My wife is an M.D. trained in pharmaceutical medicine. She prescribes drugs every day, but also recommends medicinal herbs. In our medicine cabinet, we stock drugs and herbs, but we use more of the latter. When we catch colds, we prefer echinacea and andrographis (immune-boosting herbs proven to speed recovery), ginseng (ditto), licorice root (for sore throat), tea or coffee (caffeine helps relieve stuffed nose and chest congestion), eucalyptus lozenges (for cough), and pelargonium (if post-cold bronchitis develops).
Thirty years ago, when I started writing about herbal remedies, the vast majority of M.D.s (my wife included) never recommended herbs over drugs. Today, doctors are increasingly open to recommending nondrug alternatives given reasonable evidence of safety and effectiveness.
Unfortunately, many medical authorities still disparage medicinal herbs. Critics make four accusations: Herbs are ineffective, unsafe, unregulated and, when they work, they’re not as strong as drugs.
Ineffective? Hardly. As I document in my book, The New Healing Herbs, thousands of studies confirm the effectiveness of medicinal herbs for hundreds of conditions.
Unsafe? Like drugs, medicinal herbs can cause harm. Anything that’s pharmacologically active can. To ensure safety, purchase a guide that emphasizes safety, such as my book or the American Botanical Council’s ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs, or check out the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database.
Anyone who calls herbs hazardous is totally misinformed. Every year the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) compiles statistics on accidental deaths from drugs, herbs, vitamins, and other supplements. The AAPCC’s most recent report (2008) records 1,756 accidental poisoning deaths. How many were attributable to medicinal herbs? Zero. In every accidental death caused by a pharmacological agent, the culprit was a pharmaceutical. And it’s been that way for many years. Herbs are safer than drugs.
University of Toronto researchers combed 30 years of medical literature (1966 to 1996) for reports of drug side effects in hospital patients. Extrapolating from the 39 most rigorous studies, they estimated that drug side effects kill an astonishing 106,000 U.S. hospital patients per year and cause 2.2 million serious, nonfatal problems. This makes drug side effects the nation’s fourth leading cause of death. The true number of drug-caused injuries is undoubtedly higher; this study focused solely on hospital patients, not the public. Note: These deaths didn’t result from medical errors; they occurred when drugs were administered as approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Unregulated? Before approving new drugs, the FDA requires drugmakers to prove them safe and effective. Such tests aren’t required of herbs, leading to claims that herbs are unregulated and, by implication, unsafe. But as we’ve seen, the supposedly stringent regulation of drugs hasn’t kept them from causing great harm.
In addition, preapproval studies typically involve only a few thousand people. Many side effects — some serious — only turn up in one user in 10,000 to 50,000, or more. These problems don’t emerge until the drug is widely used by people unaware that they are guinea pigs. Because so many new side effects turn up during the five years after approval, the FDA requires drugmakers to rewrite the warning labels of half of new drugs. Yes, drugs are regulated more stringently than herbs, but regulation doesn’t guarantee safety. Hundreds of studies show that, when compared head-to-head with herbs, drugs almost always cause more side effects. The vast majority of medicinal herbs have been used for centuries, standing the test of time.
Not as strong? Dose for dose, yes, herbs aren’t as strong as drugs. Willow bark contains a natural form of aspirin, but the standard dose (1 to 2 cups of tea or 1 to 2 teaspoons of tincture) doesn’t relieve pain as well as a standard dose of aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), or naproxen (Aleve). As a result, critics dismiss herbs as medicinal wimps.
Rather than herbs being too weak, many drugs are too strong, causing side effects ranging from annoying to insufferable. Do no harm is the first axiom of medicine. This means that treatment should begin at the lowest possible effective dose. Why use a bulldozer if a broom suffices? Herbs should be prescribed first. Only those who truly need stronger medicine should use drugs, which cost more and have a greater risk of side effects. Unfortunately, American medicine does the opposite. Doctors prescribe drugs first, and only when the drugs are intolerable do some doctors suggest herbs. We don’t need medicine that’s stronger. We need medicine that’s smarter. For many common ills, herbs are cheaper and smarter.
If you’d like to try herbs instead of drugs, our Herbal Remedies for Common Ailments chart is a good place to start. These herbs have been included because of the strong clinical evidence of their efficacy.
Michael Castleman is one of the nation’s leading health writers, according to Library Journal.
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I was disappointed with this article. From the title I was expecting to find 75 remedies but instead it was more a push to buy this authors book.
So....what are the 75 safe & effective herbal remedies? I clicked in the link that brought me here expecting to find a list of herbal remedies, not an article saying a bunch of stuff I already know and trying to sell some guy's books. I was also hoping to find a list of 75 herbs that would include things I HAVEN'T heard about....most people with ears and an IQ above 40 have known about willow bark tea since, oh I dunno, about the time we came down out of the trees and started walking upright maybe???
There is a bill in the EU being put through in April 2011 which would ban buying and selling of all herbal remedies and related products. You can fight this bill here http://www.anh-europe.org/ Please support us in the EU. Thanks
Dan I would like to comment on your statement of potentcy. The standard for pharmaceuticals is measured in miligrams which varies in potentcy by numbers obviously the higher the number, the higher the dosage, the stronger the potentcy. The higher the miligram for one person could kill another. For example I'm on 10 miligrams of methadone this same dosage given to you could possibly put you in the hospital with an overdose causing some kind of complication. What I'm trying to get at is how does one measure the potency of herbal medicine?
While I'm overall a fan of herbal remedies, the risks to trying it yourself cannot easily be overstated. Some medicinal herbs look a lot like a lethally toxic plant. And there can be extreme reactions between prescription medications and herbs: the combination of St. John's Wort and some prescription anti-depressants has been known to cause liver-failure! If you're going to look at herbal remedies, find an expert and talk to your doctor. That herbal may be just what you need, but it also might cause a lot of damage, just like any other medication. When your doctor asks are you taking any over-the-counter medications, include whatever herbs you're taking: it really does matter, and you could wind up in a terrible situation if you don't tell them. Now... that said, some herbal remedies are actually more effective than the equivalent medications. Taking the example of St. John's Wort again, I've met a few people who had better results with that than with pharmaceuticals. There have been real, double-blind, controlled studies on some herbs, and they generally turn out to work well, so it's not all junk science. It's just important to do your own research before you try to make sure you don't run into a known problem.