Herb-Drug Combo Dangers...Or Medical Scare Tactics

I’ve just read, for the umpteenth time, another article on the supposed “dangers” of herb-drug interactions. This one, published in one of the largest-circulation health newsletters in the United States, was titled “How to Avoid Dangerous Herb-Drug Interactions,” with the subtitle of “Harmful Effects Can Occur When Taking Popular Supplements with Commonly Used Medications.”

You'd think that people are dropping like flies. That's just not the case.

Let’s put all this in perspective. Are there potential risks from mixing herbs with prescription drugs? Yes, there are. But there are far greater risks from prescription drugs alone and from taking two or more drugs, a very common situation.

An estimated 106,000 people die each year from medications prescribed in hospitals—where you would think the most rigorous controls would be in place. More than 2 million other hospitalized Americans experience serious reactions to prescription medications. God only knows how many people outside of hospitals have serious side effects or die from their medications.

How many people died last year from taking herb or vitamin supplements? Hmmm...let me see now...wow...not a single person.

Articles on the dangers of herb-drug interactions overplay relatively rare problems. This particular article emphasized problems combining chile pepper extract, ginger, and green tea with drugs. Unknowingly, the author was attacking foods that are major components of many ethnic diets.

Many doctors would like to control all of the variables in a person’s life to reduce the risk of negative interactions. But it’s an impossible task. Go into almost any Mexican restaurant and you'll find meals with chile. Ditto for Asian restaurants and ginger and green tea.

Then there are the variables related to genetics, stress, nutritional deficiencies, and a host of other factors affecting what herbs or drugs do in our bodies.

Trying to control all these variables is an impossible task. Frightening people about rare problems with useful herbs (as condiments or traditional remedies) doesn’t do a lot of good. The real solution, if physicians are willing, is two-fold: one, recognize the dangers that drugs pose by themselves and prescribe them only as a last resort; and, two, to evaluate patients as individuals in the overall context of their diets, meds, and lifestyles.

As always, you can read more about nutrition and health at my main web site, www.nutritionreporter.com.