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Articles
| The hype behind herbs - [2006-08-10] |
The hype behind herbs
Paula Goodyer
August 10, 2006
Giddy-up ... there is good evidence that horse chestnut helps with leg pain and swelling.
Australians spend $2.3 billion on complementary health products every year, but is it money well spent?
Walk into any health food store or pharmacy and the range of products promising to lift your libido or cool your hot flushes is dizzying. But do they actually work?
The term complementary medicine covers a vast range of products. Some have good clinical research to say they're effective, others have little or none - and there is often no way for the average shopper to tell the difference.
Yet despite lack of evidence for many remedies and supplements and some big price tags - about $50 for a bottle of noni juice, for example - Australians spend about $2.3 billion on complementary medicines and supplements every year.
Professor John Eden, an endocrinologist, has no doubt that some complementary medicines work. When women come to him with severe symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), he doesn't hesitate to prescribe a herb with a track record as old as Hippocrates. Called chasteberry, it's thought to reduce levels of prolactin - the hormone believed to cause some of the symptoms of PMS.
Combining chasteberry with calcium, magnesium and vitamin B6 usually improves such symptoms as breast tenderness, bloating, cramps and anxiety, even for women whose symptoms are so debilitating they usually need time off work, he says.
The same goes for St John's wort, which he prescribes for mild to moderate depression. But he doesn't recommend any brand, he suggests Remotiv - a product in which he has no financial interest but which has been tested in clinical studies and found to be effective.
It's here that the rest of us come unstuck. Having read media reports on the efficacy of St John's wort, we might assume that any product based on this herb does the same. But not all products are equal, explains Eden, who is the director of the Natural Therapies Unit at the Royal Women's Hospital in Sydney.
"When I first suggest St John's wort, many women say they've tried it and it doesn't work - but when I recommend a good-quality brand, seven out of 10 women say it helps," he says.
The reason for this discrepancy is because herbal medicines are based on plant extracts - a major part of their appeal.
Unlike drugs made in the laboratory, plants can vary in their potency, depending on where they're grown or which part of the plant is used.
"It's like the difference between one wine and another - to say that all St John's wort or all echinacea products are the same is like saying all shiraz is like Grange Hermitage because they're all made from grapes," he explains.
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