Psyllium husk (Metamucil®) induced perennial asthma: A case report
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Metamucil®, a soluble fiber supplement for constipation, triggered new onset asthma symptoms in a 44-year-old sensitised nurse after a single inhaled exposure. After the initial event, she had no further exposures. She continued to face challenges with exacerbations, poor asthma control, and chronic cough. Despite 30 years of clinic follow-up, her asthma remained difficult to manage, requiring chronic prednisone. While tapering off corticosteroids, she developed polymyalgia rheumatica. This case underscores that psyllium in Metamucil® can cause reactions ranging from mild to severe, even with a single inhaled exposure, emphasising the need for caution in those without a history of asthma. • Psyllium, commonly used in food products and laxatives, can cause severe allergic reactions, including respiratory distress and anaphylaxis, particularly in healthcare and pharmaceutical workers. • A case study of a nurse revealed that even a single exposure to psyllium can lead to long-term, difficult-to-manage asthma. • To mitigate risks, workplaces should maintain high cleanliness standards, properly handle psyllium, and use granulated forms to reduce inhalation hazards.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.008 | 0.005 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".