Millions of people may be risking their health by taking herbal remedies with prescription drugs.
Pharmaceutical drugs can interact with herbal remedies, leading to a reduction in the therapeutic efficacy of drugs, and even worse to extremely dangerous side effects.
The study of the University of Stellenbosch:
A recent study, conducted by researchers at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, states that a mixture of herbal products and medications can cause serious side effects.
In a comprehensive review of the medical literature (49 published reports), the team discovered dozens of cases where alternative treatments appeared to have altered the effects of prescription drugs, either by diluting them, making them more potent or provoking potentially dangerous side effects.
Of the interactions cited in the study, most were in patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (31%) or cancer (22%) or kidney transplant (16%), but epilepsy, depression, Anxiety disorders and schizophrenia have also been identified.
Charles Awortwe, lead author of the study, said the dangers of mixing natural plants with drugs were largely underestimated because people often did not realize that herbal remedies are very powerful.
Edzard Ernst, Emeritus Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, also testified in the same direction, stating that these results show how natural ingredients have potentially potent biological effects.