# article on herbal remedies



## california123 (Jun 8, 2003)

I found this article on MSNBCnews.com and thought it might be worth posting.Herbal remediesï¿½ claims questioned Report: Dietary supplements should be regulated as drugs CHICAGO, Sept. 17 ï¿½ The editor of a leading U.S. medical journal called Tuesday for tighter regulation of herbal remedies because of ï¿½potentially misleadingï¿½ health claims made by distributors of the products. ï¿½The study ... provides evidence for the easily accessible and widespread potentially misleading claims made by vendors of herbal products on the Internet.ï¿½ ï¿½ DR. CATHERINE DEANGELISEditor, Journal of the American Medical Association ï¿½BECAUSE MANY dietary supplements have or promote biological activity, they must be considered active drugs and regulated as such,ï¿½ wrote Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.Classified since 1994 by federal regulators as untested dietary supplements, U.S. sales of such popular herbal remedies such as ginkgo biloba, St. Johnï¿½s wort, echinacea, ginseng, garlic, saw palmetto and kava kava have risen nearly fivefold in the past decade to $18 billion in 2001, a study appearing in the same journal said.Researchers Charles Morris and Jerry Avorn of Bostonï¿½s Brigham and Womenï¿½s Hospital analyzed hundreds of Web sites pertaining to health-related uses of herbal products. After linking to vendorsï¿½ sites, they found four out of five made one or more health claims and half of those omitted the standard Food and Drug Administration disclaimer the product ï¿½is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.ï¿½ ï¿½The study ... provides evidence for the easily accessible and widespread potentially misleading claims made by vendors of herbal products on the Internet,ï¿½ DeAngelis wrote in her editorial.Another study in the journal found that St. Johnï¿½s wort, taken to treat depression, sped up the elimination from the body of a common class of pharmaceutical drugs.ï¿½These findings underscore the potential inherent problems associated with the widespread practice of using herbal products (at the same time) with conventional medications,ï¿½ wrote John Markowitz from the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston. Herbal remedies have also come under scrutiny recently because of deaths linked to high-profile athletesï¿½ use of the herbal stimulant ephedra.The editorial said the solution was greater regulation, although that would increase the FDAï¿½s workload. ï¿½The U.S. public deserves to have the funding and resources allocated for their protection,ï¿½ DeAngelis wrote.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

It's fine for the FDA to enforce the publication of the standard disclaimer; but it would be better if the mechanisms whereby these things work were better studied. I have been relieved of so many conditions--including d and GERD--through the use of a couple of supplements that I am not likely to quit them to turn to the meds I read about here, unless they are life threatening. (After five years of no side effects I am not too worried about that.)Further on the subject, the general disinterest from the medical community toward these types of testimonials may well be tracible more to the profit motive than to a real interest in health recovery. I use a combination of flavonoids to treat my symptoms. I go once a day and have not had any digestive problems--other than infrequent, normal ones--for years. I bet I am not the only one who would benefit from this type of treatment.


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