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\n Most home remedies or natural therapies haven\u2019t been put through the same rigorous clinical testing you expect from pharmaceutical medications.<\/p>\n
\u00a0(iStock)<\/p>\n
In a world where you can fix almost anything with a do-it-yourself video on YouTube, you might think curing your own illness would be a piece of cake.<\/p>\n
It might be if it weren\u2019t for a couple of (not so small) sticking points.<\/p>\n
One, the home remedy recommended by your friend \u2014 or one of the many websites promoting \u201cnatural therapies\u201d \u2014 might not work.<\/p>\n
And two, it could make you sicker or even kill you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what happened to an Australian man who developed\u00a0cyanide poisoning\u00a0after taking high doses of apricot kernel extract, hoping to prevent his prostate cancer from returning.<\/p>\n
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This \u201csuperfood\u201d is touted as having anticancer properties. It\u2019s a claim that has\u00a0no reliable scientific evidence\u00a0to back it up.<\/p>\n
Apricot kernel extract isn\u2019t alone in peddling hope alongside an increased risk of harming your health.<\/p>\n
People use home remedies for a variety of reasons \u2014 fighting cancer, losing weight, increasing sex drive, or reducing symptoms of illnesses that have few medical treatments available.<\/p>\n
Most home remedies or natural therapies, though, haven\u2019t been put through the same rigorous clinical testing you expect from pharmaceutical medications.<\/p>\n
So, does that mean you should ignore them completely?<\/p>\n
Not necessarily. It\u2019s more a matter of approaching them with a healthy dose of skepticism.<\/p>\n
Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired family physician, former Air Force flight surgeon, and author of the\u00a0SkepDoc<\/a>\u00a0column in Skeptic magazine, is one of those leading the charge against medical \u201ctreatments\u201d not supported by science.<\/p>\n
Like others in the medical and scientific community, Hall is bothered that many questionable home remedies that might once have been called quackery, folk medicine, or fringe medicine now take shelter under the \u201calternative medicine\u201d umbrella.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018alternative medicine.\u2019 There is only medicine that has been tested and proven to work, and medicine that hasn\u2019t,\u201d Hall told Healthline. \u201cAlternative medicine is a marketing term, not a scientific one.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s common for people to think that \u201cnatural\u201d means healthy.<\/p>\n
But many natural things can kill you \u2014 asbestos, ionizing radiation from radon, poison hemlock, and deadly nightshade, just to name a few.<\/p>\n
As surprising as it may seem, some herbal supplements sold in reputable natural food stores or pharmacies can also\u00a0harm you, even at doses recommended on the package.<\/p>\n
Supplements may be toxic all by themselves, contaminated with another compound that is toxic, or interact with prescription medications.<\/p>\n
Despite the risk of dangerous interactions between supplements and medications, only about one-third of people tell their doctor about the supplements they\u2019re taking, according to one\u00a0study.<\/p>\n
Children are especially at risk of poisoning from herbal or dietary supplements.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0published this summer found that calls made to poison control centers across the country about herbal and dietary supplements increased almost 50 percent between 2005 and 2012.<\/p>\n
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Dietary supplements were the top reason for the calls, followed by herbal, hormonal, and other products.<\/p>\n
Serious medical problems occurred in about 4 percent of these calls. Ninety-five percent of the serious cases were in children under 6 years old. The majority of these poisonings were unintentional.<\/p>\n
One reason for the popularity of herbal supplements is that they\u2019re easy to buy \u2014 no visit to the doctor or prescription needed. They\u2019re the ultimate health DIY.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also little government regulation of these products. If companies don\u2019t make claims that their product can treat or cure a health condition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) won\u2019t bother with them.<\/p>\n
Until there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
Last year, the FDA issued a\u00a0warning<\/a>\u00a0that homeopathic baby teething tablets and gels may pose a risk to infants and children.<\/p>\n
Homeopathic remedies are based on the idea that \u201clike cures like.\u201d Small amounts of substances \u2014 sometimes toxic \u2014 are used to cure symptoms that those substances would cause at higher doses.<\/p>\n
The teething tablets contained the poisonous plant belladonna, except in higher amounts than listed on the label.<\/p>\n
The FDA investigation turned up more than 400 reports of bad reactions to these products over the past six years. Reactions included tremor, fever, and shortness of breath.<\/p>\n
In 10 cases, children died.<\/p>\n
On top of the dangers of some homeopathic remedies, there\u2019s\u00a0little evidence<\/a>\u00a0that they\u2019re effective treatments for any condition.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0United Kingdom\u2019s National Health Service<\/a>\u00a0recently decided to stop using government funds to pay for homeopathic treatments.<\/p>\n
The debate over homeopathy, though, isn\u2019t just about a lack of clinical trials.<\/p>\n
One guiding principal of homeopathy is that the more you dilute the active ingredient in water or alcohol, the greater the therapeutic benefit.<\/p>\n
Critics<\/a>\u00a0say that for this to work, we\u2019d have to radically change what we know about biology, physics, and chemistry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomeopathy not only doesn\u2019t work, but couldn\u2019t possibly work,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n
Cancer has long been targeted by people promoting natural therapies.<\/p>\n
One\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0estimates that use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by cancer patients in 18 countries rose from 25 percent in the 1970s to 49 percent after 2000. Use of these products was highest in the United States.<\/p>\n
Another\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0found that herbal supplements were the most commonly used home remedy for cancer, followed by homeopathy, vitamin and mineral supplements, medicinal teas, spiritual therapies, and relaxation techniques.<\/p>\n
One of the most popular therapies is Essiac tea, which has been promoted as a cancer treatment since the 1920s. This herbal blend contains burdock root, sheep sorrel herb, slippery elm bark, Turkish rhubarb root, and sometimes other ingredients.<\/p>\n
Despite its long reputation as an anticancer remedy,\u00a0no clinical trials<\/a>\u00a0of Essiac have been completed and published in a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n
Unlike apricot kernel extract, the side effects of Essiac are less severe, but they do include nausea, vomiting, increased bowel movements, and slight headaches.<\/p>\n
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Another home remedy for cancer is the Gerson method. It involves following a strict diet, drinking lots of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, taking dietary supplements, and giving yourself coffee enemas.<\/p>\n
Although some\u00a0studies<\/a>\u00a0on the Gerson method have been published, none were the rigorous randomized clinical trials that are needed to determine if this home remedy actually helps.<\/p>\n
Three people have also died as a result of giving themselves coffee enemas. They can throw off your normal blood chemistry if you do them too often.<\/p>\n
There are many more home remedies for treating cancer, with side effects ranging from minor to severe.<\/p>\n
But even natural therapies for cancer that don\u2019t kill you directly can still kill you.<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0published earlier this year, Yale researchers looked at the survival rates of 840 patients with breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n
People who chose to use only alternative medicine treatments had a higher risk of dying compared to those who used conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, or hormone therapy.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the fact that people spend a lot of money on unproven treatments.<\/p>\n
According to the\u00a02007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)<\/a>, 83 million adults spent almost $34 billion out-of-pocket on CAM therapies that year. This accounts for 1.5 percent of the total healthcare spending in the United States.<\/p>\n
One\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0found that people are more likely to use herbal supplements if they\u2019re uninsured, use more prescription and over-the-counter medications, or have certain health conditions.<\/p>\n
Other\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0has found higher herbal supplement use among women and people with a higher education.<\/p>\n
Some of the most common conditions that people try to treat with herbs include colds, stomach or intestinal illnesses, and problems like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis. These are all conditions that have few effective medical treatments available.<\/p>\n
A person\u2019s\u00a0culture<\/a>\u00a0may also influence their use of CAM therapies. For example, botanical medicine is important to many indigenous cultures in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Chinese herbal medicine has been for centuries by Chinese people and Chinese-Americans.<\/p>\n
These studies try to explain why people turn to home remedies in the first place.<\/p>\n
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But a bigger question is why people use home remedies that don\u2019t have any scientific evidence showing that they\u2019re effective.<\/p>\n
The Australian man who developed cyanide poisoning from taking apricot kernel extract \u2014 a mix of a supplement he purchased and a brew he made at home \u2014 apparently had a \u201cscientific background,\u201d according to an anesthetist at the hospital where he was treated.<\/p>\n
His doctors also warned the man about the risks of the extract, saying the cyanide was blocking the cells in his body from getting the oxygen they needed to survive.<\/p>\n
He still refused to give up his daily ritual.<\/p>\n
In a post on\u00a0Skeptic<\/a>, Hall suggests that human evolution has made it easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that an herb might cure our cancer, that burning a candle in our ear could improve our overall health, or that a homeopathic remedy diluted almost to nothingness might help us have better sex.<\/p>\n
First, our brains are designed to look for patterns, even if they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n
In our distant past, we reacted quickly if we saw a shadow that looked like a lion in the bushes. It\u2019s better to see a pattern that isn\u2019t there than to miss seeing a real lion.<\/p>\n
We also tend to listen to what others tell us. If your friend says there are lions on the other side of the hill, often you\u2019ll listen rather than do your own research.<\/p>\n
Our emotions \u2014 especially fear \u2014 can also motivate us to act, such as running away as fast as we can from a lion.<\/p>\n
While these traits helped us survive in a world without technology, they can get us into trouble today.<\/p>\n
If a friend has a cold, takes an herbal supplement, and gets better, we might think the pill cured her. But the cold could\u2019ve just as likely gone away on its own. Without clinical studies, we\u2019re just guessing.<\/p>\n
Or if you have a headache and your friend says, \u201cI put three drops of lemon oil on my wrists and my headache went away,\u201d you might give it a try. What the heck, right?<\/p>\n
Or if you have cancer and you\u2019re afraid of dying, you might try anything to get better \u2014 even if it\u2019s never been shown to be effective in a clinical trial, doesn\u2019t make any sense how it might work in the first place, or you have to shell out thousands of dollars at a clinic in another country for treatment.<\/p>\n
Choosing treatments for your illness is complicated by\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0that suggests many published studies \u2014 yes, scientific studies \u2014 are wrong.<\/p>\n
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Science isn\u2019t infallible. But it is methodical and self-correcting. Over time, new studies either confirm past results or weed out the mistakes.<\/p>\n
Not everyone has a strong background in science or clinical trials, so how are we supposed to decide which treatments work?<\/p>\n
Hall offers what she calls her SkepDoc\u2019s Rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore you accept any claim, try to find out who disagrees with it and why. That can be very illuminating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Also, you can always ask your doctor for advice. But even with that, Hall suggests some level of skepticism.<\/p>\n
People should \u201cask their doctor to provide evidence to support his or her recommendations,\u201d said Hall, \u201cand then they should check to see what others have said about that evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on HealthLine.com.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most home remedies or natural therapies haven\u2019t been put through the same rigorous clinical testing you expect from pharmaceutical medications. \u00a0(iStock) In a world where you can fix almost anything with a do-it-yourself video on YouTube, you might think curing your own illness would be a piece of cake. It might be if it weren\u2019t Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}