Posted by psychobot5000 on October 12, 2006, at 22:56:23
In reply to Re: Lack of research behind herbs legitimate complaint » psychobot5000, posted by Jlx on October 12, 2006, at 19:28:54
I am impressed with the number of studies showing efficacy for hypericum! I certainly admit that I was not aware there were such a high number, showing good efficacy. Perhaps this is part of the problem... But I was also referring to the other research that is behind legal drugs, showing toxicity, half-life, interactions,and etc, which I don't -believe- has been done systematically for hypericum. It would be very difficult to, since we don't know what exactly are the active chemicals or mechanisms...this makes me less comfortable with it.
'Just because some herbs have not had Big Pharma industry funded studies, does not mean that they're not effective, safe, free of interactions.'
That is an excellent quote! It definitely true that there seems to be this monopolistic Big pharma thing going on that dominates everything. ...I just get very frustrated with the alternative industry for what I see as misleading people about how much is -actually known- about their products. They knowingly (or in willing ignorance) encourage a false veneer of safety and expertise about a subject (human chemical psychology and its manipulations) that isn't well understood by anyone at all!
That said, I guess my strategy with herbs is the same as with medications: read up, cautiously experiment (within certain limitations), and try to find what works for me. I'm very glad that some herbs seem to help with that (theanine, skullcap, and maybe fish-oil for me. So far.).
Keep in mind, use of alternative remedies is very much on the rise!
Cheers everybody--good dialogue, I hope.
Psychbot
poster:psychobot5000
thread:691467
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060817/msgs/694349.html