Today we like to be in charge of our recovery, which may include self-medication or alternative therapies. I’m glad that consumers are beginning to take a proactive attitude toward educating themselves about the options available to them. However, I worry about desperation being taken advantage of by misleading advertising claims.

Health supplements and “natural” medicines (nutraceuticals) are manufactured by commercial ventures intent on profit - not unlike pharmaceutical companies - except these products are not regulated by the FDA. Since supplements are not regulated by the FDA, there are cases where the product does not contain active ingredients claimed by the label. Recent attention over serious and fatal adverse events from ephedrine (contained in various weight loss supplements) highlights the potential danger of herbal supplements. Please check out the Quackwatch Home Page, where you will find questionable claims from cancer treatments to psychotherapy.

I remembered as a child (and iving in Taiwan), I would visit the corner apothecary. My mother relied on traditional chinese herbal medicine for ailments. We treated those as medicine, taken according to the herbalist’s instructions. Even so, there are questionable benefits to some of the ingredients comprising these herbal remedies. The western society has assumed a role of self-medication, often with remedies promising to be natural and “safe”. I’m encouraged about being proactive in restoring our health, but I worry about not questioning the truth in most health-related claims.

We often don’t think of plants as potently medicinal. We may even decide, “it’s herbal - how bad can it be?” The strongest medicines have come from plants. Aspirin was first discovered from the bark of the yew tree (active compound: salicylate). Aspirin is used as an analgesic and even prophylaxis for coronary incidents because of blood-thinning properties - that’s strong stuff. The cancer drug, paclitaxel also comes from the bark of the pacific yew tree. Perhaps it is time to accept herbal remedies as strong medicines warranting the same precautions as medicines made in a lab. This means accepting that natural medicines can Heal but can also Harm.

To put things into perspective, a doctor once said “Poison ivy is completely natural, but I wouldn’t roll around naked in it.”