Word: wort
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...know if any of these beverages are really doing all that they claim to do." Many of the putatively healing potions contain little more than trace elements of the prominently mentioned herbal ingredients, says Mirkin. For example, in order to take aboard the dosage of St. John's wort that clinical tests have shown to reduce stress, one would have to drink six bottles of SoBe Wisdom a day. Which SoBe wouldn't mind...
Feeling a little depressed? You could get a prescription for Prozac or try psychotherapy. But 7.5 million Americans in the past year have instead gulped down an extract made from a bright yellow flower called St. John's wort--available without a prescription at the health-food store in the mall or at the local Wal-Mart. Fear the onset of cold and flu season? You could get a flu shot. Or, like 7.3 million Americans, you could swallow a capsule made from echinacea, a purple-petaled daisy native to the Midwest. Worried that your memory is fading? Then write...
Some unwary consumers, though, have been getting hurt. Geoffrey Bove, a pain researcher at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess hospital, recalls a woman whose skin became hypersensitive when she stepped into sunlight. Even a mild breeze triggered a painful reaction. Bove traced the cause to the St. John's wort that the woman was taking to combat mild depression. When she switched to a prescription drug, the painful burning vanished...
...fresh attention to practical evidence that sometimes stretches back millenniums--is beginning to give guidance. In Germany, where the government has supervised studies of 279 herbs approved for sale in the country's strictly regulated pharmacies, remedies that enjoy the greatest popularity (including ginkgo, kava and St. John's wort) are generally those that have been the most thoroughly investigated...
...Texas, recently published in English. It tells which herbs have proved safe and beneficial but warns against side effects and other risks. It advises pregnant and nursing women not to take kava, for example, and notes that some people may become sensitive to sunlight when using St. John's wort. It approves standardized doses of ginkgo extract but rejects nonstandard preparations made from whole leaves as untested and potentially hazardous. At the same time, it turns thumbs down on folk remedies like nutmeg for upset stomachs, noting scant evidence that it works and warning that large doses can cause hallucinations...