When Herbal Supplements
And Medicines Pose Health Risks

When Herbal Supplements and Medicines Pose Health Risks

When herbal supplements and medicines pose health risks, it is rare to hear about it unless a large number of cases are reported and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigates.

This has happened in the past when women and men taking herbal weight loss medicines suddenly suffered from heart attacks.

As the FDA investigated it became clear that rather than just one kind of brand or herbal supplements it was a common ingredient ephedrine that was to blame for these deaths.

Acting quickly, retailers were ordered to remove from their shelves any herbal mixes and pills containing ephedrine and before long consumers were safe in the knowledge that reputable retailers had rid their stores of this danger.

Unfortunately, when herbal supplements and medicines pose health risks, the arm of the FDA and other governmental agencies only reaches so far and by and large individuals peddling these supplements under the guise of Chinese patent cures have remained unaffected by the ban,

Theoretically they might be in jeopardy of violating United States law if there were to import herbs, pills, and balms that contain banned substances, but enforcement is literally impossible.

Some Internet peddlers have become so brazen in their knowledge of safety from prosecution that they are actually advertising the availability of ephedrine and consumers are purchasing the substance as they are certain that it will provide the weight loss help they require.

Prednisone Medicine You should also inform any medical professional about your allergy so that they can make a wise choice regarding your prescriptions. When you have a medication allergy it is also a good idea to wear a MedicAlert bracelet and also carry a card that identifies your medication allergy, just in case you are unable to speak. Having this information about your medication allergy available in case of an emergency may safe your life. Anyone can develop a medication allergy even to drugs that they have taken previously. Drugs and Medicine

 

While ephedrine is only one of the many health risks associated with herbal supplements and their sometimes questionable ingredients, there are other risk factors that require mentioning.

Consider for example the presence of heavy metals connected with the methodologies used to grow, fertilize, protect, harvest, and store the herbs, and it soon becomes obvious that any health benefit that might have been potentially derived from the ingestion or use of such a compound is negated because of the poisons that are found on the plants and inside the supplements.

If banned substances and heavy metals do not worry you, consider that herbal supplements and medicines pose health risks such as liver damage not because of some exotic herb included in the mix, but instead because they include everyday substances, like caffeine, that is an operating agent in the medicine but when combined with the typical American diet of coffee, caffeine laden soft drinks, and even stay-awake pills taken before the drive home, the intake exceeds drastically even the highest daily recommended dosage.

Medicine And Antibiotics Over-the-counter medications are commonly abused because all age groups including kids from age 12 through 19 easily access them. OTC abuse is not always an intentional act. Individuals may take incorrect dosages by mistake or may mix OTC medications in an unsafe manner. Drugs and Medicine

At the forefront of filtering out poisons are the kidney and liver, but it is the liver that usually suffers the most, especially in individual who may have some latent conditions which pose danger to the liver already.

Although frequently not mentioned when discussing herbal supplements and medicines posing health risks, the fact that some of the substances are highly concentrated may escape the notice of the individual consumer and a consistent overdose might not be noticed or reported.

Instead, the systemic overload will lead to renal failure, the potential increase of other risk factors, and of course classic signals of poisoning, such as upset stomach, chronic diarrhea, dehydration, and other problems.