Herbal & Western Medicine interactions?

[Guest guest]

Hello Group:

 

Does anyone know of a good site that charts herbal and western prescrition

medications and how they interact? I had found one a while back but seem

to have lost this site.

 

Thank for the help

 

Lea Inoue

 

_______________

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[Guest guest]

I can't answer your question, but I can comment that I think this issue is very

overblown. The entire herb dept at PCOM and every chinese doc I know of

save John Chen consider this a real red herring. I believe this hysteria has

been orchestrated by the pharmaceutical industry to makes herbs rx items

only. As flaws has mentioned, this issue is virtually absent from the modern

chinese medical literature. yet similar, yet valid issues like that of AA are

well

represented

 

, " Lea Inoue " <

asianherb@m...> wrote:

>

>

> Hello Group:

>

> Does anyone know of a good site that charts herbal and western prescrition

> medications and how they interact? I had found one a while back but seem

> to have lost this site.

>

> Thank for the help

>

> Lea Inoue

>

>

__________

_____

> Set yourself up for fun at home! Get tips on home entertainment equipment,

> video game reviews, and more here.

> http://special.msn.com/home/homeent.armx

[Guest guest]

Dear

 

I don't understand how you can downplay the inportance of drug

interaction with Chinese herbs and formulas. I think that it's

incredibly important for us as an additional element when considering the

possibility of contraindications. Particularly with deficient senior

patients taking numerous meds, we take upon ourselves tremendous

responsibility in prescribing yet another medicine and making a decision

based upon the strength of knowledge is anything but a red herring.

Would you ever consider prescribing Chai hu as part of a formula, to a

patient who told you that they were taking beta-blockers? Don't you ask

your patients if they are taking any meds and if so what? Do you feel

that we need to separate our information from Western physicians

completely and therefore their diagnosis and treatment is only

peripheral? I personally believe that it is a serious mistake to

operate in such a vacuum, but then again, what do I know, I am just a

student.

 

Yehuda

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 01:33:48 -0000 " " < writes:

> I can't answer your question, but I can comment that I think this

> issue is very

> overblown. The entire herb dept at PCOM and every chinese doc I

> know of

> save John Chen consider this a real red herring. I believe this

> hysteria has

> been orchestrated by the pharmaceutical industry to makes herbs rx

> items

> only. As flaws has mentioned, this issue is virtually absent from

> the modern

> chinese medical literature. yet similar, yet valid issues like that

> of AA are well

> represented

>

 

>

> , " Lea Inoue " <

> asianherb@m...> wrote:

> >

> >

> > Hello Group:

> >

> > Does anyone know of a good site that charts herbal and western

> prescrition

> > medications and how they interact? I had found one a while back

> but seem

> > to have lost this site.

> >

> > Thank for the help

> >

> > Lea Inoue

> >

> >

> __________

> _____

> > Set yourself up for fun at home! Get tips on home entertainment

> equipment,

> > video game reviews, and more here.

> > http://special.msn.com/home/homeent.armx

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I don't understand how you can downplay the inportance of drug

interaction with Chinese herbs and formulas.

>>>>I agree but the problem is that we really know close to nothing about the

real interactions. Most of the data is speculative from knowledge on drugs

(which often we do not know about either) and some animal studies on herbs. The

problem with the animal studies is that they often use different enzyme systems

to process the herbs, the dosage used in them are usually much higher than

humans ever get. So for example, we see herbs that have MAO inhibition in

animals which would suggest serious potential problems in humans but these herbs

do not have such effects in humans. Bai Zhi is said to be processed by P450 (in

rats) which suggest it can change blood levels of other drugs or herbs, but no

human information is available. This would be an easy study to do and we need to

start doing such studies.

I do however think that this is an extremely important issue on which we truly

do not know enough. What i like about Johns chen new book is that he gives

refrences to some of the literature so that you can evaluate the information.

What we really need is to start training the profession of pharmacology so that

we can start studding these issues.

Alon