Honig says in order to receive more reports on dietary supplements, either a law would have to be written to require reporting from its manufacturers, or consumers and physicians would have to overcome the barriers that prevent them from reporting interactions. A patient may report an interaction but the doctor might think it's just the prescription medicine that's causing the adverse effects. Georgetown University researcher Dr. Raymond Woosley suspects that many adverse reactions attributed to prescription drugs may actually be caused by an interaction between a dietary supplement and the drug. He points to a report last year on medical errors that cited adverse drug reactions as one of the leading causes of medically related deaths in the United States. It's very possible that a large fraction of that could be caused by drugs used with herbs.
People say they're natural, but so is snake venom.
In many cases, they are also less expensive. I'm also not going to deny that in fact, natural botanicals are as a rule less dangerous than pharmaceutical substances. Whether they turn to these reference sources or not, people are turning to alternative medicine. Their reasons include everything from a distrust of the medical establishment to almost a spiritual belief in these products to a feeling of individual responsibility for their health. What they haven't always included in the regimen is communication about their self-medication.