19-Jun-2003, 08:06 AM
St. John's Wort has come under severe attack in the US for its side effects withoiut having any proven efficacy over ethical pharmaceuticals. I read your link reference, for which thanks, but the references quoted cannot be followed in the text; most are from journals whose peer review stadrads are questionable. It is difficult to know exactly what the BMJ article had to say.
The Ginko Bilboa article says it all "A cognitive enhancer?" Note the question mark!
As for the Glucosamine studies, they are inconclusive for the most part even with standards of criteria that are very subjective.
Noel: I appreciate the note of the benefit your wife feels she obtains; unfortunately anecdotal evidence is, I am sorry to say, worthless.
Having once worked for a phramaceutical company and involved in double blind trials, I can assure you there are some astonishing results from placebos! I recall a radio opaque medium that caused no allergic reactions in a large group of patients, but the placebo - sterilized water - put two patients into anaphylactic shock! Go figure...
I note several of the 'clinical trials' were carried out in Germany; herbal and 'natural' medicine has far looser controls and strictures than in most other developed countries, as incidentally does Switzerland. The latter even allows 'layers on of hands' to practise with impunity.
The Ginko Bilboa article says it all "A cognitive enhancer?" Note the question mark!
As for the Glucosamine studies, they are inconclusive for the most part even with standards of criteria that are very subjective.
Noel: I appreciate the note of the benefit your wife feels she obtains; unfortunately anecdotal evidence is, I am sorry to say, worthless.
Having once worked for a phramaceutical company and involved in double blind trials, I can assure you there are some astonishing results from placebos! I recall a radio opaque medium that caused no allergic reactions in a large group of patients, but the placebo - sterilized water - put two patients into anaphylactic shock! Go figure...
I note several of the 'clinical trials' were carried out in Germany; herbal and 'natural' medicine has far looser controls and strictures than in most other developed countries, as incidentally does Switzerland. The latter even allows 'layers on of hands' to practise with impunity.
BillR