Many side effects - some serious - only turn up in one user in 10,000 to 50,000, or more. In addition, preapproval studies typically involve only a few thousand people. But as we’ve seen, the supposedly stringent regulation of drugs hasn’t kept them from causing great harm. Such tests aren’t required of herbs, leading to claims that herbs are unregulated and, by implication, unsafe. Unregulated? Before approving new drugs, the FDA requires drugmakers to prove them safe and effective. Note: These deaths didn’t result from medical errors they occurred when drugs were administered as approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The true number of drug-caused injuries is undoubtedly higher this study focused solely on hospital patients, not the public. This makes drug side effects the nation’s fourth leading cause of death. hospital patients per year and cause 2.2 million serious, nonfatal problems. Extrapolating from the 39 most rigorous studies, they estimated that drug side effects kill an astonishing 106,000 U.S. University of Toronto researchers combed 30 years of medical literature (1966 to 1996) for reports of drug side effects in hospital patients. In every accidental death caused by a pharmacological agent, the culprit was a pharmaceutical. How many were attributable to medicinal herbs? Zero. The AAPCC’s most recent report (2008) records 1,756 accidental poisoning deaths. Every year the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) compiles statistics on accidental deaths from drugs, herbs, vitamins, and other supplements. 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.Īnyone who calls herbs hazardous is totally misinformed. Anything that’s pharmacologically active can. Unsafe? Like drugs, medicinal herbs can cause harm. As I document in my book, The New Healing Herbs, thousands of studies confirm the effectiveness of medicinal herbs for hundreds of conditions. Critics make four accusations: Herbs are ineffective, unsafe, unregulated and, when they work, they’re not as strong as drugs. Unfortunately, many medical authorities still disparage medicinal herbs. Today, doctors are increasingly open to recommending nondrug alternatives given reasonable evidence of safety and effectiveness. 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. 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). In our medicine cabinet, we stock drugs and herbs, but we use more of the latter.

She prescribes drugs every day, but also recommends medicinal herbs. In appreciation of all she did to bring warmth and love into our house, we started Beboe to offer the sophisticated cannabis consumer an experience unlike any other on the market.My wife is an M.D. I laugh every time I imagine that little 85-year-old woman wandering around our local grocer, trying to find someone who could help her buy a bag of weed. They would help the nausea brought on by the sickness and brought back her appetite. We found out years later that mom’s brownies were made with marijuana.

We were reminded each time that mom was really sick, deserved to have her own brownies, and backed off. Of course we would go through our rations in 24 hours, turning our sights on mom’s reserve. She made one tray for us kids, and one tray for Mom, but Mom’s brownies were strictly off limits… kept under lock and key in a closet.

One thing she made each trip were brownies. She cleaned up the house and cooked for us. My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was very young and my grandmother visited frequently to help care for her.

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