Herbal mania.

It's your best friend's 40th birthday. Even though you have a big presentation at the office tomorrow, you can't let your buddy down, so you go out on the town and whoop it up with him. Better not forget your ginseng in the morning for an extra boost of energy.

It's been a rough month, and you're in a funk. Your girlfriend says she's found another woman, it's been raining for days, and the rent is past due. A friend suggests a regimen of Saint-John's-wort, an antidepressant, to bring you back up to the level.

Anyone who has walked into a health-food store recently knows of the growing interest in herbal remedies. From echinacea to Ginkgo biloba, the supplements are showing up on the shelves of supermarkets and drugstores everywhere. The herbs are especially popular among gay men and lesbians, who see in them the natural answer to the stress of life.

To some degree the craze for herbal supplements among gay men began after people with HIV started using the remedies. Given limited treatment options at the beginning of the epidemic, many people turned to alternative medicine to keep their illness under control and to counteract the side effects of other drugs. According to numerous studies, an estimated 40% to 70% of people with AIDS have used alternative treatments.

"When it became evident that the new disease would be slow to conquer the affected community--especially well-organized gay men in such epicenters of the epidemic as San Francisco and New York City--began to focus on self-preservation and treatment advocacy," says Donald Abrams, assistant directory of the University of California, San Francisco, AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital.

"When I first got into it, it was basically the granola crowd. We'd see a lot of tie-dye coming in," says John Armstrong, an herbalist at Elixir Tonics & Teas, an alternative-health store in West Hollywood, Calif. "Now it's really mainstream. We get everyone, from actors to models to people who work for a living who feel their energy is not where they would like it to be."

Some pharmacists tailor their herbal advice to gay men and lesbians. David deBoer, a 34-year-old Chicagoan, recalls a recent trip to the drugstore in search of a remedy for a sore throat. His boyfriend by his side, he asked the pharmacist at a Walgreens in Chicago's heavily gay Lakeview neighborhood what she recommended. "I think because she was speaking to two gay men, she said. `Echinacea would boost the immune system but only if you don't have a compromised immune system,'" deBoer says.

Echinacea aside, some herbs are believed to help boost crippled immune systems. Fred Bingham, a former landscape architect, had a T-cell count of just 30 when he began an alternative-medicine treatment for his HIV infection. After using a variety of alternative treatments, including licorice root, his T-cell count is now a healthier 900.

Medical experts warm, however, that herbal remedies--as powerful as their proponents say they are--aren't subject to the same approval process as federally approved drugs. Without regulation there is no way of knowing how potent any particular formulation may be. And just because a product claims to be natural does not make it safe.

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Popular herbs among gays

Echinacea. Familiar to many gardeners as purple coneflower, echinacea is used to boost the immune system.

Goldenseal. Used primarily to treat congestion from colds. It is also taken to relieve digestive disorders.

Yohimbe. Derived from a tree grown in Africa, yohimbe is used primarily by men to increase sexual energy.

Saint-John's-wort. A wildflower that grows in the western United States, Saint-John's-wort is used primarily as an anti-depressant. Its immense popularity in the United States has earned it the nickname the "herbal Prozac" because it is known as a restorative tonic for the nervous system.

Ginkgo biloba. Commonly prescribed in Germany and France. Ginkgo biloba is used to improve memory.

Kava. A member of the pepper family grown in the South Pacific, kava is prized for its calming qualities.

Ephedra (or mahuang). Found around the world, this herb is used to treat colds.