Unit 6 Potential side effects

A number of herbs are thought to be likely to cause adverse effects. Furthermore, "adulteration, inappropriate formulation, or lack of understanding of plant and drug interactions have led to adverse reactions that are sometimes life threatening or lethal." Proper double-blind clinical trials are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of each plant before they can be recommended for medical use. Although many consumers believe that herbal medicines are safe because they are "natural", herbal medicine may interact with synthetic drugs causing toxicity to the patient, may have contamination that is a safety consideration, and herbal medicines, without proven efficacy, may be used to replace medicines that have a proven efficacy. The political issues around the safety of crude drugs vary from considering natural remedies "safe" regardless of potential dangers to considering them a dangerous unknown. Ephedra has been known to have numerous side effects, including severe skin reactions, irritability, nervousness, dizziness, trembling, headache, insomnia, profuse perspiration, dehydration, itchy scalp and skin, vomiting, hyperthermia, irregular heartbeat, seizures, heart attack, stroke, or death. Poisonous plants which have limited medicinal effects are often not sold in material doses in the United States or are available only to trained practitioners, these include:

• Aconite

• Arnica

• Belladonna

• Bryonia

• Datura

• Gelsemium

• Henbane

• Male Fern

• Phytolacca

• Podophyllum and

• Veratrum

Furthermore, herbs such as Lobelia, Ephedra and Eonymus that cause nausea, sweating, and vomiting, have been traditionally prized for this action. Plants such as Comfrey and Petasites have specific toxicity due to hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid content. There are other plant drugs which require caution or can interact with other medications, including St. John's wort and grapefruit.

Conventional treatments are subjected to testing for undesired side-effects, whereas alternative treatments generally are not subjected to such testing at all. Any treatment — whether conventional or alternative — that has a biological or psychological effect on a patient may also have potentially dangerous biological or psychological side-effects. Attempts to refute this fact with regard to alternative treatments sometimes use the appeal to nature fallacy, i.e. "that which is natural cannot be harmful".

An exception to the normal thinking regarding side-effects is Homeopathy. Since 1938 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulated homeopathic products in "several significantly different ways from other drugs." Homeopathic preparations, termed "remedies," are extremely dilute, often far beyond the point where a single molecule of the original active (and possibly toxic) ingredient is likely to remain. They are thus considered safe on that count, but "their products are exempt from good manufacturing practice requirements related to expiration dating and from finished product testing for identity and strength," and their alcohol concentration may be much higher than allowed in conventional drugs.

Active Vocabulary

side effects	побічні дії
adulteration	фальсифікація
interaction	взаємодія
double-blind	подвійний сліпий (експеримент, в якому випробувач і випробуваний не знають реальну ціль експерименту, так як це може повпливати на експеримент)
ephedra	ефедра, хвойник
dizziness	запаморочення
aconite	аконіт
arnica	арніка
belladonna	беладонна
bryonia	переступень
datura	дурман
henbane	блекота
comfrey	живокіст
male fern	чоловіча папороть
podophyllum	подофіл
veratrum	чемериця
seizure	апоплексичний удар

Tasks

Task 1. Answer the questions to the text.

1. Can herbs cause adverse effects?

2. Proper double-blind clinical trials are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of each plant before they can be recommended for medical use, aren’t they?

3. Are poisonous plants which have limited medicinal effects sold in material doses in the United States?

4. What poisonous plants do you know?

5. Why are homeopathic products considered to be safe?

Task 2. Translate into English:

1. Вживання деяких трав у невідповідних дозах шкідливе для здоров’я людини. 2. . Гомеопатичні препарати використовують як допоміжний засіб при лікуванні складних захворювань. 3.Обов’язкова консультація лікаря перед вживанням настоїв із лікарських трав. 4. Вагітні жінки повинні бути обачливими при вживанні лікарських трав. 5. Слід негайно припинити вживання трав при негативній реакції організму.

Task 3. Make up sentences using the following words.

1. Plant, proper, clinical, are, safety, needed, to, trials, determine, the, and, efficacy, of, each, double-blind.

2. Interact, to, herbal, causing, synthetic, medicine, may, with, drugs, toxicity, the, patient.

3. Has, ephedra, been, known, to, side, numerous, effects, have.

4. Material, poisonous, the, in, United States, are, plants, often, not, sold, doses, in.

5. Plants, toxicity, some, have.

Task 4. Read the dialogue and act it out.

Student:	Is it safe to use herbs for treatment?
Lecturer:	Only in certain doses and after doctor’s consultation.
Student:	Why is it dangerous?
Lecturer:	Because some herbs can cause adverse effects. Misunderstanding of plant and drug interactions can lead to unforeseeable consequences that are sometimes life threatening or lethal."
Student:	What can you say about the use of some plants by teenagers?
Lecturer:	The age of adolescents is specific in its own. It is the age of physiological and psychological jump in the development. Teenagers don’t realize what they do. Both they and their future children are in danger.
Student:	How it is possible to prevent this social phenomenon?
Lecturer:	Only by joint efforts of parents, police and state control over herbs sale.
Student:	What about healthy lifestyle campaigns?
Lecturer:	Sometimes they are effective, but to my mind the best healthy lifestyle campaign is classmates’ healthy lifestyle, isn’t it?

Task 5. Points for discussion:

a) “Side effects of local plants”

b) “Is it necessary doctor’s consultation before taking herbal teas or

homeopathic remedy?”

c) “Teenagers’ abuse of poisonous plants (such as datura, henbane)”