Herbals in cardiovascular practice: are physicians neglecting anything?

BACKGROUND

Herbal products have been widely used by many patients with cardiovascular problems solely expecting benefit out of them. Since, it is important to consider patients' needs and believes to prevent breaking off the relationship of patients and physicians, we conducted a survey on patients admitted to our outpatient Cardiology department.

METHODS

A questionnaire was prepared including 49 questions. After giving informed consent, 310 participants were enrolled into our survey. Participants were asked about disease states, use of herbal products and their tendencies.

RESULTS

There were 169 male (mean age: 54.7+/-13.3 years) and 141 female participants (mean age: 56.2+/-14.7 years). 54.5% (n=169) had hypertension (HT), 48.7% (n=151) had coronary artery disease (CAD). Among all participants, 38.7% (n=120) stated that they have used herbals in part of their lives. Presence of dyslipidemia was associated with herbal use. Three fourths of herbal users (73.3%, n=88) stated that they thought they benefited some extent from the use of herbals, and 25% (n=30) of herbal users stated that they did not take their medicine regularly. Herbal users more frequently agreed the statement "herbals are beneficial when added to medicine" compared to nonusers (20.8% vs. 15.8%, p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Considering the facts that increasing interest on herbals is likely to continue by the people and the potentially hazardous interactions between the herbals and the drugs might be risky for the patients, there seems a need for closer, careful and respectful look for physicians onto herbal users and herbals themselves for the safety of population.