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More people using herbal supplements for common ailments
It seems more and more people are relying on herbal supplements to treat common ailments. But are they safe to use? Dr. Jennifer Mackinnon, with the Medical College of Wisconsin, joined Live at 4 with more.
it is now time for ask the expert it seems more and more people are relying on herbal supplements to treat just common ailments but are those supplements safe to use Dr for Jennifer McKinnon from the Medical College of Wisconsin joining us this afternoon to talk a little about this so for starters a patient comes to you asks I want to take extra y or Z supplement what do you tell them well as a primary care provider I like to look at the whole patient approach and first find out why they'd like to start that herbal supplement and then I review the data if there's good quality data saying it might have an effect I say well you know maybe let's give it a try definitely if that data is lacking then I usually advise a trial period of going on the medication so that we're all aware of what effects we're looking for and if you don't get the effects then go ahead and stop the medication well how can you tell if you're taking a quality supplement versus say some garbage that you just see on the shelves to try to get you to buy right that's a really good question in 94 the FDA was never really involved at that point they called it the dietary herbal supplement health education act and now in that past it really said that all supplements are dietary supplements and as long as you don't claim to cure or prevent or treat a disease you can put it on the shelves since then especially in 2007 and eight the FDA is now getting more involved under what's called good manufacturing practices where actually they're supposed to be held more accountable with proper labeling where they actually list the manufacturer and a phone number and address they're actually supposed to have all the ingredients labeled properly which is new and they're supposed to be manufactured more with standard practices and this is because I mean you're ingesting something in your body that can have a side effect I mean what can go wrong right so in some cases there's additives that can actually affect different blood sugar high or low can actually affect hormonal effects have estrogen or testosterone effects and not necessarily be known and then also have effects on your heart they can raise or lower blood pressure cause fluid retention or Rhythm problems so that's why it's really important to talk with your primary doctor about any supplements you're thinking about or already taking right it is because if we know we can be a team and talk about it especially if some of these side effects come up or interactions with medications you're already taking all right Dr Jennifer McKinnon from the Medical College thanks for coming and talking with us today have a question for any of our experts you can send an email ask the expert to tmj4.com you can also leave a voicemail the number right there on your screen
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