Pharmacy Daily | Herbs are medicines too

AUSTRALIANS who take herbal supplements and vitamins should be aware that they are medicines and can cause side effects and interact with food and other drugs, according to NPS Australia. Discussed in this month’s MedicinesTalk, complementary medicines should, according to NPS Head of Programs, Karen Kaye, be given the same consideration as other medicines. “When someone is selecting a medicine – whether prescription, over-the-counter or complementary – they should ask questions about whether a medicine is needed in the first place, how effective the medicine might be for their condition, and what the possible side effects could be,” said Kaye. “No medicine, even natural and herbal medicines, is completely free of side effects,” she added. Pharmacists and doctors, according to the NPS, need to know about all patients’ medicines, in order to consider all possible interactions when recommending medicines. Knowing the right complementary dosages for individual situations is also important, the NPS said. MEANWHILE the NPS’ comments coincide with a recent warning from Australian law firm, Tindall Gask Bentley Lawyers, to Australian consumers regarding the dangers of homeopathy. Tindall which represents 14 Australians who were struck down with a variety of illnesses after being injected with a homeopathic therapy contaminated with mycobacterium chelonae in 2008, said that the main issue with the industry is that it is self-regulated. [This] “isn’t enough to hold the practitioners to account and ensure that high health standards are met,” a Tindall lawyer said. “These people underwent biomesotherapy hoping for health benefits but instead they have been left seriously ill with their quality of life significantly hampered,” the lawyer added.

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