The Dangers of OTC Drugs and Herbal Remedies

Here's a fact: anything taken to an extreme can be deadly. Anything.

People have died from water intoxication from drinking too much water too quickly. Eating nothing but tomatoes can kill you; they are part of the same vegetable family as belladonna. The green parts of potatoes hide a deadly toxin. Almonds still have a trace amount of cyanide and, yes, too many almonds could make you sick or kill you.

Fortunately, with foods and other things we ingest a lot, our bodies are usually sensible enough to get sick and vomit before these things cause damage. Poisons in dilute form are quickly rejected.

But there is one item most of us ingest without thinking about it which holds dangerous chemicals in high concentrations, so high that our bodies can't reject them quickly enough: drugs.

This includes over-the-counter drugs, herbal remedies, and even energy sports drinks.

What Herbal Remedies Can Do

Drugs aren't the new, shiny concept pharmaceutical companies want us to think they are. A glance through a classic book named Culpeppers Compleat Herbal, published originally in the 1600s, will tell you that four hundred years ago powders, syrups, pills, and even capsule drug formulations were common. Powerful drugs used today are largely derived from the same drugs that are included, in more dilute forms, in your herbal remedies and even food. For instance, the following modern drugs are derived from:

Atropine - deadly nightshade, but also eggplant, tobacco, tomato, and capsicum (pepper) plants

Ephedrine - ma huang, a common Chinese remedy for colds and asthma, and in American jointfir plants, found mostly in the Western plains and deserts.

Warfarin - an anticoagulant, derived from lavender and licorice

Aspirin - salicylic acid and an anticoagulant/blood thinner, derived from willow and meadowsweet

Digoxin - derived from foxglove

Taxol - A cancer drug derived from Pacific yew. Causes cell death by interfering with microtubule growth - and yes, can be poisonous because of this

Hyoscine - found in jimsonweed (locoweed) or nightshades, this is a datura extract and can act as a depressant or a poison.

What can this do? Well, as an example, if you're already taking an ephedrine for asthma, adding ma huang to your daily regimen can quickly result in an overdose - which can lead to heart damage and death. It's happened to many people already.

The lesson? Let your doctor know what herbal supplements, including herbal teas, you are taking regularly or occasionally. Then tell your pharmacist as well.

What OTC Drugs Can Do

Just as with herbal remedies, people assume that over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or pseudoephedrine are safe. They couldn't be further from the truth.

In actuality, most over the counter drugs are just weakened versions of prescription medications. Many prescription medications are only available by prescription because the drug companies make much more money that way. When their exclusive patents expire, many effective drugs with relatively mild side effects are marketed both as prescription medications and as lower-dose over the counter medications. Recent examples include Claritin, Benadryl, or Zantac, all of which once were available through prescription only.

But the rule stated earlier still applies: anything overdone is dangerous. You can take fifty aspirin and kill yourself; the drug thins your blood, and you can literally bleed to death internally if you don't get to a hospital quickly.

For this reason, before taking any OTC drug in excess of what the label recommends, you should contact your doctor. And, just as with herbal supplements, you should always inform your doctor when you're taking any over the counter remedies at the same time as other medications. This one precaution could save your life.