Sir, - The substantive point in article on herbal medicine (The Irish Times, July 11th), is correct. Patients should inform doctors about taking herbal medicine when taking other medication or facing surgery, otherwise harm could result.
The problem with the article is that it implicitly presents herbal medicine as the danger, whereas studies note is the "mixing" of the two which can cause risk.
Herbal medicine on its own has a history of safe preventative care for patients. One of its chief attractions is that, insofar as there has been a long history of use, there are fewer side-effects, allergies, or unforeseen results than with newer medicines. Patients rightly view with alarm recent accounts of the extent of mainstream drug side-effects.
A critical problem is that, in general, medical education does not equip doctors to understand herbal medicine sympathetically. This can lead to a negative attitude among some doctors, which inhibits patients from telling them what exactly they use (even humble supplements like garlic or vitamin C). The solution is to train the doctors, not further inhibit and constrain a most efficacious and generally safer form of health care. - Yours, etc.,
Gabrielle McCauley, Heatherview Drive, Aylesbury, Dublin 24.