Don't assume anything herbal or natural is healthy

I have come across some people who think if the doctor recommended one tablet, then two should enhance the effect by cutting short the time of recovery. Then there are those who assume anything herbal is healthier than 'Western medicine'. Then there are those who think a herbal remedy (eg. snake grass plant) which is as good as chemotherapy can be taken as a form of cancer prevention, because they assume there is no harm in anything herbal! But then again, we cannot have anything potent yet has no side effects on a healthy person.

Below is another warning on Chinese herbal remedies...

'Plants of the Aristolochia genus have for centuries been used in Chinese herbal remedies, but they contain a naturally carcinogenic compound that causes mutations in the cells of people who consume them, according to two studies published in Science Translational Medicine today (August 7). The papers reveal that the compound, called aristolochic acid, causes more mutations than two of the best-known environmental carcinogens: tobacco smoke and UV light.

“A lot of people in the lay public assume that if something is herbal or natural that it is necessarily healthy,” said Marc Ladanyi, an investigator in the human oncology and pathogenesis program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York who was not involved in the studies. “But this work very clearly shows that this natural plant product is extremely genotoxic and carcinogenic.”

More:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/36919/title/Cancer-Causing-Herbal-Remedies/


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