Six Dangers Of Patent Cures Sold As Traditional Chinese Medicine
Chinese patent cures in many ways resemble the snake oil salesman of old when the traveling seller of tinctures, herbs, pills, and balms would convincingly promise that his formulas were the answer to anything form baldness over infertility to unrequited love. Quite often being a confidence man, he would have a plant in the audience, an individual who would drink or otherwise use the mixture and then suddenly display the most astounding results. Then this individual would loudly praise the substance and disappear into the crowd once more, never to be seen again – until he and the snake oil salesman set up shop in the next village.
The marketing of patent cures allegedly – and sometimes genuinely – derived from traditional Chinese medicine falls at times into a similar category, but while in the past the tinctures were little more than food coloring, water, and some form of flavoring, today some of the items marketed are considered to be dangerous to the health of the consumer who falls for the advertising.
Thus far, six dangers of patent cures sold as traditional Chinese medicine have been identified:
1. Manufacturers of genuine patent cures will use substances known to Western medicine as being contaminants. Heavy metals, in particular mercury and lead, are among the most serious poisons that frequently find their ways into the medicines. While it is true that there is medicinal value to small quantities of these substances in some cases, failure to ingest them under constant medical supervision may lead to illness, loss of muscle control, impaired brain activity, birth defects, and eventually quite possibly death.
2. Ingredients which are known to cause heart attacks and strokes are at time used in the preparation of the medicines. Ephedra and also Pinellia are most notorious.
3. In other cases, the danger of the medicines is traced back to the formulation of the ingredients. For example, modern medical substances such as over the counter headache pills or caffeine as mixed in with the herbs. Since these substances carry their own dangers but are not referenced on the labels, individuals with liver problems are at high risk for the development of severe liver damage.
4. Purity is frequently a concern as well. In an effort to pander to the Western market, some manufacturers have distilled the ingredients to such an extent that small pills will now have five to ten times the strength of their bigger counterparts. When these substances fall into the hands of children, the potential for accidental death is great. Similarly, accidental overdoses of adults have also been reported.
5. Ineffective or unsafe mixing and matching of various patent medicines may cause an unsafe accumulated of heavy metals which may show up in toxicity scans.
6. Last but not least, the failure of Westerners to rely on either Western or Chinese patent medicines leads to a combination of substances which at times may be unsafe and in some cases actually either limit the effect of the Western medicine or elevate the effect of the Chinese herb, thus in some cases leading to systemic failure.
