Word: ginseng
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Preparations made from herbs--from aloe for regularity to valerian for restful sleep--are the hottest of all, with some 60 million Americans now swallowing doses regularly. And for those who crave a tastier fix, there are new so-called functional foods--concoctions such as fruit juice laced with ginseng, or corn chips with kava, the one claiming to perk you up and the other to calm you down...
This blossoming market for all things herbal has attracted growing interest from everyone from Ann Landers (who recommends herbs as an alternative to Viagra) and Larry King (whose radio ads credit ginseng for his youthful, uh, glow) to professors of medicine and Wall Street investors. Just last week the Journal of the American Medical Association (J.A.M.A.) released an issue devoted entirely to studies of herbs and so-called alternative remedies (see accompanying story). Among the eye-opening findings: Americans today make more visits to nontraditional physicians, including naturopaths who claim expertise in herbs and other natural therapies, than to their...
...Chicago, marathoner Tom Smithburg works out daily and, in place of morning coffee, downs a megadose of ginseng: 1,000 mg, vs. the recommended maximum of 600 mg. "Coffee is a drug," says Smithburg, a public relations representative of the Chicago Bulls. "I hear more people complaining that they have headaches over the weekend from not getting their caffeine...
Such rival brands are emphasizing their quality to health seekers like Shirley Palmer, 66, a Los Angeles writer who pops ginkgo and ginseng and a handful of vitamins on the say-so of friends and news reports. "I have no evidence that these things really work," Palmer says. "I take them on faith." But they keep her away from the doctor, she says, and that's good because "I don't have time to sit around waiting in doctors' offices." Like Palmer, millions of Americans are using ancient remedies to broaden the range of modern health-care choices. And these...
...Make sure what you're taking is pure. Last May the FDA verified industry reports that certain shipments of ginseng were contaminated with high levels of a fungicide. Elaine Kang-Yum, a pharmacist at the Hudson Valley Poison Control Center in Tarrytown, N.Y., who tracks herbal medicines, says some imported Chinese remedies have been doped with Valium or other prescription drugs...