Traditional Herbal Medicines - A Guide to Their Safer Use

Although it may seem perfectly harmless or perhaps just a little exotic, your favourite remedy could be dangerous. Thousands of people poison themselves each year, and children are especially vulnerable.

The authors of Traditional Herbal Medicines: A Guide To Their Safer Use are Dr Lakshman Karalliedde and Dr Indika Gawarammana. They share a background and heritage of Ayurvedic Medicine alongside formal studies in allopathic (Western) medicine in Sri Lanka and the UK. They then worked together treating patients at Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Trust.

Professor Virginia Murray from Guy’s Poisons Unit, introduces the book.

“Many people use traditional or herbal remedies as their treatment of choice”, she says.

“And many consider that, because ‘they are natural’, these remedies are intrinsically safe. In my experience as a medical toxicologist this is not necessarily true.”

In this well researched guide, you can check the ingredients of any herbal medicine bought over the counter or online, and find out whether there are potential clashes with drugs or Western medicines you take.

The book not only lists traditional herbal remedies from around the world, it summarises the effects and potential hazards of using these. It lists their sources, likely cures and side effects. Additionally, it suggests the correct dose, examines how traditional medicines interact with allopathic (Western) medicines and, most importantly, lists precautions.

Traditional Herbal Medicines will be useful for anyone involved in prescribing conventional or traditional medicines, as well as the growing number of people who are taking them.

These sections cover the following topics in detail:

· Common Medical Disorders

· Commonly used herbs

· Potentially harmful constituents of some herbal medicines

· Precautions to be taken in special circumstances

· Glossary

There is also an invaluable appendix of tables showing how natural remedies affect Western medicines.

The section on heavy metals used in herbal medicines is eye opening. Ayurvedic medicine may contain lead, copper, iron, gold, silver, mercury, tin and zinc. Chinese herbal medicine uses Mercury compounds in prescriptions for tranquillizing and anti-convulsant treatment, hypnotic effects and ulcers.

Then there are pesticides. Of course, these can affect Western medicine as much as any natural products since aspirin, digoxin and quinine all derive from botanical origins.

People combining orthodox drugs with natural remedies could have some very nasty side effects. Corticosteroids may be included in herbal products without being declared on the label or other product literature.

To take a specific example from the appendixes in Traditional Herbal Medicines, Papaya in relation to Warfarin, used in strong doses as rat poison and in smaller doses to control blood pressure in humans, may increase bleeding. So can Horseradish. Even Green Tea, which contains vitamin K, can antagonise Warfarin and increase the risk of heart palpitations and thrombosis.

So herbal medicine is literally a minefield. Find out more about it.

Traditional Herbal Medicines: A Guide To Their Safer Use is published by Hammersmith Press, £19.99

Buy this book here

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