Health food store asthma advice alarms experts

By ANGELA GREGORY Health reporter

Staff in health food shops often recommend natural remedies that can trigger allergic responses, say researchers.

Their study, published in today's New Zealand Medical Journal, also found that some health shop assistants actively discouraged a customer with asthma symptoms from seeking medical advice and treatment.

The medical researchers want regulations for health food stores that promote herbal products for medical conditions.

The study results have alarmed the Medical Association.

New Zealand has one of the highest hospital admission rates for asthma in the Western world, and the disease is one of the most common causes of child admissions in this country.

A researcher with symptoms suggesting moderate to severe asthma had gone to pharmacies and health food stores.

The 21-year-old woman gave a two-month history of wheezing following a chest infection and said she had developed a night-time cough.

She told the shop assistants her wheezing had been relieved by the use of a friend's asthma inhaler, which she showed them.

The research results showed 22 out of 26 pharmacy staff diagnosed asthma or probable asthma, but only 15 out of 26 health food store staff reached the same conclusion.

While 92 per cent of the pharmacy staff referred the woman to a doctor, just 35 per cent of the health store staff did - and five advised against going to a doctor.

A number of herbal products were recommended but the researchers found no references to support their use in asthma.

The researchers, who included academics from the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, were concerned about how often the natural substance echinacea was recommended, as it could trigger allergic reactions.

"Plainly, closer regulation of this substance and other herbal products is required," they said.

They were also disappointed that the health shop assistants had at times warned against prescription antibiotics and corticosteroids because of their many side-effects.

That was despite the fact that inhaled corticosteroids were the cornerstone of treatment for all but the mildest forms of asthma.

The researchers said it was also a major worry that some health shop assistants had actively discouraged seeking medical advice.

Health stores promoting herbal products for medical conditions should be regulated in a similar way to medical practitioners and pharmacists who prescribed or dispensed pharmaceutical products, they said.

Medical Association chairman Dr John Adams agreed, saying the study uncovered some disturbing results.

"Untreated asthma is a dangerous illness and can cause death," he said.

"To recommend against seeing a GP is alarming."

Many people believed natural products were harmless but some could have serious side-effects.

Alternative treatment should be subject to the same scientific testing as medicines, said Dr Adams.

"If this does not happen those promoting alternative treatments should not make unproven claims about their efficacy."

A Ministry of Health spokesman said the regulation of natural medicines was being jointly studied with Australia.

Natural healthcare industry adviser Ron Law said the survey seemed to relate to the quality and safety of advice, not health products.

Mr Law said a professional competency bill now before Parliament would include herbalists.

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/health