Yes, wellness products and practices can send people to an emergency department, and the records show it happens regularly. Usually the cause isn't a mysterious new danger. It's a familiar one: too much of something, an unregulated product, or an interaction with a medication.
The story behind this question comes from New South Wales, Australia. NSW Health surveillance data counted 1,180 emergency department presentations associated with peptide use between July 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. Products may claim to contain peptides such as BPC-157, GHK-Cu, TB-500, retatrutide or CJC-1295, none of which is currently approved in Australia for any purpose. Monthly presentations rose from five in July 2025 to more than 217 in September 2026 (NSW Health), an increase Yahoo News Australia put at 4,240% (Yahoo News Australia). About 18% of presentations led to a hospital admission (Newcastle Herald). NSW Health says these products have been marketed through social media (NSW Health).
What does the evidence say about supplements and emergency visits?
The best-known data comes from the United States. A 2015 study in The New England Journal of Medicine, led by Andrew Geller of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with colleagues including FDA researchers, analyzed injury surveillance records from 2004 to 2013. It estimated roughly 23,000 emergency department visits a year for adverse events linked to dietary supplements (23,005, based on 3,667 cases), and about 2,154 hospitalizations a year (NEJM).
The study found that herbal and complementary products accounted for about two-thirds (65.9%) of visits for adverse events from a single supplement, products for weight loss for 25.5%, and products for increased energy for 10.0%. Young adults aged 20 to 34 accounted for 28.0% of visits. Weight-loss or energy products accounted for 71.8% of supplement-related adverse events involving palpitations, chest pain or a racing heartbeat (Europe PMC abstract).
This is surveillance data, not a controlled trial. It shows that harm happens and roughly where. It can't say how likely any one product is to cause it.
How does a "natural" product cause harm?
There are a few repeating mechanisms.
Dose. Natural doesn't mean mild. Turmeric is a kitchen spice, but turmeric products sold as supplements have been linked to liver injury. A 2023 case series from the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network, published in The American Journal of Medicine (Halegoua-DeMarzio and colleagues), described ten such cases, all enrolled since 2011 (Am J Med). Ten cases is a small number. It's a warning signal, not a rate.
Interactions. St John's wort, an herbal product sold for low mood, can weaken the effect of many medications, including some birth control pills and some drugs used after organ transplants. The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health documents this (NCCIH).
Quality. In the United States, the standards for selling supplements are less strict than those for prescription or over-the-counter drugs (NCCIH). NSW Health has also warned that a professional-looking label doesn't prove what a product contains (NSW Health).
Too much of a good thing. Even water can cause harm. Drinking very large amounts in a short time can dilute blood sodium, a condition called hyponatremia. It's rare, but it's the kind of risk a "more is better" trend can create (Main Line Health).
Why do trends outrun the evidence?
Social media rewards a confident story, a before-and-after claim, and a simple routine. It doesn't reward a footnote about dose limits or drug interactions. A practice that works for one person on camera spreads in days. A safety study takes years.
Testimonials aren't worthless, but they have a built-in bias. The people who feel fine keep posting. The people who end up in hospital rarely make a video about it.
What should you check before trying a trend?
Four questions cover most of the risk:
What's the actual claim? If it promises to detox, cleanse, or fix something, look for human studies, not just lab or animal work.
What's the dose? Compare it with what a normal diet provides. Be wary of products far above that.
What else are you taking? Prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, and other supplements can all interact.
Who shouldn't use it? Pregnancy, liver or kidney conditions, and heart conditions often change the answer.
Never stop or swap a prescribed medication because of something you saw online. If a trend conflicts with your treatment, that's a conversation for your prescriber.
When is it an emergency?
Chest pain, fainting, confusion, seizures, severe vomiting, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or trouble breathing after taking something are reasons to seek urgent care. Bring the product or its packaging with you. It helps clinicians work out what happened.
One next step
Before starting any new supplement or protocol, take the product label to a pharmacist and ask one question: "Does this interact with anything I take?"
This article is for general education only and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or other qualified health professional before changing your diet, supplements, medication, or treatment.
Sources
NSW Health, "NSW Health warns of surge in hospital presentations linked to peptide use" (19 October 2026): https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/20261019_00.aspx
Yahoo News Australia, "Viral 'wellness' trend behind ED surge": https://au.news.yahoo.com/viral-wellness-trend-behind-ed-041133551.html
Newcastle Herald, "NSW Health warning as unapproved peptide hospital visits soar": https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/9370838/nsw-health-warning-as-unapproved-peptide-hospital-visits-soar/
Geller AI, et al. (2015). "Emergency Department Visits for Adverse Events Related to Dietary Supplements." The New England Journal of Medicine, 373:1531–1540. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1504267
Halegoua-DeMarzio D, et al. (2023). "Liver Injury Associated with Turmeric—A Growing Problem: Ten Cases from the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network." The American Journal of Medicine, 136(2):200-206 (published online October 2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2022.09.026
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). "St. John's Wort and Depression: In Depth." https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/st-johns-wort-and-depression-in-depth
Main Line Health, "What is water intoxication?" (2023): https://www.mainlinehealth.org/blog/water-intoxication
Our take
This take is opinion, not professional advice.
The Savvy Rabbits Staff
Our editors' take
The article's most useful move is its caution about what surveillance data can show. The 2015 analysis by Andrew Geller and colleagues counted emergency visits that were linked to supplements. That tells us harm occurs and roughly where. It cannot tell us how likely any single product is to cause it, because nobody knows how many people took the product and felt nothing. The turmeric liver cases work the same way: ten cases is a signal worth checking, not a rate. The same goes for the NSW peptide figures. A jump in emergency presentations is worth taking seriously, but it counts the people who got sick, not the many who took the same products. The pharmacist question is sound because interactions are predictable in a way individual reactions are not; St John's wort, for example, can weaken some birth control pills.
