Herbal Product

Also called: Botanicals, Phytotherapy

An herb is a plant or plant part used for its scent, flavor or therapeutic properties. Herbal medicine products are dietary supplements that people take to improve their health. Many herbs have been used for a long time for claimed health benefits. They are sold as tablets, capsules, powders, teas, extracts and fresh or dried plants. However, some can cause health problems, some are not effective and some may interact with other drugs you are taking.

To use an herbal product as safely as possible

* Consult your doctor first
* Do not take a bigger dose than the label recommends
* Take it under the guidance of a trained medical professional
* Be especially cautious if you are pregnant or nursing

ut while the extract is available over the counter, people with chronic heart failure must consult their physician before taking it, the study’s lead researcher told Reuters Health.

“That’s one of the problems that you have with hawthorn; on the one hand there is evidence that it does something for chronic heart failure, but chronic heart failure is not a self-diagnosed condition,” Dr. Max H. Pittler of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, UK, explained.

Hawthorn extract is used around the world to treat chronic heart failure, in which the heart becomes less and less able to pump blood throughout the body. However, research on the herbal medicine’s effectiveness has been mixed.

To assess existing evidence, Pittler and his team reviewed 14 studies comparing hawthorn extract to placebo in heart failure patients, pooling data from 10 of the studies.

Their findings are reported in the Cochrane Library, which is published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

Most studies focused on maximal workload and exercise tolerance, or how much energy a person can expend while working out on an exercise bike, and how long they were able to sustain this level of activity. Hawthorn extract significantly improved both measures of heart function, the researchers found, while it also reduced shortness of breath and fatigue compared to placebo.

Side effects were “infrequent, mild, and transient,” and included dizziness and nosebleeds, the researchers report. Nevertheless, Pittler noted, the study was not specifically designed to address the safety of the extract — only its effectiveness. “To be completely sure you need to do a slightly different sort of review and assess safety using that slightly different methodology,” he said.

Self-medication of chronic heart failure with hawthorn extract is a bad idea, he added, both because it could interact with other medications a person is taking and because people with the condition should be under a doctor’s care.

Although the analysis didn’t address how the herbal medicine works, Pittler said, it appears to be boosting the strength of the heart muscle’s contractions.

More research is necessary, he and his colleagues conclude, to determine if hawthorn extract could improve heart failure patients’ prognosis.

SOURCE: The Cochrane Library 2008.