Over the counter supplements, including vitamins, sexual enhancements and weight loss aids, are being blamed for 23,000 visits to US emergency rooms each year, according to a decade-long study this week. The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine are based on reports from a nationally representative sample of 63 emergency departments from 2004 through 2013. Weight loss aids were a leading culprit in this age group, causing more than half of emergency room visits, commonly for heart related symptoms including palpitations, chest pain, or irregular heartbeat.

Former Iowa science teacher John Cisna, who says he lost 60 pounds on a six-month regimen of McDonald’s food and daily walks, has sparked outrage among public health advocates for taking his story to U.S. schools on the fast-food chain’s dime. Part of that challenge is winning over youngsters who have seen documentaries such as “Super Size Me” and “Fast Food Nation,” and as a result view McDonald’s food as a contributor to obesity, diabetes and other serious diseases. Cisna has tried to counter that impression, first with a book last year called “My McDonald’s Diet: How I lost 37 pounds in 90 days and became a viral media sensation,” detailing an experiment he said was created with his students.