Lisa Barger's Alternative Medicine

Notice all the anti-herb stories in the news lately? I’m not talking about scientific studies that find herbs and herbal supplements ineffective—I’m talking about all the news stories that seem to go out of their way to portray those products in the most scary way possible.

Last week we had the “study” that went out of its way to criticize herbs even though some of the “herbs” weren’t actually herbs at all. “Don’t mix herbs with grapefruit juice,” was its message even though we’re pretty sure most herbalists wouldn’t consider fruit juice an “herb” even under the widest herbal umbrella.

And that gem followed on the heels of a piece in one of this nation’s major newspapers that rattled on and on about the dizzying display of “dubious” products to be found on the shelves of your local natural foods market. Again, the author couldn’t even be bothered to separate “herbal” remedies from the non-herbals and actually lumped charcoal—which has legitimate mainstream medical uses—in with the “herbs”. Heck, that author wouldn’t even do basic fact-checking—she simply mused that she wondered “what charcoal is for”.

Now, today, comes word from Australia that too many of us who use herbs and herbal products are, once again, just too stupid to realize that slapping a “natural” label on something doesn’t guarantee its safety.

We’d be appreciative if stories like these were (first of all) factual and (second) actually useful. But these stories and the people who author them simply vomit up the same old scary warnings found on thousands of web sites … don’t take St. John’s wort with birth control pills … garlic thins blood so don’t take it with blood thinners.

It’s an incredibly transparent attempt to ride the herbal bandwagon. And it’s insulting to every one of the millions of Americans who use herbs deliberately, responsibly and safely.

Gallstones show up in about 30% of all women and perhaps as many as 15% of all men but a new study finds that regular vigorous exercise can help keep these painful formations from developing in the first place.

Gallstones form in your gallbladder and most are made of cholesterol that has hardened naturally. Most gallstones stay put in your gallbladder and never cause any problems at all. However sometimes they cause inflammation, infection and severe pain. Thousands of Americans have their gallbladders removed every year because of them.

But the researchers behind this new study say that if we all went from our current level of physical activity to just one level higher, we could reduce our risk of developing gallstones by about 17%. What does that actually mean? Well, let’s say you’re a person who sits at a desk all day and gets essentially no real exercise. If you were to find enough time to spend just 30 minutes walking on a treadmill, that might be enough, these scientists say, to reduce your risk of gallstones.

And if you were to exercise about an hour a day—even if you lived an otherwise “sedentary” life—your risk might be reduced by as much as 70%.

So what else can you do to prevent gallstones? Well the researchers behind this study also looked at data on alcohol consumption. They found that “moderate” drinking reduced the risk of gallstones by as much as 30%.

Source:

Banim, P., et al. (2010). Physical activity reduces the risk of symptomatic gallstones: a prospective cohort study. European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

Most of us who include herbs and herbal supplements in our daily routines do so in an effort to maximize our health and, when appropriate, reduce our dependency on pharmaceutical drugs. But a new study of asthma patients finds that for many people, their herbal use actually encourages them to misuse their potentially life-saving medications.

For this study researchers talked to 326 asthma patients receiving care at “inner city” clinics and interviewed them about their herb use and their adherence to their prescribed drug schedules. What the researchers found was that the patients who used herbs to self-treat their asthma were less likely to take their asthma medications on a regular basis.

Now, up to this point, no one is going to be surprised. Asthma medications have long-term risks and the folks who take them have that pounded into their heads by their doctors. And worry about side-effects and long-term risks is the number one reason the people in this survey turned to herbal supplements in the first place.

What’s really troubling here is that the herb users didn’t achieve better results with herbs. This study found that herb users didn’t just use herbs to augment their prescriptions; they used herbs to replace them. And the results were that these folks had far less control over their asthma than the people who used mainstream asthma medications only.

Source:

Roy, A., et al. (2010). Use of herbal remedies and adherence to inhaled corticosteroids among inner-city asthmatic patients. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.