How Safe Are Herbal Remedies?
While many people now take herbal remedies, dietary supplements, or other alternative medicines, New England Journal of Medicine published an article Thursday saying that these treatments should be held to the same rigorous standards as conventional medicines, CBS News Health Correspondent Dr. Emily Senay reports.
Dangers can lurk in dietary supplements, and those who are looking into using them need to check for scientific data to back up the products' claims, medical experts say.
"They may be getting something that's harmless, they may be getting something that is harmful. They may be getting a combination of things that have unknown interactions. They simply don't know what they're getting," says Dr. Marcia Angell of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Unlike prescription drugs and treatments, dietary supplements are not regulated by the government. A 1994 Congressional act allows them to be sold without data to prove whether these supplements work. That law makes taking such treatments a bit of a gamble.
The Journal also has reported instances where dietary supplements were contaminated or cautioned very serious side effects.
Last year, Americans spent more than $3 billion on herbal remedies to treat everything from the common cold to cancer.
Researchers at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey studied an herbal combination used by some patients with prostate cancer. They found that the drug had potent hormonal side effects. In addition, researchers found that the different batches of PC-SPES were not equally potent.
The study concludes that further testing would be needed to determine the drug's overall safety, as well as how it would interact with conventional therapies. The lack of quality control in the batches alerted scientists that proper dosage needed to be determined and regulated.
Currently, there are no federal regulations that establish specific criteria for the purity and manufacturing process of dietary supplements, says CBS News Health Contributor Dr. Bernadine Healy.
However, some herbal remedies have shown promise in studies as effective treatments. Researchers are finding a growing body of evidence indicating that gingko biloba may improve memory for Alzheimer patients, saw palmetto may treat benign prostate enlargement, and St. John's wort may ease symptoms of mild to moderate depression. The National Institutes of Health is funding a study to determine how well St. John's wort treats depression.
Healy advises that people who are interested in taking alternative medicines consult their doctor first, especially if they are already taking other treatments.
Reported by Dr. Emily Senay