Herbal Remedy Questions? Reliable Advice Now Online
April 26, 2006 — -- Is it true that glucosamine chondroitin relieves arthritis? Or that caffeine may help headaches?
The herbal supplement market is a booming business. U.S. consumers spend more than $14 billion on supplements a year. But for people interested in herbal remedies, it can be hard to find accurate information.
But a new Natural Medicine Ratings online database from Consumer Reports should help fill the void. The database contains information on more than 13,600 natural products, including safety precautions and possible dangerous interactions with other drugs.
Various Web sites offer information on herbal remedies, but Consumer Reports claims its site is the first accessible, comprehensive source on the safety and effectiveness of such treatments.
For the most part, health experts welcome the new database.
"The natural medicine marketplace currently operates on a buyer-beware basis. I think that patients need all the objective guidance they can get where natural medicines are concerned," said Lynn Willis, professor of pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. "Unfortunately, the sources of objective information are out numbered by the nonobjective sources."
The site contains an "effectiveness scale" that rates natural substances in regard to specific ailments. Subscribers can search the interactive database by condition or remedy, and therapies are rated as "effective," "possibly effective," "possibly ineffective" or "insufficient evidence" of their effectiveness.
You must subscribe to Consumer Reports ($19/year, $4.95/month) to tap into the new database and Consumer Report's complete medical guide, but Consumer Reports offers one-month free trials to new users.
"Unlike prescription drugs, herbal remedies can be legally marketed without being approved by the FDA. Consumers are very much on their own in trying to figure out whether the product at the health food store is helpful or dangerous," said Nancy Metcalf, senior project editor at Consumer Reports.
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