The wife of California congressman Tom McClintock reportedly died after consuming a herbal remedy for weight loss and diabetes, among other ailments, new report says.
Lori McClintock, 61, was found to have taken white mulberry leaf – the herbal remedy – before her death in December 2021 at the couple’s home in northern California, according to KHN.
The cause of death listed in the report was dehydration due to gastroenteritis caused by “adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion,” a report from the Sacramento County coroner that is dated March 10 but was not immediately released to the public showed.
The document, along with an autopsy report and an amended death certificate containing an updated cause of death, was first released in July 2022.
The Republican congressman first found his 61-year-old wife unresponsive in their California home on Dec. 15, 2021, after voting in Congress the night before and returning from Washington, D.C.
The report said a “partially intact” white mulberry leaf was found in her stomach.
Until now, the cause of her death had not been reported.
Her death highlights the dangers of dietary supplements and herbal remedies, a $54 billion industry in the United States and one that experts say needs more government scrutiny, CBS News reported.
Daniel Fabricant, CEO and president of the Natural Products Association, which represents the dietary supplements industry, questioned whether McClintock’s death was related to a supplement.
Fabricant, who oversaw dietary supplements at the FDA during the Obama administration, said: “It’s completely speculative. There’s a science to this. It’s not just what a coroner feels.
“People, unfortunately, pass from dehydration every day, and there’s a lot of different reasons and a lot of different causes.”
Fabricant said it would have been ideal had the coroner or the family reported her death to the FDA so the agency could have launched an investigation.
