Alternative medicine
Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 39, Issue 1
Bathija claims to want to expose the dangers of relying on alternative medicine. His lawyer, Edwina Rawson of Charles Russell solicitors in London is quoted in The Independent as saying:
There’s a danger that people will have alternative treatments simply because some celebrities swear by them.
Take herbal remedies, for instance. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of the world’s population uses herbal medicine, including around four million Brits. But how much do we know about the safety of herbs?
According to the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, people assume that since herbs are natural, they cannot do them any harm. But taking herbal medicines has its risks, especially if they are mixed with conventional medicines. St John’s wort, ginkgo biloba, valerian, liquorice, Echinacea all are popular herbal remedies, but each can cause problems if taken alongside certain conventional drugs. Toxicity is also a potential problem. For instance,kava kava was banned in this country in 2002 after being linked to four deaths and almost 70 worldwide cases of suspected liver damage. Certain Chinese and Indian herbal remedies have also been found to be contaminated with dangerous substances.
The problem is that while the toxic profiles of conventional medicines have been extensively documented and publicised, the harmful effects of herbal medicines either taken on their own or in combination with conventional medicines are not known well enough. According to a National Institute of Medical Herbalists survey, 96 per cent of qualified medical herbalists believed that conventional doctors do not know enough about herbs to give their patients advice. And if GPs are relatively in the dark, what hope is there for the average person in the street?
