Alternative Medicine Alert articles from March 2003

Alternative Medicine Alert archives from March 2003

St. John's Wort for the treatment of depression: an update.
March 1, 2003... SINCE LAST REVIEWED IN THIS NEWSLETTER, (1) SEVERAL LONG-awaited trials of St. John's wort (SJW), an herbal therapy for depression, have been published. The growing literature on the efficacy, adverse effects, and drug interactions of SJW has...

What's the buzz? Honey for topical wound dressings. (Part II Of A Series On Apitherapy).
March 1, 2003... ALTHOUGH WOUND SALVES CONTAINING HONEY WERE mentioned of Egyptian papyri back to 2500 BC, honey is not well recognized for its use as a topical medication in modern times. (1) There has been a resurgence of interest in honey for this purpose,...

Olive leaf extract for hypertension.
March 1, 2003... OLIVE LEAF EXTRACT (OLE) HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED with many health-promoting benefits, including antihypertensive effects, for hundreds of years. However, successful identification of what appears to be the biological active component of OLE,...

CME questions.(continuing medical education)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... CME Instructions: Physicians participate in this continuing medical education program by reading the article, using the provided references for further research, and studying the CME questions. Participants should select what they believe to be...

Vitamin A and fracture risk. (Clinical Briefs).
March 1, 2003... ALTHOUGH STUDIES IN ANIMALS AND epidemiologic studies have indicated that a high vitamin A intake is associated with increased bone fragility, no biologic marker of vitamin A status has thus far been used to assess the risk of fractures in...

Herb-drug interactions: how to identify a problem and what to do.
March 1, 2003... THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA), AS WELL AS HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND organizations, receives many inquiries each year from consumers seeking health-related information, especially about herbal supplements. Clearly, people choosing...