Herbal Healing

In a new display of Flower Power for the late 1990s, baby boomers are gulping down all sorts of old remedies derived from plants

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The frantic expansion of the market for herbs and other supplements, though, comes at some risk to consumers. These products are not regulated in the U.S. nearly as strictly as over-the-counter drugs or even foods--in sharp contrast to countries like Germany, where the government holds companies to strict standards for ingredients and manufacturing. Experts say that while the top U.S. and European manufacturers pay close attention to the safety, effectiveness and consistency of their products, parts of the industry resemble a Wild West boomtown, where some 800 lightly regulated U.S. companies compete ferociously with fly-by-night hucksters. "When you open a bottle of nutritional supplements, you don't know what's inside," says Jeffrey Delafuente, a pharmacy professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "There may be some ingredients not listed. You do not know how much active ingredient is in each tablet. They can make all kinds of claims that may not be accurate."

What's behind the sudden revival of thousand-year-old remedies? At root, it's the fears and desires of 80 million aging baby boomers who are eager to seize control of their medical destinies. The perceived coldness and remoteness of conventional medicine and red-tape-tangled managed care make readily available herbs and other supplements seem particularly appealing. Consumers value them as preventive measures, as something distinct from potent pharmaceutical drugs that are prescribed only after disease strikes. "Doctors are getting more and more inaccessible," says Leda Jean Van Stedum, 45, a Denver secretary who was shopping in a Vitamin Cottage chain store for preparations of black cohosh and dong quai to head off premenstrual discomfort.

Perhaps a third of Americans have tried an herbal remedy, and that number is expected to grow sharply now that giant pharmaceutical companies with huge ad budgets and vast distribution channels are charging into the field. Trusted brands like Bayer's One-A-Day and well-known companies such as Warner-Lambert (Sudafed, Benadryl and Listerine) and the Whitehall-Robins Healthcare unit of American Home Products (Centrum, Advil, Robitussin) all launched brightly packaged lines of herbal remedies this fall. SmithKline Beecham (Tagamet HB, Contac, NicoDerm CQ) test marketed herbs in four U.S. cities last summer. The entry of these brands and the growing body of serious research on herbal remedies are lifting some of the stigma attached to these products--and cutting through some of the claptrap one can still hear about mystical recoveries in many a juice bar or organic grocery.

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