How safe are herbal supplements? (1) July 23, 2009
Posted by paripl110707 in Bad Health, Expensive Medicine, Fantastic Claims, Good Health, Health of Humans, Seriously Sick, Various Diseases.Tags: Arthrities, Atherosclerosi, Barks, Cancer, Capsule Form, Circulatory, Commercials, Diabetes, Digestive, Flowers, Food Supplements, Fruits, Heart disease, Herbals, Herbolarios (Faith Healers), Human Health, No Therapeutic Claims, Pill Form, Pulmonary Disease, Roots, Snake Oil, Stems, Tablet Form, Various Leaves
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Good morning everybody. We all know that everyone is experiencing the hardship in life this days. Specially those poor people. They don’t have enough cash for spending with their daily needs. Some died because they don’t have money to buy their medicine. Filipinos were good in herbals, they use this in replace to the medicine which they can’t afford to buy. But, how safe are herbal supplements? Do all get healed with that?
Take a look at some newspapers and magazines, television shows and the billboards: they are full of advertisements and commercials of these herbals making so many claims. There are estimates that the “food supplement” industry is a multibillion-peso industry.
The public must be buying these herbals in droves. They must have been convinced by the claims in the ads and commercials.
But how true are these claims? Is the public being taken for a ride? Are these herbals good or bad for the health of humans? We never know about this. These herbals are not under its control because they are not medicine but “food supplements.” That is only one excuse. Another excuse is the disclaimer: “No therapeutic claims,” that says on the box. Yet that is exactly what the manufacturers are claiming in the ads and commercials. Like snake oil, these herbals claim to cure or prevent almost every disease known to man: arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, circulatory, digestive and pulmonary diseases, etc. One commercial shows an old man who cannot walk crying in pain because of arthritis. After taking the herbal supplement, he is shown jogging happily. Isn’t that a therapeutic claim?
Many of these herbals are being marketed like medicine, in capsule, pill or tablet form. The makers of even the herbal teas make fantastic claims about their products.
Many Filipinos readily take to herbals because we have a tradition of using herbs to cure various diseases. In the rural areas where there are few drugstores and medicines are expensive, the people go to “herbolarios” who prescribe various leaves, barks, roots, fruits, flowers and stems. Indeed, some who are seriously sick would rather take the herbs rather than the medicines prescribed by doctors.
Healthline with Pari 