To me, herbal remedies are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The word herbal seems to imply “natural” and “healthy.” Many consumers assume herbs, oils, and botanicals are benign, though they may not be. It’s easy to imagine the companies that make supplements as small mom and pop shops set up in the sixties to spread a natural, botanical way of life. But, according to the Institute of Medicine, an organization that gives science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine, and health, dietary sales topped eighteen million in 2004. Supplements are a very large industry, with exceptional marketing prowess; but in my opinion, they often sell more hype than cure.
Take Airborne as an example. A very popular supplement designed to prevent colds, it rose to its current state of fame via a mention on Oprah. There has been no research to back up any of its claims. The sparkly-when-dropped-in-water pills contain high doses of Vitamin C and Vitamin A; Zinc, Selenium, and other minerals; a host of exotic Chinese herbs, as well as more familiar ones, like Echinacea. None of these ingredients have been proven to have any effect on colds, except maybe Zinc and normal doses of Vitamin C. High doses of water soluble vitamins like C are simply peed out. High doses of fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A (taking three Airborne puts you over 10,000 IU/day, well past recommended levels) can be toxic. At $6.99 for ten pills, this is not a cheap piece of mind. Additionally, Airborne was created by a second-grade teacher—not a doctor, a nurse, or a public health practitioner, but a second-grade teacher with no training in immunology, herbology, or medicine. Can you say “swindle?”
I’m probably most frustrated by supplements because I’ve been duped by them—spending money on remedies I hoped would work, but that never really did. This is not to say that all herbs and non-western medicines don’t have value. On the contrary, they most likely do. The problem comes when consumers are the guinea pigs in an unregulated marketplace. If the makers of gingko biloba can make any positive claims they want, then they will be less likely to pay for a study that actually proves them. It’s more lucrative to pay for marketing. Likewise, if a patient takes St. John’s Wort for their depression and it doesn’t work, no one is held responsible for the faulty product. Besides being ineffective, unregulated supplements can also contradict other medications and may have unwanted, unknown and potentially toxic side-effects. If companies were required to support their claims, or to ensure safety, we would undoubtedly learn more about the vast potential for healing (or not) contained in herbal and botanical medicines.
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