California Rep Tom McClintock’s realtor wife Lori died after taking a herbal weight loss treatment
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California Rep Tom McClintock’s realtor wife Lori, 61, died after taking a herbal weight loss treatment white mulberry leaf, autopsy finds
- Tom McClintock had returned from Washington DC after voting in Congress
- He found his wife unresponsive in their Elk Grove home on December 15, 2021
- She had been wrapping gifts to make ‘the best family Christmas ever’, Tom said
- An autopsy found she had died from dehydration after a stomach inflammation
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The wife of a California congressman died after taking a herbal remedy for weight loss, an autopsy has found.
Lori McClintock — wife of California representative Tom McClintock — was found dead in her home last December, with the autopsy report only coming to light on Wednesday.
Lori, 61, died of dehydration due to gastroenteritis, a common condition that causes diarrhea and vomiting.
The autopsy report, obtained by KHN, revealed her stomach was inflamed because of ‘adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion’.
Tom McClintock, pictured left, returned from Washington DC after voting in Congress He found his wife Lori, pictured right, unresponsive in their Elk Grove home on December 15, 2021
The Facebook announcement was posted on Congressman Tom McClintock’s official page four days after his wife’s passing
The leaves and fruit of the white mulberry tree is a Chinese herbal remedy sold across the US, with venders claiming immune system benefits.
The remedy comes as a pill or a powder, or consumers can brew the leaves as an herbal tea.
Lori had only just started a new job in a Sacramento real estate office, and had been dieting before the incident.
‘She just joined a gym,’ KHN reported Tom as saying. ‘At home, she was counting down the days to Christmas, wrapping all the gifts and making all the plans to make it the best family Christmas ever, and it would have been.’
McClintock, 66, was returning from Washington DC, after voting in Congress the night before.
He found his wife unresponsive in their Elk Grove home on December 15, 2021.
She is survived by their daughter Shannah and son Justin.
‘Our family’s darkest day and most terrible nightmare has come. Lori is gone,’ the congressman wrote in December,’ adding that the family’s ‘world is shattered’.
Dr. D’Michelle DuPre, a former forensic pathologist in South Carolina, said that white mulberry leaves ‘do tend to cause dehydration, and part of the uses for that can be to help someone lose weight, mostly through fluid loss, which in this case was just kind of excessive.’
Teas and herbal remedies used for weight loss can cause dehydration as they make your bowels move more frequently, removing the water retained in the body. If the person is then not re-hydrating, they risk organ failure linked to being dehydrated.
McClintock, a member of the republican party, ran as the governor of California on the 2003 recall election, and for lieutenant governor in the 2006 election.
Approximately 148 people reported white mulberry plant ingestion to poison control officials nationally, mostly in cases where children had ingested it, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
Dietary supplements and herbal remedies is a $54billion industry, according to the Council of Responsible Nutrition.
The same source says around 80% of Americans use dietary supplements.
The Congressman and his wife Lori, along with their daughter Shannah and son Justin, are pictured in 2003 during happier times in Sacramento