BEFORE SURGERY.Going in for surgery? Make sure you tell your doctor if you're taking herbs or other supplements. Among the herbs that can cause complications before or during surgery: * garlic, ginkgo, and ginseng can cause bleeding, * ephedra ephedra: see ephedrine. can raise blood pressure and heart rate, * ginseng can lower blood sugar levels, * kava and valerian valerian, in botany valerian, common name for some members of the Valerianaceae, a family chiefly of herbs and shrubs of temperate and colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere; a few species, however, are native to the Andes. can make anesthetics more potent, * St. John's wort St. John’s wort indicates animosity. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 177] See : Hatred St. John’s wort defense against fairies, evil spirits, the Devil. [Br. can interfere with some drugs, and * echinacea echinacea (ĕk'ənā`shēə), popular herbal remedy, or botanical, believed to benefit the immune system. It is used especially to alleviate common colds and the flu, but several controlled studies using it as a cold medicine have can cause allergic reactions or alter immune function. What to do: Stop taking garlic, ginseng, and St. John's wort roughly a week before surgery, and ginkgo, kava, and ephedra a day or two before surgery. There is no good information on how early to stop taking echinacea or valerian. A simpler suggestion--from the American Society of Anesthesiologists--is to stop taking any herbal supplement at least two to three weeks before an operation. Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. 286: 208, 2001. |
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