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In last week’s article we discussed how the desired effect of a medication or supplement can dictate how it is dosed. We used the example of hormone replacement therapy to illustrate how certain dosages are for replacement while other dosages may be for replenishment. In this week’s article, we will discuss how botanical remedies are dosed.
Many people think that botanical remedies are natural and thus don’t have potential to do harm or have side effects. Many people also think that they are taking the right dose of a botanical remedy because of what the label suggests. I run into these myths almost every day in practice. The reason these are important to talk about is because you may be taking the right remedy for your needs but not taking the right dose.
Botanical remedies can be tricky to identify the right dose because of how they are labeled. When a patient asks how many milligrams of a medication, vitamin, mineral, or amino acid they should take the answer is usually straight forward. “Your dose to start is 25mg and we can adjust from there based on your reaction.” However, with botanical remedies the number of milligrams is only one factor. The more important factor is how potent is the extract.
The active ingredients in a botanical remedy must be extracted from the plant. When they are extracted they are combined with inactive ingredients. The ratio of the active ingredient to the inactive ingredient determines the potency. When you look at the details on the label of an herbal product you should see a ratio. If you don’t, you should question the product. If the ratio is 1:1 it means that for every unit of active nutrient there is the same amount of inactive nutrients. If the ratio is 5:1 it means that for every 5 units of active nutrient there is only one unit of inactive nutrients. As you can see, a 5:1 ratio is 5 times more potent that a 1:1 ratio.
If you are comparing two botanical remedies for a nutrient like milk thistle and they appear to have the same amount of milligrams contained within, you may be surprised to see that one actually has 5 times more of the active nutrient. This basic but profound difference can dictate how effective or how safe a botanical remedy is for the patient.
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
