Herbal Medicine - Safety
When prepared with good quality control, most herbal remedies are gentle and unlikely to cause serious side effects. Nevertheless, because they, like drugs, contain physiologically active agents, such side effects can occur. In practice, however, the most common are allergic reactions, throat irritations, gastrointestinal upsets, and headaches.
When more serious side effects do occur, the medical establishment frequently touts them as a reason why people should stay away from herbal remedies. Because the documented incidence of serious reactions to herbal remedies is much less than that to pharmaceutics, this self-serving criticism is a double standard. In fact, studies suggest that adverse drug reactions account for over a quarter of all hospitalizations and are a major cause of death in this country.
Given such statistics, people with physical disabilities, who often face a heavy medication burden, may be better off using herbal medicine for routine ailments and saving the heavy pharmaceutical artillery for the more serious conditions.