LIVER FAILURE FROM HERBAL MEDICINE
A drug that can cause liver failure that is unregulated and anyone can buy. This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. Some health food enthusiasts might take issue with description of Chaparral as a drug because it’s called an herbal preparation. But according to an article published in the Journal of the AMA, Chaparral was responsible for liver disease so severe that the victim needed a liver transplant.
The culprit wasn’t so obvious at first. Physicians at the University of Chicago Hospitals were stumped when a woman with no history of liver disease, blood transfusions, or alcohol use got severe hepatitis. The medications she had been using were no know to cause liver disease, but the lady’s husband remembered that she had been taking increasing quantities of Chaparral pills for 10 months. Chaparral is made from the leaves of an evergreen desert shrub known as the Creosote bush or “greasewood”. It is said to slow the aging process and improve skin conditions. But, it turns out; there have been other causes of liver toxicity reported from the use of Chaparral.
Those fond of liver treatments or who sell them may note
that plenty of prescription and OTC drugs can also cause liver damage. Even overdoses of the common pain reliever
acetaminophen are well known to cause liver problems. The difference thought is that prescription
and even OTC drugs are regulated and toxic side effects noted. Health food products, like chaparral, are not
subjected by law to the same safety or efficy standards as drugs called
“drugs”. The lesson is that
the public needs to remember that just because something is called a food
supplement or natural remedy doesn’t mean it can’t cause
problems. Speaking of Health, I’m
Dr. Steven Andrew Davis for CBS News.
E-Mail
drdavis@davishealth.com
Dr. Steve Davis
7810 Louis Pasteur #200
210/614-3355
