Sometimes Helpful But Use With Care .
Medicinal herbs present some special problems in clinical use.
Herb side effects are probably underreported. Very few people, at least in the U.S., are using herbal therapies when compared to all the people using standard pharmaceuticals. It may be that there are simply not enough people using a particular herbal product for a rare side effect to show up. Most doctors don't ask their patients if they are using herbal products and most patients never volunteer the information to their doctors. This may be because they are afraid that the doctor will get mad at them for using an herbal medicine or it might be that people just don't perceive herbs for the drugs that they are and so don't think of them when telling the doctor about medications.