Conflicts With Modern Medicine

Some people may decide to try an herbal remedy for the first time, based on the recommendations of family members or friends, TV commercials, or information they've read. Sometimes, they make the mistake of thinking that herbal remedies are some kind of miracle cure, and, unfortunately, certain marketing tactics only serve to reinforce this notion.

It is vitally important to remember that herbs are not miracle cures for everything. There is an effective herbal remedy for almost any health condition you can think of, but there is more to the "cure" than just taking a pill.

Most herbal supplements can be used for a wide variety of ailments. Instead of buying separate pills for individual complaints like you do when buying synthetic medications, you can often buy one or two general herbs to take care of multiple things at once.

Most people don't realize that herbs can do more than one thing, however. For this reason, they pick an herb for one specific use, not knowing that it may be doing other things to their bodies too. A powerful herbal antibiotic known as Goldenseal, for instance, is also a natural source of insulin. As such, it can cause problems for anyone who takes synthetic insulin, or for anyone who has hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Herbs can also cause conflicts with synthetic medications. In the example above, if you take Goldenseal while also taking insulin shots, you run the risk of overdosing on insulin and having your blood sugar drop down too low.

Conflicts: Part 2