LAGOS – A Consultant Cardiologist, Prof. Jane Ajuluchukwu, has cautioned against indiscriminate use of herbal concoction, saying ‘’it is toxic to the heart and other organs of the body’’.
Ajuluchukwu, who is also the Chief of Cardiology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
“These herbal medications, some of them have not been well worked out and there is a tendency to overuse, it is not regulated, the science is just coming up now.
“Then, in my own observation, we have what is called reserve in organs.
“We have reserve, so, if somebody that is healthy takes something it harm him and damage one quarter of one of his organs, may be his liver.
“He may not even show symptom, but if my liver is already one quarter functioning and I take something and many people do not know that I am not well.
“There are many people who have what we call sub-clinical disease, so they can just take one cup of that agbo (herbal) and then it will precipitate a very great damage.
“But they would say my friend took it and nothing happened.
“It does not mean that all the herbs are right or wrong, but we know that herbs have caused a contribution to some of our patients that have what we call heart muscle disease.
“Some of them are toxic to the heart.’’
Ajuluchukwu advised mothers to be wary of their food intake and medications during pregnancy to avoid injuring their foetus.
“Bad food and taking all these medications can harm the child and give us hole in the heart.
“People should be careful, so, a child that is malnourished inside the tommy could come out with problems like hypertension, diabetes and others and things like hole in the heart.
“And the mothers take medications that can harm their children.
This is the preventive step.“
Ajuluchukwu said that there were lots of heart damages from things that people experiment on.
According to her, everybody just takes a drink and then the next day or the next week, you see them with features of heart failure.
“So, people should be careful about what they eat and what they are using to treat other problems.
“There are policies on ground to make them safer, but it is not everything that is good; it is not every herb that is correct or that is safe.
“Medically, we know that some can damage the kidney, some can damage the liver.
“We have water-based concoctions, we have ethanol-based concoctions,the ones they put in alcohol.
“ So, alcohol can damage the kidney, the liver and the heart together and the interaction may not be good.“
