Alternative medicines and herbs

[Aardvark]

Does anyone have any real info on if any of these herbs lke gingseng and ginkgo biloba really have any effects.

 

Or is it all a load of hippy crap?

[Sayonara]

I know ginkgo biloba contains a compond that dilates blood vessels, but I'm not sure what it is.

[Glider]

Originally posted by Aardvark

Does anyone have any real info on if any of these herbs lke gingseng and ginkgo biloba really have any effects.

 

Or is it all a load of hippy crap?

 

Some of it is, some isn't. There is a lot of research going on to evaluate the claims of homeopathy and other 'new age' approaches. Many of the claims of homeopathy are collapsing under the scruitiny of scientific method, and can be filed in the hippy crap bin. e.g. the homeopathic principle of the 'memory of water'. This is where it was claimed that an infusion of a herbal remedy would impart its theraputic properties into the water, and these properties would remain in the water, i.e. that the water would 'remember' the properties, even when it was diluted to the equivalent of about 5ml in the Atlantic. This was recently tested rigorously, and failed miserably to support its claims.

 

However, some claims concerning plant based therapies are yeilding interesting results and warrent further investigation. For example, the active ingredient in St. Johns wart (used as a herbal therapy for depression) is now known to have an effect on 5-HT (serotonin) levels, though (as far as I know) the mechanism of function is not fully understood. The problem with the homeopathic preparations is that the concentrations vary massively between different preparations from different manufacturing outlets (thus would have unreliable and unpredictable effects), and in many cases the concentrations are too low to have any significant impact anyway.

 

The short answer is that the results aren't all in yet and it's still up to the individual to evaluate the evidence provided in support of many of these herbal therapies.

[Aardvark]

Interesting stuff, i'd also heard that St Johns Wort was effective, unfortunately when i try to check the evidence on the internet i get a lot of conflicting evidence and advice.

 

Anyone know of any good sources of info on the latest evidence?