Sidestepping Side Effects
Unfortunately, even when a potent magic bullet drug is right on the mark when it comes to resolving a certain problem, it often creates side effects—new problems. "Scarcely a month goes by without a drug being removed from the market because it is harmful," says Dr. Wagner. "This has helped to let the pendulum swing back and has brought a renewed consideration for our old treasures of experience with herbs." The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the governmental agency that regulates the sale of drugs in the United States, receives more than 10,000 reports of side effects from newly approved drugs every year, according to the Center for Drug Evaluation and research in Rockville, Maryland. This is especially sobering when you consider that about 25 percent of these side effects resulted in someone being hospitalized or dying. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. National surveys indicate that only about 5 percent of serious side effects from drugs are even reported to the center. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that 125,000 Americans die each year because they take their prescribed medicines incorrectly. In fact, some studies indicate that as many as half of all pharmaceuticals are not being taken correctly.
The herbs suggested in this book, however, produce few side effects, and many of them contain protective compounds that keep their potency in check. The herb meadowsweet, which contains natural aspirin (salicylic acid), is a perfect example. As you probably know, a big problem with taking chemical aspirin is that it can injure the stomach and even cause bleeding. Meadowsweet functions like aspirin to ease the pain and inflammation of rheumatism and headaches, but it also contains astringent tannins and soothing mucilage, which researchers believe to be compounds that buffer salicylic acid's adverse side effects.
Dr. Duke speculates that the effectiveness of herbs and their less toxic effects on our bodies may be due to our long history of using medicinal plants. "We have adapted ways to be more responsive to herbs," he says. "In many cases your body, through evolution, has been exposed to these natural compounds. Perhaps it has evolved protective mechanisms against their negative effects while embracing their positive effects."
With so many reasons to use herbs, why are drugs so popular? An explanation would have to take into account doctors' medical training, the high cost of developing drugs, and patients' expectations about having their symptoms relieved. To understand this, we need to go back to 1935, when sulfa drugs, the first broad-spectrum antibiotics, revolutionized the medical world. Their success prompted heavy financial investments in pharmaceutical drug companies and rapid development of new drugs. Doctors and the public began to regard herbal medicine as old-fashioned.
