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Potentially off topic, but Im trying to navigate the alternative medicine world right now. My mother in law just gave me a bottle of pills containing a Chinese

Potentially off topic, but Im trying to navigate the alternative medicine world right now. My mother in law just gave me a bottle of pills containing a Chinese herb meant to treat hair prematurely graying. I don't mind trying it and finding out it doesn't work in order to keep her happy but I've ran into some reports that it can cause liver damage, but I can't gauge how reliable those reports are. Any tips on how to find scientific research on things like this? The product is called "Fu-Ti"

jff 10y ago
Pour some pills in the trash and tell her it didn't work. TCM is possibly worse than homeopathy in that at least homeopathic medicine is just water, while TCM is god knows what garbage.
willvarfar 10y ago
Mother in laws and their daughters always are a difficult canyon to navigate. White lie may be best? Pretend to take it, and ask her occasionally if it's working..?
abakker 10y ago
Who cares whether the plant works or not? The point here is that you have no idea what is actually in those pills. Odds are good that it doesn't include any of the plant that it indicates and no law is currently broken by that fact. Meanwhile, hair dye is tested on many people and has its ingredients listed.
VLM 10y ago
The good news for your liver is that sounds exotic and expensive and lawn clippings are cheap so the odds are excellent its just some oregano or garlic or something from the landscape, not the real stuff that might rot out your liver. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-th... In before the stereotypical MiL jokes along the lines of "of course the pills are pure cyanide" etc.
problems 10y ago
Check Wikipedia as it usually links out to medical sites and offers a decent summary in most cases. In this case Wikipedia links to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240794/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240794/ which appears to be an analysis of 25 cases. I'd say it's pretty damning and avoid it personally. Search PubMed there seem to be a few papers around indicating it's toxicity and discussing it like https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22210538 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22210538
Mz 10y ago
I have done a little googling and apparently the preparation and active ingredients are highly secret. The most substantial info I can come up with is that it is purportedly crazy high in zinc. This highly scientific (/Sarcasm) article is the source of this info: http://www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/fo-ti-root.html http://www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/fo-ti-root.htm... A few thoughts as someone who has pursued a lot of alternative medicine (successfully, with a very critical eye): Minerals, like zinc, can build up in the body. Thus they are a means to wind up poisoned. (Too much of anything is not good for you. Even water can kill you if consumed in excess. It gets called water poisoning.) I was told by people who did their research that B vitamins (particularly PABA) and nutritional support for the adrenals can reverse grey hair. I was going prematurely grey due to a serious health crisis. I had some limited success with this approach in my thirties. You could try taking zinc supplements to see if that is, in fact, the active ingredient in this super secret mumbo jumbo, minus the part where you expose yourself to god-knows-what. If you don't actually care about your hair going grey, I strongly suggest you just tell her "No thanks." You shouldn't have to experiment with your own health to appease anyone at all. Best.
thenomad 10y ago
I'd recommend, as first port of call, Examine.com . It's not perfect but they have assembled information on quite a variety of substances and scientific trials therof.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
Google Scholar is a good starting point.

jff 10y ago

Pour some pills in the trash and tell her it didn't work. TCM is possibly worse than homeopathy in that at least homeopathic medicine is just water, while TCM is god knows what garbage.

willvarfar 10y ago

Mother in laws and their daughters always are a difficult canyon to navigate. White lie may be best? Pretend to take it, and ask her occasionally if it's working..?

abakker 10y ago

Who cares whether the plant works or not? The point here is that you have no idea what is actually in those pills. Odds are good that it doesn't include any of the plant that it indicates and no law is currently broken by that fact. Meanwhile, hair dye is tested on many people and has its ingredients listed.

VLM 10y ago

The good news for your liver is that sounds exotic and expensive and lawn clippings are cheap so the odds are excellent its just some oregano or garlic or something from the landscape, not the real stuff that might rot out your liver. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-th... In before the stereotypical MiL jokes along the lines of "of course the pills are pure cyanide" etc.

problems 10y ago

Check Wikipedia as it usually links out to medical sites and offers a decent summary in most cases. In this case Wikipedia links to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240794/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240794/ which appears to be an analysis of 25 cases. I'd say it's pretty damning and avoid it personally. Search PubMed there seem to be a few papers around indicating it's toxicity and discussing it like https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22210538 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22210538

Mz 10y ago

I have done a little googling and apparently the preparation and active ingredients are highly secret. The most substantial info I can come up with is that it is purportedly crazy high in zinc. This highly scientific (/Sarcasm) article is the source of this info: http://www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/fo-ti-root.html http://www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/fo-ti-root.htm... A few thoughts as someone who has pursued a lot of alternative medicine (successfully, with a very critical eye): Minerals, like zinc, can build up in the body. Thus they are a means to wind up poisoned. (Too much of anything is not good for you. Even water can kill you if consumed in excess. It gets called water poisoning.) I was told by people who did their research that B vitamins (particularly PABA) and nutritional support for the adrenals can reverse grey hair. I was going prematurely grey due to a serious health crisis. I had some limited success with this approach in my thirties. You could try taking zinc supplements to see if that is, in fact, the active ingredient in this super secret mumbo jumbo, minus the part where you expose yourself to god-knows-what. If you don't actually care about your hair going grey, I strongly suggest you just tell her "No thanks." You shouldn't have to experiment with your own health to appease anyone at all. Best.

thenomad 10y ago

I'd recommend, as first port of call, Examine.com . It's not perfect but they have assembled information on quite a variety of substances and scientific trials therof.

nommm-nommm 10y ago

Google Scholar is a good starting point.