DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Question: What herbs do you use regularly, if any, and why?

Ofri: None. I eat a balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. So far, that has kept me quite healthy.

Hudson: The most consistent herbs I take on a daily basis are either peppermint, licorice root or echinacea, and usually in a tea. I'm fortunate to be very healthy, with no chronic or recurring health problems. I generally drink echinacea or licorice root tea in the rainy months for general immune support and the prevention of colds, the flu and respiratory infections. I use the peppermint tea as a general aid for digestion.

Question: Should you take echinacea on a daily basis to prevent colds, or only at the first sign of cold symptoms?

Ofri: I have not seen any evidence to support using echinacea in either of these manners. I would not take anything (herb, pill, medicine) without knowing that there is good evidence that the benefits outweigh the harms. I do not assume that something is healthy or safe just because it has the label 'herb' or 'natural' on it. I maintain the same skeptical attitude about new pharmaceuticals.

Hudson: People who have several colds per year would be wise to use a low dose of echinacea daily, or at least frequently. They can then increase their dose at the first sign of cold symptoms. The notion that you shouldn't take echinacea daily, or that you can become resistant to its benefits, is a myth as far as I can tell.

Question: What is your preferred method of taking herbs (teas, capsules, tinctures, etc.)?

Ofri: I don't take herbs, so I can't answer this (although I do enjoy herbal teas for their flavor).

Hudson: I prefer taking herbs in teas for general use if I'm not looking for a specific clinical dose or a specific clinical result. I like tinctures for short-term problems and capsules for those problems that require months of treatment.

Question: If you have a headache, do you always opt for a natural remedy over over-the-counter drugs such as Tylenol or Advil?

Ofri: There is an enormous misconception about what is "natural" and what is not. Willow bark tea might seem to be a natural remedy for a headache, but aspirin, which is derived from willow bark, is considered by many to be not natural and therefore suspect. There are many natural remedies that are dangerous (foxglove, ma-huang, arsenic, several wild mushrooms), so I warn my patients not to blithely assume that natural is safe, and medicines are bad. Every single chemical compound (which is what everything under the sun is) needs to be evaluated for safety and efficacy before use.

Hudson: If I have a headache, I try to lie down or take a hot bath with cold cloths on my forehead. If that doesn't work, or if I'm not able to do that, I'm grateful for the invention of Advil. Fortunately, I don't often have headaches.

Question: Are all store-bought herbal products the same?

Ofri: No. Since herbal products are regulated as "food supplements," there is no regulatory body that ensures that the compound in the bottle is what the label says. There is no oversight (such as the FDA) in the manufacture and marketing of these products. The L-tryptophan incident several years ago is an example of what can happen with this loophole.

Hudson: There is a great deal of variability in quality and strength and even purity of store-bought herbal products. It takes a studious consumer to understand labels for potency and strength and to sort out the facts from the hype. These days, a consumer also has to understand the differences between traditional herbal preparations and standardized extracts.

Question: What is the role of herbs in treating serious diseases such as cancer?

Ofri: Herbs have been the source of our medications for thousands of years. Taxol, from the Pacific yew tree, is a recent example. Researchers are finding more and more compounds that are active against many of the major diseases. I would regard any herbal treatment the same way I would view any new medication: If there is solid data indicating that the benefits outweigh the risks, then it is a good treatment to consider. If there are only anecdotes or small, uncontrolled studies, I would be very hesitant to entrust my health to this treatment.

Hudson: Herbal preparations have a spectrum of actions that may be useful in both the prevention and treatment of cancers. These actions include antioxidant effects, increasing natural killer cell activity, tumor inhibition, altering enzyme systems that result in inhibiting cancer cell replication and other actions. Much more research is needed to understand and confirm the efficacy of herbs in both cancer prevention and treatment. Some of the simplest prevention recommendations include frequent intake of green tea and garlic.

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