Posted on 07/10/2015 1:02:09 AM PDT by dangus
My wife is in the hospital because of herbal tea. (Prayers are welcome, thank you.) I consider this news because hopefully the events of the evening will lead to a nation-wide recall, and if not, they should.
Please allow me to reiterate for everyone's health and safety: "All-natural remedies" are NOT safer than "Big Pharma" (a.k.a. medicine).
Here's what a drug is:
Someone identifies an herbal remedy. They identify the effective ingredient and purify it from any other ingredients which may cause side effects or be unhealthy or even toxic or simply reduce effectiveness. They may discover and include slight chemical changes to the ingredient which increase effectiveness or reduce side effects. They then rigorously test the substance for side effects, toxicity, addictiveness, or any other negative effects. Then they have to prove its effectiveness and safety to the government to a scientific certainty. Then they determine if it might interact with any conceivable other medications or medical conditions. Finally, by offering it as a recommended substance to patients, they assume liability for any harm it might do to a patient because they failed to test it enough.
"All natural remedies" don't have to be purified, proven safe or effective, and no-one assumes liability for anything, and no-one tests it for interactions, toxicity or the like.
Had this been a drug, there might be some six-figure settlement involved eventually. As it stands, I'm not optimistic because people who shell natural remedies... no scratch that: untested drugs in the raw... assume much less legal responsibility.
You would want a professional engineer, not some hippy day-dreamer, to design your airplane. Likewise, you should want a pharmaceutical professional, not some hippy day-dreamer to design your medicine.
My husband had a terrible reaction to St Johns Wort. We’re lucky it didn’t kill him.
Prayers for a speedy recovery.
I forgot to add that I’ll be praying for your wife.
Which herbal tea?
Everything we intake is a drug in some form.
Gee, originally I had simply omitted it due to oversight. Now I’m wondering if I should wait for the toxicology report or talk to a lawyer before naming them. I’d hate to be sued for slandering a particular brand. The more important message is to treat ALL herbal remedies as impure, unsafe, untested, unverified, unprescribed medicine.
...I mean, this was TEA for crying out loud. It’s not like she was trying some experimental AIDS or cancer medicine. And she ended up with a pulse rate bouncing between 30 bpm and 200 bpm.
Sadly a lot of us have loved one who have become sick due to drugs prescribed by doctors. And all the time you see drugs approved by the FDA have to be recalled because of the damage they've done.
So, don’t name the company or brand. What was the tea? What is the tea called?
I am a tea drinker. While at the store I saw a new Chinese brand and bought a box. When I got home they had, as usual, a list of all the magical properties of Wu Yee Tea. I figured it’s just going to be tea so made a cup. I had heart palpitations, body sweats, and numbness on half my body. I thought it was a stroke or something else horrible. But it was a reaction to the tea. Sorry to hear of your troubles.
If you have some time on youtube search out “The Amazing Randy” on his take downs of snake oil.
Sorry, disagree with your characterization and your premise. First of all, there are natural remedy companies that do a good job. I buy some on the internet. Second, big pharma kills far more people each year than any herbal or other remedies.
One could argue there could be more FDA oversight, but I strongly disagree with that as well. I am sorry about your wife, but I do not agree with your conclusions.
Peppermint tea can be effective sometimes for tummy aches.
I’m terribly sorry about what happened to your wife, but I think all of us would like to know what kind of tea she took; not the brand, the substance. My personal experience, however, is quite the opposite.
My ex-wife was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and given a prescription for a drug with hellacious and fairly common side effects, as well as questionable efficacy. (RA is supposedly incurable.) I took her to a very highly respected naturopath, who put her on some supplements and gradually altered her diet. After about six months, no symptoms of RA and no side effects.
The FDA has approved a multitude of drugs that were supposedly safe, only to remove them from the market later because of the severity and frequency of side effects.
I have friends who are MDs and one, a well-known cardiologist, once told me, “I wish they’d taught us more about homeopathic and naturopathic medicine in medical school; there’s definitely something to it.”
I will pray for your wife’s speedy recovery...
That doesn’t necessarily have any general meaning. My mother had penicillin her whole life, then one day she had an allergic reaction that almost killed her.
I can roll in poison ivy without so much as the slightest itch, but splenda sends my blood pressure through the roof.
Your body can develop an allergy to something you’ve tolerated for years. Or you may be allergic to something and just not know it because you haven’t been exposed to it in large enough quantities to trigger a reaction.
Your wife may need to see an allergist to determine if it is an allergy and what the specific trigger is.
Whoa!
Rule #1: Never ingest anything made in China.
Lord only knows what they have put into the product.
Darn good rule. Considering the horrible stories I’ve heard on product adulteration, consuming any food product made in China is a crapshoot at best.
That’s exactly the point: if a drug is found to make people sick, it gets recalled. St John’s Wort is still on the market, though, isn’t it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.