BETTER TESTING OF HERBAL REMEDIES IS URGED

Medicine: Doctors say standards should be the same as for mainstream
treatments.

Boston Citing the hazards of poorly tested herbal remedies,one of the
nation's most distinguished medical journals says alternative medicines
should be subjected to the same rigorous standards as mainstream treatments.

In an editorial, Drs. Marcia Angell and Jerome P. Kassirer of the New
England Journal of Medicine argued that testimonials and speculation are no
substitute for precise medical evidence that treatments are safe and
effective.

"There cannot be two kinds of medicine - conventional and alternative,"
they wrote in today's issue. "There is only medicine that has been
adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and
medicine that may or may not work."

Herbal remedies sold as dietary supplements have proliferated since 1994,
when Congress exempted them from regulation by the Food and Drug
Administration.

The same issue of the journal carried these reports on alternative medicine:

Doctors from Alberta Children's Hospital in Canada reported two cases in
which parents opted to treat their children's cancer with shark cartilage
or the herb astragalus instead of standard medicines. In both cases, the
cancers progressed, and one child died.

The California Department of Health Services tested 260 traditional Chinese
medicines and found one-third contaminated with heavy metals, such as lead
and arsenic.

Doctors from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey tested a
mixture of eight herbs, sold as PC-SPES, on men with prostate cancer. They
found it worked like estrogen, decreasing testosterone and cutting the sex
drive. While not proving whether it relieves cancer, the study shows the
herb blend has potent hormonal effects.

The FDA described an episode, publicized last year, in which the herb
plantain was contaminated with a naturally occurring form of digitalis, a
heart stimulant that can cause cardiac arrest.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan