St. John'swort Alert

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Experts said it can be dangerous if taken with
prescription drugs.

Patients with heart conditions, epilepsy, severe
asthma, chronic bronchitis, and migraines were
also told to stop taking the remedy, which is used
for depression.

And transplant patients taking St John's Wort
face the risk of rejection of their new organs.

Daily Record

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), March 02, 2000

Answers

I cant take saint johns wort because it does just the opposite than its supposed to do. It puts me in a real bad mood.

-- wittey (wittey@aol.com), March 02, 2000.

You may have helped give me a clue. I don't take Rx drugs nor do I have heart problems, but lately have had heart palps without exertion. I added St. Johns Wort to my vitamin regimin within the last few months so I think I'll cut it out and see if that is what is precipitating it. Thanks

-- Sammie (sammiex0@yahoo.com), March 03, 2000.

Sammie, hope you come back. Also watch for anything (and I hope I'm close in spelling) Ma Huong/ephedrine and vitamin E. Vitamine E, at least initially, can raise blood pressure. That might be causing some of your problems. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), March 04, 2000.

The active substances in St. John's wort are in the same chemical family as those in some prescription antidepressive medicines and can have the same dangerous side effects, as well noted above.

The same is true of other herbal remedies -- always find out what the active ingredients are and what their side effects can be. I'm not saying always take a prescription instead of an herbal remedy -- I'm saying Know What You're Taking Before You Take It.

Once I explained to my mother why it would not be a good idea to replace my expensive prescriptions with inexpensive St. John's wort, she stopped mentioning it.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), March 04, 2000.


There's another problem with St. John's wort.
It produces hyper photo-sensitivity in animals,
and in some human animals. This results in sun
burn on exposed skin.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), March 05, 2000.


St John's Wort works likes an MAO inhibitor, but in a less harsh way. You should watch your diet and avoid consumption of tyramine- containing foods (cheese, red wine, over-ripe bananas, fava beans, et al)

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), March 08, 2000.

Spider,

Underlying all the responses is something that some herbal advocates sometimes fail to state - they are drugs. Period, no if ands or buts about it. Accordingly they can have effects, side effects and interactions.

As I see it, the main difference is herbals frequently aren't as highly refined and the content compounds not as defined as 'drugs' that most of us are familiar with.

Thinking back to school days, wasn't penicillin discoverd by observations on mold, asperin extracted from willow, and more recently and dramatically don't yews provide taxol (sp? that doesn't look right but hopefully you know what I referring to).

In any event, herbal can be useful but you need to use them intelligently.

As a quick aside (sermon?), someone of faith once told me that the Creator provided everything we need, if we were smart enough to look and listen. Unfortunately we're intent on 'turning Eden into a parking lot'.

Remember, catus gardening can be fun.

jh

-- john hebert (jt_hebert@hotmail.com), March 08, 2000.


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