Nature’s cure

Walk into just about any grocery store, drug store or health foods store and you’ll see them:

Row after row, shelf after shelf, aisle after aisle of botanical dietary supplements.

It’s all there, from anise to yarrow, with plenty of chamomile, Echinacea, ginkgo and St. John’s Wort in between. There are herbal capsules and teas, tinctures and balms. You can buy single herbs or complex formulations.

They claim to boost energy, ease menopausal symptoms, calm upset stomachs, improve sexual function and many, many other things.

Although sales of herbal remedies have dipped a bit since a boom in the mid-90s, they remain a $4.2 billion industry annually and a popular alternative treatment. A recent survey found that nearly one-fifth of U.S. adults had turned to natural products, such as herbs or botanicals, for healing in the past year.

“People are very interested in looking for natural remedies,” says Dr. Bob Lutz, a Spokane urgent-care doctor who completed a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine. “People are also very interested in having a greater say in their own health care. People want a little bit of empowerment.”

But just because herbs are “natural” doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with the same seriousness as any other medication.

“Herbs are not innocuous,” Lutz says. “By all means, consider using herbal supplements. But us them appropriately and understand why you’re using them.”

Spokane resident Bud Bray started taking an herbal remedy in June to ease constipation brought on by diverticulitis and the subsequent removal of part of his colon. He had tried commercial fiber therapies, like Citrucel, but found they only worked if he took them in large quantities.

Through a friend, he discovered an herbal formulation made by a woman in Chattaroy.

“It’s worked really good,” Bray, 45, says. “It’s kind of neat if you can use stuff off the land and it doesn’t have to be manufactured by a pharmacy.”

Bray did something that many people don’t do when they start taking herbal supplements: He told his doctor about it.

He even brought his doctor the bottle of tablets, so he could look over the ingredients and make sure they wouldn’t interact with any of his prescription drugs.

“If it worked for me, he thought it was a good idea,” says Bray, whose doctor wrote him a prescription so he could use his company’s insurance flex plan to pay for his pills.

But many people either forget or don’t want to tell their doctors about herbal supplements they might be taking. And that can be dangerous.

For example, ginkgo can interact with blood thinners, causing clotting problems. St. John’s Wort can mix badly with prescription antidepressants.

“For the most part, herbs that have been around and that are still used really do have a safe profile when they’re used appropriately,” Lutz says. Still, he adds, patients “need to be telling their health-care provider what they’re using.”

Herbal supplements are regulated as foods, not drugs, by the Food and Drug Administration. That means they don’t have to meet the same standards for safety and effectiveness as over-the-counter or prescription medications.

“It’s still a buyer-beware market,” Lutz says.

Most herbs on the market today are manufactured and distributed by large companies. But some, such as those Bray takes, are handmade by herbalists.

Rosha Roushof Chattaroy is the owner of Rosha’s Remedies, a store that sells her herbal formulations.

She started working with herbs in 1991, creating mixtures to help heal animals. She didn’t start blending herbs for people until 1997, thanks to demand from her animal-owning clients.

“They wanted what their horse was on,” Roush says.

One of her most popular supplements is a colon cleanser she calls RTE, Rejuvenation Through Elimination. She also makes pain relievers and herbal combinations that help with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and arthritis. She makes Peak Performance, which she says can be used like Viagra.

At Lorien Herbs & Natural Foods in Spokane, owner Chris Bansemer stocks some 400 different herbs in bulk, tinctures, capsules and teas. Her store also stocks a large number of books so people can learn about supplements.

She recommends that clients begin slowly and do their research before taking herbal remedies.

“Start with real basic, pleasant-tasting teas like green tea or chamomile,” Bansemer says. “Get a good book on studying up on different herbs … Just like with foods, you need to know what you’re eating if you want to stay healthy.”

Some people stop taking herbal remedies because they become frustrated, says Karen Robin, spokeswoman for the American Herbal Products Association, an industry trade group.

“Because of pharmaceutical drugs, we got used to that speedy alleviation of symptoms,” Robin says. “When people sort of rediscovered herbal medicines, I think they may have had some of that same expectation … Herbal medicines don’t work that way, they work more gradually. That’s one of the reasons they have fewer side effects is because they’re not so drastic.”