Herbal Viagra – Traditional Chinese Medicine health warning

One main reason that people are attracted to herbal medicines is that they are “natural therefore safe”. This, of course, is a dangerous assumption and is completely wrong. There are two main reasons why ‘natural’ does not necessarily mean safe:

1. Naturally occurring drugs.
   
   If a herbal remedy does work (and almost all of them don’t) then it will be because the herb contains naturally occurring drugs. It doesn’t actually matter whether a drug is manufactured in a test tube or inside a plant, if it has a physiological effect on the body then it may well work; however, this also means it may also have unintended effects – dangerous side effects.
   
   
2. Medical drugs added during manufacture (adulteration).
   
   As most herbal remedies do not work, unscrupulous manufacturers will sometimes add medicinal drugs to their products so that they do get results. The danger here being that the person taking such ‘herbal’ remedies will not be aware of what’s in them and will be prone to possibly dangerous side effects without realising it. (more…)