. So, she began taking turmeric capsules at a dose of 2,250 mg per day. According to the World Health Organization, an acceptable daily dose is up to 3 mg per kilogram of weight per day—for a 150-pound (68 kg) adult, that would be about 204 mg per day. Mohan was taking more than 10 times that amount.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

Is there even such a thing as a "dose" for something that isn't a medication? She got sick eating way too much of a curry ingredient lol. I imagine people have had similar experiences with ghost peppers.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

My chemistry phd friend often says "The poison is in the dosage". For example you can overdose on water or other necessary substances.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Ahh my old science teacher (from Iowa, living in Australia) had a newspaper article from when he was attending university. A student had passed away after drinking I can't remember how many water shots, one including a goldfish. Decent teaching method in my eyes bringing real life consequences to stupid actions.

The same teacher, post exams would bring in a huge bag of popcorn and show us slides from his personal life. Was pressy interesting seeing snippets of his life. Up until we got a full crowning shot of his wife with their firstborn.

School was strange.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yep, water intoxication is indeed a thing. I first learned about it in a story about a clinic in England that had to install chemical toilets in a facility for treating people with water intoxication addiction issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Oat bran: The Silent Killer

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I suspect an oat bran OD would far from silent. :)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It looks like there are a few papers linking curcumin (a compound in turmeric) and black pepper to some health benefits relating to neurological diseases like alzheimers, but I don't think anything's been definitively proven yet.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0944711318302022

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10187688/

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
183 points (98.9% liked)

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