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Another St.
John’s Wort False Alarm
At
the annual meeting of the American Society for
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Dr. George
Dresser reported that combining St. John's wort
with prescription drugs can be dangerous. Last
year, the FDA warned that the herbal supplement
might reduce the effectiveness of many other prescription
drugs, making a wide range of drugs — from
AIDS medication and oral contraceptives to cholesterol-lowering
drugs — less effective.
The
truth is that St. John’s Wort enhances liver
function and stimulates the detoxification and
elimination of drugs from the body, which lessens
the therapeutic effect of many drugs. The body
considers synthetic drugs foreign toxins, which
can and do cause considerable harm. For this reason
the liver breaks these toxic chemicals down into
less harmful molecules and excretes them as rapidly
as possible. This creates a problem only in that
it renders certain drugs less effective by removing
them from the body too quickly, before the drugs
has had time to complete its usual job.
Dr.
Dresser, of the University of Western Ontario
in Canada, and colleagues administered midazolam,
a sedative, to 10 healthy volunteers before and
after a 12-day treatment with the popular herbal
antidepressant St. John's wort. The investigators
found that the herbal product decreased blood
levels of midazolam by 60%.
The
finding has implications for other drugs that
are processed in the same way as midazolam, Dresser
said. “You can expect that for as many as
half of the drugs in common use, lower levels
would result when they're taken with St. John's
wort,'' Dresser told Reuters Health.
On
the other hand, initial drug levels will rise
if St. John's wort is taken at the same time as
another drug, Dresser said. “I would suggest
patients not take their drugs together with St.
John's wort. That's definitely a no-no,'' he said.
What
the study showed is that patients ``definitely
need to discuss their use of all herbals, and
especially St. John's wort, with their physicians,''
Dresser said.
``They
need to be aware that if they're taking St. John's
wort on a regular basis, that it can reduce the
level of drug that's getting into their system
in many cases,'' he noted. ''They need to discuss
this with their physician to decide whether their
drug happens to be one of these drugs that is
likely to be reduced in level by taking St. John's
wort.''
St.
John’s Wort is widely used in Germany where
it has been proven to be safe and effective in
the treatment of depression. Some U.S. physicians
have started recommending it to patients because
of the significant amount of respected clinical
research which demonstrates that St. John’s
Wort is safe and effective in stemming mild to
moderate depression. Consumers should be careful
about combining herbal medicines with drugs, but
in most cases they will be better off eliminating
the drug and continuing to take the herbal alternative.
For
information on Dr. Hansen’s Vital Formulation
for Mood & Energy, which includes St. John’s
Wort, click here: Optimum
Vitality
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