kebaldwin
Tue, Jul-24-07, 16:53
Natural remedies 'potentially harmful'
Mixing With Pills Can Be Dangerous, Alberta Study Finds
Tom Blackwell
National Post
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Half the pharmacists surveyed by Alberta researchers said they had seen evidence of dangerous interactions between natural health products and prescription drugs, a "startling" result that suggests natural remedies cause many more harmful side effects than once thought, a new study concludes.
Most of those pharmacists, however, failed to report the side effects to Health Canada's ad-verse-reaction database, the study indicated. The findings point to an "urgent need" for additional safety data on herbal and other natural products used by millions of Canadians, said the University of Alberta scientists behind the research.
"This [study] leads us to believe that natural-health product [NHP] adverse events are far more common than previously suspected," said their paper, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. "The majority of Canadians use NHPs and our data confirm that this use may carry unrecognized risk."
The lack of reporting of safety problems by health professionals is exacerbated by the fact that patients assume natural treatments will cause them no harm, argue the researchers at U of A's Complementary and Alternative Research and Education (CARE) program.
The study shows that patients must treat such remedies "with respect," Dr. Sunita Vohra, the program's head, said in an interview. "Just because it came from nature doesn't mean it is not active," she said. "It means that, in fact, it may be active, it may be effective, but may also be potentially harmful."
Dr. Vohra, a pediatrician who also has degrees in pharmacology and epidemiology, and her team recently were awarded federal funding for a new pilot project that will see 16 drug stores across the country systematically inquire about and report natural-cure mishaps.
Scientists have identified a number of harmful reactions that can occur when natural remedies mix with prescription and non-prescription drugs. For instance, the herb St. John's Wort will sometimes neutralize the effect of anti-rejection drugs in organ transplant patients, while concentrated garlic is suspected of weakening the anti-retroviral medicine used by HIV sufferers.
The study backs up Health Canada's concern that adverse events involving natural-health products, like pharmaceutical drugs, are "seriously under-reported," said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman.
A representative of the Canadian natural-health industry said the research underlines the need for more education, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the extent of natural-health side effects until more research is done. Meanwhile, there is increasing evidence of the benefits of natural treatments, said Penelope Marrett, president of the Canadian Health Food Association.
"It's important that we're able to provide Canadians with the choices they want, that have research behind them and are credible," Ms. Marrett said. "People are asking for natural health products and want to see them available."
The CARE program, based out of Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, studies the use of alternative medicine on children. Dr. Vohra and her colleagues knew that about 70% of Canadians use natural-health products, often in tandem with other types of medicine. There have been few reports of adverse events involving the remedies, though, and it was unclear whether negative side effects were rare or simply under-reported.
To try to answer the question, the researchers surveyed a sample of pharmacists, the main source of adverse-reaction reports of all kinds to the federal government. Of the 132 who responded, 47% said they had encountered suspected interactions between natural-health products and drugs. Less than 2%, though, reported their suspicions.
Most saw evidence of reactions between St. John's Wort and an SSRI anti-depressant, a mix which seems to sometimes trigger an excess of serotonin in the brain, a condition known as serotonin syndrome that can result in dizziness, nausea and -- in rare cases -- death.
Health Canada is doing its own research on specific interactions between drugs and natural health products, as well as trying to better educate pharmacists and consumers about the issues, said Mr. Duchesne.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=b49ce9a6-3978-4628-a8bd-541979ef7e69&k=4197
Mixing With Pills Can Be Dangerous, Alberta Study Finds
Tom Blackwell
National Post
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Half the pharmacists surveyed by Alberta researchers said they had seen evidence of dangerous interactions between natural health products and prescription drugs, a "startling" result that suggests natural remedies cause many more harmful side effects than once thought, a new study concludes.
Most of those pharmacists, however, failed to report the side effects to Health Canada's ad-verse-reaction database, the study indicated. The findings point to an "urgent need" for additional safety data on herbal and other natural products used by millions of Canadians, said the University of Alberta scientists behind the research.
"This [study] leads us to believe that natural-health product [NHP] adverse events are far more common than previously suspected," said their paper, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. "The majority of Canadians use NHPs and our data confirm that this use may carry unrecognized risk."
The lack of reporting of safety problems by health professionals is exacerbated by the fact that patients assume natural treatments will cause them no harm, argue the researchers at U of A's Complementary and Alternative Research and Education (CARE) program.
The study shows that patients must treat such remedies "with respect," Dr. Sunita Vohra, the program's head, said in an interview. "Just because it came from nature doesn't mean it is not active," she said. "It means that, in fact, it may be active, it may be effective, but may also be potentially harmful."
Dr. Vohra, a pediatrician who also has degrees in pharmacology and epidemiology, and her team recently were awarded federal funding for a new pilot project that will see 16 drug stores across the country systematically inquire about and report natural-cure mishaps.
Scientists have identified a number of harmful reactions that can occur when natural remedies mix with prescription and non-prescription drugs. For instance, the herb St. John's Wort will sometimes neutralize the effect of anti-rejection drugs in organ transplant patients, while concentrated garlic is suspected of weakening the anti-retroviral medicine used by HIV sufferers.
The study backs up Health Canada's concern that adverse events involving natural-health products, like pharmaceutical drugs, are "seriously under-reported," said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman.
A representative of the Canadian natural-health industry said the research underlines the need for more education, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the extent of natural-health side effects until more research is done. Meanwhile, there is increasing evidence of the benefits of natural treatments, said Penelope Marrett, president of the Canadian Health Food Association.
"It's important that we're able to provide Canadians with the choices they want, that have research behind them and are credible," Ms. Marrett said. "People are asking for natural health products and want to see them available."
The CARE program, based out of Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, studies the use of alternative medicine on children. Dr. Vohra and her colleagues knew that about 70% of Canadians use natural-health products, often in tandem with other types of medicine. There have been few reports of adverse events involving the remedies, though, and it was unclear whether negative side effects were rare or simply under-reported.
To try to answer the question, the researchers surveyed a sample of pharmacists, the main source of adverse-reaction reports of all kinds to the federal government. Of the 132 who responded, 47% said they had encountered suspected interactions between natural-health products and drugs. Less than 2%, though, reported their suspicions.
Most saw evidence of reactions between St. John's Wort and an SSRI anti-depressant, a mix which seems to sometimes trigger an excess of serotonin in the brain, a condition known as serotonin syndrome that can result in dizziness, nausea and -- in rare cases -- death.
Health Canada is doing its own research on specific interactions between drugs and natural health products, as well as trying to better educate pharmacists and consumers about the issues, said Mr. Duchesne.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=b49ce9a6-3978-4628-a8bd-541979ef7e69&k=4197