Negative reactions to dietary supplements are sending tens of thousands of people to emergency departments across America, a new study has warned.

More than 23,000 visits occur due to complications, including heart palpitations, chest pain and tachycardia - a faster than normal heart rate - according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

Scientists from the two government bodies warned of those visits, 2,154 patients are admitted to hospital each year.

Weight-loss supplements and those designed to boost energy levels were found to account for 71.8 per cent of all adverse complications, with 58 per cent of those, aged 20 to 34 years old. 

Dr Andrew Geller, lead author of the study, and medical officer in the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion told CBS News: 'People may not realise dietary supplements can cause adverse effects but each year thousands of people are treated in emergency departments because of adverse events related to these supplements.'

The health supplement market is a lucrative one, flush with pills and powders.

Supplement products have increased dramatically in the US, from around 4,000 types in 1994 to more than 55,000 in 2012, the report notes.

Roughly half of all Americans said they have used the products at least once in the past month - the most common being vitamins.

But despite their prevalence, dietary supplements do not have to have federal FDA approval before they are sold, nor do they get the kind of testing prescription drugs do.

However, the FDA does have the powers to order a product off the market if it is found to be unsafe.

Reliable information on the serious side-effects from supplements is difficult to come by.

As a result, researchers at the CDC and FDA studied emergency department records from 2004 to 2013 at 63 different hospitals deemed to be nationally representative.

Based on the 3,667 cases they identified, the scientists have estimated 23,000 visits to emergency departments each year are the result of complications from taking health supplements.

The report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, states: 'Such visits commonly involve cardiovascular manifestations from weight-loss or energy products among young adults and swallowing problems, often associated with micronutrients, among older adults.'

Supplements designed to aid weight-loss or boost energy levels accounted for the majority of all visits.

The products caused 72 per cent of complications, typically involving the heart, and they were culprits in more than half of all visits among patients aged five to 34.

In many cases, unsupervised children were the ones admitted to hospital, displaying complications having taken the tablets.

Dr Geller said: 'More than 20 percent of emergency room visits were young children getting into supplements meant for somebody else.' 

Bodybuilding and sexual-enhancement products also led to cardiac symptoms, the researchers found.

In adults aged 65 and over, choking and difficulty swallowing the pills caused 37.6 per cent of all visits to emergency departments.

Steve Mister, president of the trade group Council for Responsible Nutrition, said though the report contains numbers that 'sound big, they really aren't'.

'The risks are so, so small,' he added, when you consider the millions of people who take supplements.

For those who regularly take supplements the advise is to ask your doctor before taking them.

Some can interfere with other medicines, and certain vitamins, especially in high doses are known to be harmful, such as beta-carotene and vitamin A for smokers.