Sunday, June 10, 2007

Too much bengay killed a high school track star

In April, a high school girl in the running-related newsgroup I subscribed to wrote that one of her best friends and track team mates passed away suddenly. Today, I read that this girl died of overdose of topical Bengay or Icyhot; medical examiners found it in her blood. Death from overdose is extremely rare except when ingested. But it seemed like she chronically and over time applied too much of it to her skin, and it got absorbed into her body.

This is unnerving and sad for me. What high school runner never overused numbing creams like Bengay? I mean, that stuff was around at every meet and practice. Who would've known it could kill a healthy person? I'm not sure what to make of this. In the mean time, reports say that the only warning signs she had were fatigue and shortness of breath, and nausea the day before -- pretty common symptoms. So, if you use a lot of Bengay and you have these symptoms, they might be more related than previously thought.

Anyway, to read more:

http://www.silive.com/siadvance/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1181323808153710.xml&coll=1

http://www.silive.com/siadvance/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1181371506294920.xml&coll=1

1 comment:

Teacher Activist said...

I saw a blurb in the daily news today about this. It is very disturbing! It lead to a discussion about all the "bad" stuff in medications and even vitamins that are being found now. Scary stuff! Natural is best but boy did I used to love ben-gay!