Even the drugs compounded here may have problems. There are many interactions between substances that are poorly understood. To use a non herbal example. How many people have taken a generic drug of some sort and found that the generic may work better or worse for them than the brand name. The difference is not the drug(herb) but in the substances used to blend the preparation. Some interactions are not in public information or not complete. Rosemary is a wonderful herb to settle a stomach but never give to a woman expecting a child. People look at settle a stomach and look now further.

The old adage of try and wait a couple of days before having more to see if you have a problem should be used by anyone using a product, herbal or otherwise, for the first time.

Thanks for posting the information perhaps it will send some men to the doctor to check out their hypoglycemia.

Yes, if people manufacture and sell illegal products that contain ingredients that are not on the label, it can result in serious problems. We even see that with food products that contain unlabeled allergens that are ordinarily harmless - to someone with a wheat or peanut allergy, it can be life threatening. Secretly adding unlabeled prescription diabetes drugs to something and calling it herbal is a criminal act, with serious repercussions.

closer to home....290 people die in the u.s. every DAY from FDA approved prescription medications...that's approx 106,000 per year....these numbers from the AMA and have been published in their journal. the study from which the numbers are derived is 12 years old, numbers are known to be higher now.

our FDA is corrupt....kickback $ being the real reason why we have so many dangerous drugs on the market and being casually prescribed and why we don't label GMO's in this country when most every other developed nation does.

105 dead due to an incident involving a mistakenly produced toxic product compared to 106,000 ANNUALLY who die from drugs their own doctor has prescribed. hmmm. who are you more afraid of? yeah, me too, american doctors!

its only common sense when buying anything you are gonna ingest to get it from the most reputable companies whose products are held to high standards. and there are plenty of chinese medicinals produced this way. mayway and blue poppy are two companies that sell medicinal quality chinese herb formulas that exceed u.s. govt standards.

Perhaps you didn't notice that the hospitalizations and deaths described in the opening post were due to the "natural" products having been adulterated with a diabetes drug (which caused very low blood sugar). This has been a particular problem with Chinese herbal medicines and supplements, and unless they are rigorously tested before sale you're taking a big chance by taking them. Unfortunately there is no requirement that such products are pre-tested before marketing in this country to confirm safety and efficacy.

Comparing supplement-related injury and deaths to those related to prescription drugs is deceptive, because, way more people take prescription drugs (and supplement-related problems are likely underreported since many users aren't regularly seeing a physician). And it's also misleading to make such comparisons when the supplements often don't work for the problem they're claimed to treat. We might accept a risk of side effects for a prescription drug that is effective against pain, inflammation, cancer etc...but should be far less willing to accept significant side effects from a "nutritional supplement" that has no demonstrated efficacy against any ailment.

I, too, am wary of taking any Chinese manufactured products. One can cut out the risks that they present by getting the raw Chinese herb and making their own tea, decoction, extract, etc. This will cut out the middle man, the manufacturer, thereby minimizing risks of contamination. Even in the American market, many herbal supplement products may not be contaminated, but many are down-right useless due to expired raw ingredients or other deceptive practices.

Herb Doctor