for example, ashwagandha or valerian. whenever you search them up it states something akin to “safe to use for up to 6 weeks. long term effects are unknown”
people have been using these medicines for centuries… can’t they just conduct research?
In: Biology
one thing to consider here maybe:
while there is no /not enough studies on long-term-effects on certain herbs, there might very well be studies on substances these herbes contain!
herbal medicine has the disadvantage that you’ll always consume a cocktail of different substances, while modern medicine focusses on extracting (or recreating) the substance that they want to use.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metformin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metformin)
This medication is for treatment of diabetes. It’s origin is a natural herb called goat’s rue (Galega officinalis). It was used as a healing herb long before modern medicine.
The consumption of this herb, however, had plenty of negative side-effects- which is why they identified the substance that is helpful and recreated it chemically – this medication, called Metformin, is working much better with less side-effects.
To make **a human study on long-term effects of goat’s rue would therefore be unethical**
Latest Answers