St. John's Wort Doesn't Ease Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Jan. 8 -- THURSDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The popular herbal supplement St. John's wort does not appear to relieve the pain and discomfort that accompanies irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), new research suggests.
The finding is the first to indicate that an herbal preparation long-touted as an effective alternative treatment for mild and moderate depression does not appear to treat IBS.
"People are definitely looking for alternative treatment options, and as a physician I have patients showing up all the time with supplements and asking me, 'Should I be taking this?'" said study author Dr. Yuri A. Saito, an assistant professor of medicine at the Miles and Shirley Fiterman Center for Digestive Diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "But there is a global paucity of clinical trials with respect to natural alternative agents, so it's not always possible to give a good answer," Saito added.
"So we decided to see whether St. John's wort -- which is a bona fide, effective treatment for mild-to-moderate depression -- is effective as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, which no one had done before," Saito said. "And unfortunately, we found that at conventional doses of 900 milligrams a day, we did not see any clear benefit over placebo."
Saito and her colleagues report their findings in the January issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
The authors point out that St. John's wort held promise as a potential IBS treatment, given that depression is often linked to the onset of IBS. In fact, prescription antidepressants are frequently used for the treatment of the syndrome, which affects between 10 percent and 22 percent of the U.S. population.
Therefore, to test St. John's wort as a treatment for IBS, the research team tracked 70 patients aged 18 to 70 between 2006 and 2008.
All the patients had a confirmed diagnosis of IBS, and over a 12-week period half were treated with two daily doses of St. John's wort (450 milligrams each), while the other half were given placebos.
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