OCR Text |
Show Herbs may pose danger Currently there is great interest in Utah in the alleged value of herbs and herbal teas to treat and prevent various illness such as cancer. Because these herbs are natural substances, they are also considered by many to be healthful. health-ful. Few users of these products are aware of the potential dangers of some of these products. For example, shave grass or horsetail hor-setail plants contain nicotine and have resulted in convulsions and death in animals which have ingested these plants. Of course, tobacco also contains nicotine and it should be realized that tobacco also fits the definition of an herb, yet few would consider it healthful. health-ful. Teas made of buckthorn bark and senna leaves, flowers and bark have resulted in severe diarrhea in humans. Burdock root tea resulted in bizarre behavior, hallucinations and other symptoms which are characteristic of a group of drugs knows as anticholinergics. an-ticholinergics. These compounds are also found in catnip, juniper, hydrangea, lobelia, minseed weed and wormwood. Chamomile tea can cause allergic responses as can teas made from the flower heads of goldenrod, marigold, yarrow, and St. John's wort. Sassafras contains safrole, a known cancer causing agent. Devil's claw root should be avoided during pregnancy since it may induce labor as may pennyroyal oil which has been used in some societies to induce abortion. Apricot, cherry, choke cherry and peach pits, bark and leaves contain cyanide and have resulted in the death of children and the poisoning of adults who have eaten such substances. The above are just a partial list of herbs that may be hazardous if ingested. In light of these risks, it is extremely hazardous to routinely ingest these substances, particularly if the user is self -treating symptoms of a potentially serious disease. The LDS church recognized the potentially serious nature of this problem in an editorial in the Church News of June 18, 1977 which said in part: "Some patients are known to have died from diseases which 'nature remedies' could not relieve but which proven medical practices could have cured. "In repeated instances, patients have taken 'health' treatments until it became obvious that no good was being accomplished,, only to find too late, as they turned to legitimate doctors, that .their ; problems had advanced to the point of no return." In light of the evidence that such natural products are potentially hazardous, often ineffective and unnecessary un-necessary as well as costly, there is no justification for their indiscriminate use. |