Herbal Medicine : Is It SAFE?

Herbal Medicine: Is It Safe?

As someone who has done 20 years of cutting-edge biomedical research and who runs this web site, I have witnessed the debate on whether the herbal medicine works or whether it is safe to use all the time.Take a latest case report on this month's Lancet (July, 2006). A man who took a Chinese herbal medicine developed bladder cancer. The herbal formula he took is called Long Dan Xie Gan Wan, a formula in recent years already linked to kidney damage in numerous cases. The kidney damage is due to aristolochic acid, a natural compound of a herb used in the herbal preparation at the time. (The aristolochic acid containing herb has since been replaced or removed from most Long Dan Xie Gan Wan preparations. ActiveHerb has not sold this formula because of the safety concern until May 2007 when we obtain the clean product that DOES NOT contain aristolochic acid. Please see it here) The man took the formula for over 5 years.

What can we conclude?

 According to the authors of the report, it "highlights the dangers of unregulated herbal therapy".

Fairly enough, also in the news of this month, is that a study finds acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, damages liver. In the study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), 40% healthy adults taking maximal doses of Tylenol for just two weeks showed abnormal liver test results. The adverse effect of acetaminophen on liver has been known for a long time but the scale of this damage still comes to the surprise. Now considering Tylenol is a nonprescription OTC medicine used by most, if not all, Americans in their life, what can we conclude here?

Obviously we cannot simply conclude whether herbal medicines or OTC medicines are safe. We need to look deeper into what might contribute to the adverse effects.A common reason for drug side effects is the improper or wrong use of medicines. In the Long Dan Xie Gan Wan case, the man used it for enhancing the liver for over 5 years. However, the herbal formula is not used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as tonics but rather used for purging the liver. In addition, the herbal remedy is not suitable for a long time use. However, he used the wrong product not only for months but for 5 years. This is a clear case of both wrong and improper use of herbal medicines. In the case of acetaminophen, its accidental overdose causes 100 death and 13000 emergency room visits a year in USA alone (more). The overdose occurs because acetaminophen is included in many OTC and prescription drugs and people unwittingly combine drugs or because misinformed belief that larger doses will give faster pain relief.

The well publicized side effect of ephedra belongs to its misuse as well. While ephedra is a Chinese herb, it has never been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a single herb for weight loss. Instead, ephedra is used in TCM in combination with other herbs to deal with health concerns other than obesity and no toxic effect is observed.Another reason for drug side effects relates to the poor product quality. While we can trust FDA in ensuring that every medicine on the market is made under the strict quality control procedures, bleach in quality control had previously happened in USA. Quality control of herbal medicines is certainly a major concern. One aspect of concern is the contamination of herbs by heavy metals (e. g., lead) and pesticides. There have been reports of toxicity caused by the excessive lead in herbal products. Another aspect of concern is that pharmaceuticals are mixed into herbs without being disclosed to consumers. For example, a claimed "all natural", "guaranteed to work", male enhancement product may contain the active ingredient of Viagra. It surely works. What you do not know is that really the Viagra ingredient works. This can easily get your health out of control. Here we would like to mention the herbal supplements ActiveHerb sells are strictly selected for their high quality.

Finally, side effects are intrinsic to many medicines and cannot be avoided. Their use depends on whether the benefits or the adverse effects outweigh. Why prescription drugs need to be prescribed by doctors? Because they all have side effects and the doctors' role is to direct their proper use. Remember Vioxx, the blockbuster painkiller withdrawn by Merck at the end of 2004? Vioxx is estimated to have caused 140,000 serious coronary heart disease!

Multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri is a different story. After linked to several patient deaths, the drug was taken off the market in early 2005. But it now comes back with more restrictions on the use.Some herbal medicines have intrinsic side effects too. However, many believe herbal medicines in general have much fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals. This notion seems to be supported by the occurrence of drug adverse reactions in China where TCM is widely used. A vast majority of drug adverse reactions reported in China are caused by chemical drugs. Most TCMs are classified as nonprescription drugs in China and have good safety profiles when used properly. Herbal medicines including TCM are regulated in USA as dietary supplements. This status of dietary supplements partly reflects their origin as food and their benign nature in action in most cases. From a historic perspective, herbal medicines have been developed on a trial and error process on human body over thousands of years, much like today we know what to eat as food and how we test drug safety in current clinical trials.

In the end, what can I conclude? No matter it is a mainstream medicine or herbal medicine, we have to use the right product, made in right quality and obtained from a reliable source, for the right application at the right dose and duration. Any compromise or omission may cause our health.

Bowtrol Store

Cause of irritable bowel syndrome

As discussed previously, irritable bowel syndrome is believed to be due to the abnormal function (dysfunction) of the muscles of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract or the nerves controlling the organs. The nervous control of the gastrointestinal tract, however, is complex. A system of nerves runs the entire length of the gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus to the anus in the muscular walls of the organs. These nerves communicate with other nerves that travel to and from the spinal cord. Nerves within the spinal cord, in turn, travel to and from the brain. (The gastrointestinal tract is exceeded in the numbers of nerves it contains only by the spinal cord and brain.) Thus, the abnormal function of the nervous system in IBS may occur in a gastrointestinal muscular organ, the spinal cord, or the brain.

The nervous system that controls the gastrointestinal organs, as with most other organs, contains both sensory and motor nerves. The sensory nerves continuously sense what is happening within the organ and relay this information to nerves in the organ's wall. From there, information can be relayed to the spinal cord and brain. The information is received and processed in the organ's wall, the spinal cord, or the brain. Then, based on this sensory input and the way the input is processed, commands (responses) are sent to the organ over the motor nerves. Two of the most common motor responses in the intestine are contraction or relaxation of the muscle of the organ and secretion of fluid and/or mucus into the organ.

As already mentioned, abnormal function of the nerves of the gastrointestinal organs, at least theoretically, might occur in the organ, spinal cord, or brain. Moreover, the abnormalities might occur in the sensory nerves, the motor nerves, or at processing centers in the intestine, spinal cord, or brain. Some researchers argue that the cause of functional diseases is abnormalities in the function of the sensory nerves. For example, normal activities, such as stretching of the small intestine by food, may give rise to abnormal sensory signals that are sent to the spinal cord and brain, where they are perceived as pain.

Other researchers argue that the cause of functional diseases is abnormalities in the function of the motor nerves. For example, abnormal commands through the motor nerves might produce a painful spasm (contraction) of the muscles. Still others argue that abnormally functioning processing centers are responsible for functional diseases because they misinterpret normal sensations or send abnormal commands to the organ. In fact, some functional diseases may be due to sensory dysfunction, motor dysfunction, or both sensory and motor dysfunction. Still others may be due to abnormalities within the processing centers One area that is receiving a great deal of scientific attention is the potential role of gas produced by intestinal bacteria in patients with IBS. Studies have demonstrated that patients with IBS produce larger amounts of gas than individuals without IBS, and the gas may be retained longer in the small intestine. Among patients with IBS, abdominal size increases over the day, reaching a maximum in the evening and returning to baseline by the following morning. In individuals without IBS, there is no increase in abdominal size during the day.

There has been a great deal of controversy over the role that poor digestion and/or absorption of dietary sugars may play in aggravating the symptoms of IBS. Poor digestion of lactose, the sugar in milk, is very common as is poor absorption of fructose, a sweetener found in many processed foods. Poor digestion or absorption of these sugars could aggravate the symptoms of IBS since unabsorbed sugars often cause increased formation of gas.

Although these abnormalities in production and transport of gas could give rise to some of the symptoms of IBS, much more work will need to be done before the role of intestinal gas in IBS is clear.

Dietary fat in healthy individuals causes food as well as gas to move more slowly through the stomach and small intestine. Some patients with IBS may even respond to dietary fat in an exaggerated fashion with greater slowing. Thus, dietary fat could--and probably does--aggravate the symptoms of IBS.

For more information visit: http://www.bowtrol.com/?aid=389611

Money Online Investment

15 Ways To Monetize

15 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

April 1, 2013 Sonia Jackson 21 CommentsinShareHere are fifteen ways to monetize your blog. The key fact about each of these points is that they are all actionable (except for the sponsorship one). In other words you can leave this article after reading and do any of these points right away (except for the sponsorship one, which requires research first). It is up to you which of these methods you choose to monetize your blog, but there is little stopping you from doing almost all of them at the same time.

1 – Set up a donations widget i.e. beg!

There are widgets out there that are titled “Donation”. They exist so that viewers can give you their money with no incentive and no reward. As you can imagine, your donations are going to be few and far between, but your blog may provide a viewer with an answer that they repay with a donation.

2 – Install Pay Per Click Advertising on your blog

These are the adverts that pay you if your viewers click on your adverts. They only pay a few cents and they look pretty tacky, but they are a way of monetizing your blog.

3 – Install Cost Per Mile advertising (CPM)

CPM is an online inevitability. Every affiliate advert may not gain clicks but will gain lots of impressions. Sometimes building a brand involves getting your name out there. Companies can easily create adverts that are not very clickable, but have a positive effect if they are seen. For example, having an advert that is just your logo and your tag-line will be enough to remind the viewer of your company. All they need is an impression of your advert; they do not need to click on it. If you are the webmaster then you can host these types of adverts under a CPM program. You get paid for how many impressions your adverts get, and not for how many clicks they get.

4 – Install Pay Per Action Advertising on your blog

These are adverts that only pay you if there is a sale as a result of your advert. The chances of getting a sale are slim, but the payment for a sale is far larger than payment for just a click. One sale via PPA per quarter may beat all of the payments you get for clicks.

5 – Gain corporate sponsorship for your blog

Finding a sponsor is harder than you think, but is not impossible. How you are going to go about it is up to you. If people knew how to get them then they would not write it on an article, they would do it themselves.

6 – Sell Advertising space on your blog just like a shop window

Create a box or two on each post and offer to sell the space to people who wish to advertise there. Offer to keep the advert there until the blog is decommissioned, or offer a time limit so that you can re-sell the space later.

7 – Install In-Text Ads / rollover text ads

Certain keywords are highlighted in the text and if the mouse pointer rolls over the text they will expand a box with an advert in. The advert must be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a very surreptitious way of installing adverts into your blog.

8 – Install In-Image Ads / rollover image ads

These are adverts that will not run until the user moves his or her mouse pointer over the image. They still have to be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a nice way of hiding the advertising on your website or blog.

9 – Advertise within your blog videos or start a Vlog

Some people install videos into their blog. There are affiliate advertisers that will happily add an advert at the beginning of your videos and pay you to have it watched. You could even set up a video log and dispense with the text itself.

10 – Direct sell your own goods on your blog (new or secondhand)

You can set up your own little adverts for stuff you want to sell. You may also create blog posts about the things you are selling. For example, you could review a motorbike that you just bought, and at the bottom you could offer to sell your old motorbike.

11 – Use your blog to compile an Email Marketing/Newsletter email list

If you are good at blogging then you will have people sign up to your RSS feed. If you are really good, you may be able to get them to sign up to your newsletter. If you do then you can use the email list to send out marketing messages, through which you make your money.

12 – Offer to sell your services

Assuming that your blog is good and on a certain niche, you may be able to sell your services as a consequence. For example, if your blog is on Java programming, then at the end of your blog you could offer to solve your readers’ specific Java problems for a fee.

13 – Demand a paid membership for access to your blog

Assuming again that your blog is of a very high quality and on a certain niche, you could charge to gain access to your blog. You could sell it like a subscription that people have to renew after a few months. You could advertise your blog on social media and via affiliate advertising in order to gain new members.

14 – Build your blog so that you can sell it

Build it up with a great design, smashing content, a weighty daily traffic score and a stunning Google PageRank or Alexa Rank and then sell it off. It takes time, effort and care to create such a blog, and many people do not have the time or skill to do it. So you can sell them their own popular blog that is already set up, running, and effective. If you can gain access to reliable metric numbers to show people then you can set up a bidding system and make some cash.

15 – Sell links from your blog

If your blog is very popular, or it has a good Alexa or Google PageRank then you may be able to sell links from your website. People are always looking to link from high ranking and popular sites. The problem is that Google does not like people selling links. You can get around this by asking people to contact you if they want to link from you. When they make contact, respond with a price list and method of payment.Filed Under: Blogging, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Blog, make money blogging, Monetize