SECOND OPINION
Natural remedies may interact with meds
April 1, 2008
Study: Canadian researchers looked at how often children who arrive in a hospital ER department have been taking pharmaceutical medications alongside natural health products and the potential interactions. The natural products included vitamins, ginger, echinacea and St. John's wort. The study's lead author, Dr. Ran Goldman, is now head of the ER at British Columbia's Children's Hospital.
Method: With Drs. Sunita Vohra and Alex Rogovik, Goldman interviewed 1,804 families – parents and children up to 18 years old – over an eight-month period at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, where he then worked.
Background: A number of investigations have been done on the combining of various pharmaceuticals and the potential for bad reactions. But little research has been done on the interaction of natural products and conventional medications. Goldman says parents often don't mention that their children have been given natural remedies when they arrive at hospital.
Claim: Goldman and his colleagues found that 355 children – nearly one in five – who arrived at Sick Kids' ER had been given both medication and a natural product, while 269 patients (15 per cent) of those taking natural products were taking more than one. Possible interactions, either with a drug or between two natural products, were identified in 285 (16 per cent).
Caveat: The harmful interactions – modified absorption of medication, increased risk of bleeding – the study identified are theoretical and not proven to have occurred.
Second Opinion by Libby Stephens regularly examines health
studies. Source: The Journal of Pediatrics
Toronto Star