Rx: Herbal or dietary supplements

MANILA, Philippines - With the prevalence of herbal medicines, our present breed of practitioners and physicians are confronted with a dilemma on the efficacy of herbal or alternative medicines.

This was the main focus during a recent seminar titled “Updates on Ethical and Dietary Prescriptions” for doctors and health care professionals conducted by the Pharmacy and Therapeutics (PTC) Committee of De Los Santos-STI Medical Center.

After a morning of lively discussions, the attendees finally resolved the main query: Should they prescribe dietary supplements with ethical drugs to patients? 

Participants arrived at a consensus that in addition to the Western or ethical drugs, herbal or dietary supplements may also be prescribed, verbally or in writing, provided that supplements will be taken only if their beneficial claims were duly approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, formerly BFAD) and these supplements will not completely serve as a full substitute for ethical drugs. 

The seminar was initiated by a group of sponsors, foremost of which was Circulan, a supplement that promotes overall good blood circulation. It contains extracts of four herbal ingredients, namely gingko biloba that helps enhance memory and concentration, lemon balm that helps calm the nerves, hawthorne berry, a natural antioxidant that helps give that youthful vigor, and garlic oil that helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol. 

Circulan is safe to prescribe to patients as it is BFAD approved and proven helpful by users to achieve good blood circulation. As they say, “Nasa dugo lang ’yan.”