We've often discussed dangerous side effects of alternative medicines, mainly because they aren't supposed to have been regulated as modern medicine is.

Yet how many times have people died using regulated medicine? Very many I should think.

I have taken medication and suffered continual palpatations. They were on morning, noon and night for about four days. When I couldn't sleep because they were so fierce I rang my doc next day. He told me to come off the tabs immediately.

My mum has been violently sick due to antibiotics, come out in huge red blotches all over her body that burned red hot and itched like mad. She had to stand under a cold shower to get relief as it was that bad. Pain killers for arthritis caused irriversable damage to her lungs. Though the docs deny it - even though the tablets state it on them and she needed blood tests once a fortnight all the while she was on them. She did have smoking related asthma before this, but it wasn't bad until being on those tabs for several months. I know another person who had the same problem with them.

Others have made my mum hallucinate, shudder uncontrollably, nearly black out and feel suicidal.

Yet these are monitered medicines and supposed to be safe. Though we are given a lsit of possible side effects but still expected to take them.

I used what was classed as a health supplement called Silcol Gel from a health shop. It massivley cuts down inflammation anywhere in the body. I used it because of reflux. It stated on the box it was best used long term and gave info on tests on many patients over years. This product worked brilliant for me. Then the medical world got hold of it - decided it worked and took it over- but said it could only be used for three days consequtively. I'd been using it 8 months :lol: I had blood tests during that time and all came back clear. My blood count has never been so good. No sign of inflammation in my body.
Afraid to take the silicol as I had I decided to only take it now and again. But I know I have inflammation now.

So much for 'modern' medicines being safe!

Medicine has never claimed to be 100% side effect free or 100% safe - that sort of thing is left to sugar pills of homoeopathy.

If the side effects are too unpleasant then there are always alternative, clinically proven, options.

I'd rather have confidence in the clinical efficacy of real medicine than risk my health on quack alternatives any day.

St John's Wart for everything!



I know a man who does.

In some way so would I but there are herbal remedies that have been used for years that people swear by. And they often do give a list of possible side. I would only use a product I felt confident in. But basically what I am saying is that even modern medicines can cause serious side effect or death.

St Johns Wart has been a very popular drug for many years.

That's no secret. The side effects listed in every prescription drug packet are testimony to that.

Just as no procedure carried out under anaesthesia is guaranteed safe no drug has ever claimed to be 100% guaranteed safe. However, the risks are low enough - or understood if higher for certain people - that the benefit outweighs the risks.

Many medicines are derived from nature - Aspirin, for example, so don't think that 'herbal remedies' are totally separate from real medicine. The danger is when people take herbs, sugar pills and all sorts of other quackery without there being any clinical trials to test for efficacy - or where efficacy has not been demonstrated under tests.

Personally, my health is too important to me to risk it on the advice of an old wive's tale alone. That's just me.

As for Silicol Gel - it's just silicic acid which has been proven through clinical trials to have certain benefits - especially in the digestive system. The benefits of silicic acid have been known for decades - much as the benefits of vitamin supplements, cod liver oil, aspirin etc. The medical profession are not averse to clinically tested health supplements.

There's one area where I always take herbal meds and that's for sleep problems. I don't like the pills the doctor's prescribe. Herbal sleeping pills seem to be gentler.