Another Biased Headline
“Researcher Warns on Herbal Medicines”
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/08/2813236.htm)
Looking at the above headline, what thoughts enter your head? Obviously it is an attempt to ingrain into the public mind that herbal medicines are dangerous per se. Sadly, that’s not what the article says.
A forensic pathologist thinks some people’s embarrassment about taking herbal medicines can leave them vulnerable to taking a lethal cocktail of drugs.Professor Roger Byard of Adelaide University has published a research paper on the dangers of herbal medicines when taken in large quantities, injected or combined with use of prescription drugs.He has found it can lead to serious illnesses, worsen pre-existing conditions or cause death.Professor Byard says people are often reluctant to tell their doctor they are taking herbal medicines for fear of ridicule, but it can be a fatal mistake.
Opening sentence: he’s not saying herbal medicines are bad, but that not telling your MD about your use of them can be. That makes perfect sense because of drug-drug interaction.
“Although obviously a number of herbal substances are quite safe, you don’t know what’s in the package sometimes and there may be interactions, so it is important to talk to your doctor,” he said.He says his research was sparked by the death of a young man who had injected a Chinese medicine chan su, which contains a toxin from toads.“The materials that can be added include heavy metals, there’ve been cases of mercury poisoning and arsenic poisoning, lead poisoning, also sometimes the manufacturers will add western pharmaceutical agents, so they’ll add drugs that we manufacture to the herbal medicines to actually increase their effect,” he said.
Note it says that the young man “had injected” not “had been injected with”. Could this be a case of self-medication? If so, then he is right again: the message is that herbs can be safe, but some dangerous ones must be administered under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. That’s something I’ve been saying for years.
Also, be careful of adulterated herbs or herbal products – hence the need for regulation by people who KNOW the herbs.
I generally tell my patients to never get over-the-counter chinese herbal preparations unless a) prescribed by a professional and b) from reliable factories. If it just says “made in China” it’s probably fake.
Now back to the bias. Again, the media is subtly manipulating thoughts via headline. It could easily say “Scientist warns against dangers of abusing herbs.” Instead, the title seems to imply that herbs are dangerous and that Professor Byard is warning against herbs in general. In fact, the good Professor is warning against the same thing we do!
Journalist thinks:
- I need a catchy title! Something that has danger, warn, and herbal medicine in it.
“Scientist warns against dangers of abusing Herbal Medicine”. Hmm, too long.
“Scientist warns against dangers of herbs”. Still too long.
“Scientist warns on herbs”. Almost there… Let’s just switch scientist with researcher and herbs with herbal medicine. Medicine gets people’s attention.
“Researcher Warns on Herbal Medicines” There you go! Done.
- What was this article about anyway? Oh well, who cares.
I care! I care! GRRRR! Needs to relax my Liver.