Buying herbal products can be harmful
Baku, August 9 (AZERTAC). Herbal medicines have become popular in recent years as people seek out natural remedies to better their health, but many of those supplements can cause dangerous side effects when mixed with certain medicines or health conditions, says a new study.
Researchers from the University of Leeds evaluated several different kinds of five commonly used remedies—St. John`s wort, Asian ginseng, Echinacea, garlic and Gingko—from popular pharmacies and health food stores. While typically safe, all five products can cause problems in people who take certain medications or suffer from particular diseases.
The scientists also looked for key safety messages, like the seal from the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine,and warnings about interactions and side effects.
They found that 93 percent of the tested products did not meet standard safety and quality requirements and more than half were marketed as food supplements. Only three of the 68 evaluated products contained an acceptable amount of safety information, researchers said.
"Most of the herbal medicine products studied did not provide key safety information which consumers need for their safe use," researchers wrote in the study, published in the journal, BMC Medicine. "Potential purchasers need to know, in both the short term and the long term, how to purchase herbal products which provide the information they need for the safe use of these products."
Experts noted several adverse effects when combining particular herbal remedies with other medications or health conditions. For example, St. John`s wort can decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills and warfarin, an anticoagulant. Asian ginseng, often used to treat fatigue and stress, should not be taken by diabetics as it can meddle with a person`s blood sugar levels. Gingko and Echinacea can cause severe allergic reactions and even garlic may interfere with drugs that treat HIV.
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