A 44-year-old woman in Scotland is left with brain damage after being hospitalised with acute liver failure, which doctors suspect was caused by a low-cost supplement promoted on TikTok. Lois Kinder took a coffee and ingested two gummies a day containing the Asian herb ashwagandha for about a year, saying she used them to support her overall wellbeing.
Reports describe her condition as serious and linked to the supplement by medical staff, though the case details and any definitive testing results are not presented consistently across outlets. Both sources focus on the same suspected connection: a “trending” £5 product sold as gummies and widely discussed on social media. Neither article indicates that all causation is formally proven, but both describe the clinical outcome—acute liver failure and lasting effects—alongside the suspected ingredient and usage pattern.
The outlets differ mainly in emphasis and phrasing, with one highlighting the brain damage outcome prominently and the other focusing on the acute liver failure diagnosis and doctors’ suspicion regarding ashwagandha.
