[MPWG] herbal remedies associated with heart drugs

Tue Feb 2 19:45:15 CST 2010

Marguerite-
  a short story.

We started selling persimmon leaf tea after reading research from overseas about persimmon's health benefits. People were taking Nexium for acid reflux- a primary condition that persimmon leaf was reported to treat.  The people are telling us that the persimmon leaf works better than the pill. I cannot keep enough of it in stock - because the demand is solid. 

It is no wonder there pharma wants people to be afraid of natural treatments.

Penny Frazier

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: marguerite uhlmann-bower 
  To: Andrea Schwarzbach 
  Cc: mpwg at lists.plantconservation.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 7:12 PM
  Subject: Re: [MPWG] herbal remedies associated with heart drugs

  Hello all, 
  I understand the importance of educating and informing the public and our clients (I'm a practicing herbalist and nurse) about the mixing of herbs and drugs. 
  And true, St Johnswort is an herb we need to be cautious about if we choose to combine with medicine. In and of itself SJW is generally safe. But mix it with other medications (there's at least a dozen or more it changes and maybe even some herbs too) it will cause changes to the medications and or the person. 

  Yet this doesn't make it an unsafe herb. 

  And its a fact that the practice of cardiology is a highly refined medicine which surpasses possibly what most herbs 
  can do, in the short term anyway. 

  However we can't agree with the way the western medical practitioners are going about researching herbs and educating the public about herbs. They're instilling fear and pointing out that its the herbs that are the causative problem. Making blanket statements and testing isolated compounds rather than the whole herb. 

  Is there a remedy for this type of behavior?  :-)

  Yep. 

  Educate not only the general public and our clients but these medical people too. 
  Publishing our points in local papers, medical journals, and the like. 

  Easier said then done. But not impossible. 

  Blessings 

  Marguerite

  On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 7:06 PM, Andrea Schwarzbach <Andrea.Schwarzbach at utb.edu> wrote:

    Hi!
    The CNN report mentioned below is summarizing  a recently published paper [Tachjian A, Maria V, Jahangir A. Use of herbal products and potential interactions in patients with cardiovascular diseases. J Amer Coll Cardiol. 2010;55(6). [DOI:10.1016/j.jacc.2009.07.074] that has major flaws and is obviously written by someone who is a specialist in cardiology but certainly has no clue about botany or medicinal plants. 

    You might be interested in a press release by the American Botanical Council regarding the original paper pointing out some of the many mistakes.
    http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2010/Response_CardiologyArticle.html

    Best wishes,

    Dr. Andrea Schwarzbach
    Associate Professor
    University of Texas-Brownsville
    Department of Biological Sciences
    80 Fort Brown
    Brownsville, TX 78520

    On 2/2/10 11:33 AM, "Emanuela Appetiti" <ceo at medicaltraditions.org> wrote:

      HI!

      Thought you might be interested in this article about some herbal remedies affecting the activity of heart drugs, appeared today in CNN health:

      http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/01/moh.healthmag.remedies.avoid/

      Best,

      Emanuela Appetiti

      <http://medicaltraditions.org/> 

      ceo at medicaltraditions.org <mailto:info at medicaltraditions.org> 

      +1 202 633 0967

      PO Box 7606
      Washington, DC 20044-7606 
      USA

      www.medicaltraditions.org <http://medicaltraditions.org/> 

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  unknown

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  Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, R.N., Herbalist
  TheHerbalNurses™
  226 Kelso Rd. / Sanders Lane 
  East Meredith, NY 13757
  (607) 278-9635

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