Posted by Gary on December 08, 1998 at 18:22:24:
In Reply to: Re: Herbal warning: FEWERFEW posted by Jerry on November 16, 1998 at 04:59:28:
I am a naturopathic student who came to your site to investigate some information about cluster headaches for a patient. I came across a posting about the dangers of Feverfew (persumably Tanacetum parthenium, although the scientific name was not listed) and how it reportedly, on some web site, by some medical report, causes permanent damage to the aorta.
Couple of things about this. First, I think it does a diservice to everyone to quote something of this nature with no reference for others to cross reference. That it how gossip, not medical information, is propogated. Second, Tanacetum has been extensively investigated for migraines (ie British Medical Journal Vol. 291: p.569-573, 1985), not cluster headaches. So it may be that its use in cluster heads is contraindicated. However, (point 3) one cannot assess this without looking at the studies which purportedly showed Tanacetum was unsafe. "Medical" researchers are not infalible -- it is estimated that 30-40% of medical research is invalid due to procedural error. To use this case as an example, did they use the correct species of Taneacetum, did they use the correct dose, how many people did they see aortic damage in, where these individuals screened before hand for aortic disease, where there confounding factors (ie did these people have vasculitis, were they smokers, etc.) that were not taken into account and so on. Tanacetum is a useful herb with few known side effects, but is still an external agent and, like any herb in the materia medica, needs to be used with the same respect as any medical intervention or drug. Please do educate yourselves about the pros and cons of natural medicine, but be mindful that an unreferenced piece of information is little better than a rumor and is decidedly not medical fact.