WISCONSIN (WAOW) — Over 80,000 herbal and dietary supplements are on the market and it is a billion dollar industry.

Experts at the University of Michigan said there are risks with these supplements consumers should be aware of including liver damage.

That is according to a recent study they did with herbal supplements turmeric, green tea and ashwagandha.

In rare cases the liver damage was fatal.

U-M Health hepatologist Dr. Robert Fontana said turmeric based on the studies and what hepatologists at the University of Michigan saw in clinical practice led to, “Quite significant injury, people getting hospitalized, developing jaundice,” and “the incidence of that is actually on the rise.”

Many of these products are over the counter.

They also have attractive labels with ingredients listed on the side similar to medications.

That can cause a lot of confusion amongst people buying them.

Consumers do not realize they have not been tested for safety or efficacy and because these supplements are botanical and come from plants, that complicates matters even more.

“The issue with those is that it can often times be variable from batch to batch and often times we don’t know exactly what’s in each particular botanical,” said Fontana.

Another problem is patients do not share over the counter products they take with their doctors because they might forget or might not be asked.

Then, doctors can not give them an expert opinion or evaluate a supplement’s safety.

U-Mich experts said they do not want to cause too much alarm with these findings, but they do want people as well as providers to know these supplements can cause adverse affects in the liver in rare cases.