Natural remedies

Gerth, A., Hebner, A., and Thomas, H., 2003, Case Study Natural Remediation of TNT-Contaminated Water and SoH, Acta Biotechnol. 23 143-150. 

Over the years, the use of extractives from plants, animals and minerals in therapeutics has been profound and progressive. Until the advent of synthetic and semi-synthetic drugs, natural remedies had been the sole source of medications in the medieval era. In spite of the rise in the use of synthetic pharmaceutical products, the use of natural bioremedies has continued to be rife. Apart from their proven efficacy, natural bioactive... 

Nahuatl, edible root), is an important contribution to world nutrition in addition to have been used by the native population as a cold nature remedy to reduce excessive body heat (A The Latin description in this illustration from the Badianus Manuscript reads Contra cordis calorem, for heat in the heart Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, 1552. Fol. 28v. CONACULTA-INAH-MEX, with permission of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia , Mexico). 

Herbal or natural remedies are a multibillion dollar business that is largely unregulated by government agencies. Herbal products are readily available and are claimed to improve health, but they also contain many physiologically active... 

Because of the interest in and popularity of alternative and complementary medicines and healing practices, the scientific method is being applied to a wide variety of these remedies. Different types of studies seek to establish if and how individual, alternative medicines exert their effect. Clinical trials are being conducted to compare a specific alternative medicines with the accepted conventional medical standard of care for a specific condition thus, for example, an herbal extract may be compared with a pharmaceutical-grade drug to demonstrate unequivocally the safety and effectiveness of a product or practice. However, complementary and alternative medicine has only recently been deemed worthy of scientific scrutiny (for decades many natural remedies and practices were dismissed outright as being obviously inferior to Western science-based medicine), and many alternative therapies have not yet been... 

Natural remedies as potential partners with standard drug development... 

A related issue is the wide availability of natural remedies, which bypass strict FDA regulations because they are not considered medicinals. As a result, patients often take these compounds unaware of their potential for deleterious effects and possible adverse drug interactions with concurrently prescribed agents. Thus, clinicians should always inquire about their use to minimize the potential for an adverse effect. 

In the United States, the use of products, including botanicals, thought to fall within the realm of complementary and alternative medicine is very common. It is difficult to obtain reliable estimates of use or to compare many of the current publications in this area because of diverse definitions for categorizing these products (e.g., dietary supplement, food supplement, herbal medicine, natural remedy, traditional medicine, etc.) in both the United States and elsewhere. A recent report on the use of complementary and alternative medicine by U.S. adults in 2002 indicated that approximately 19% of the population used nonvitamin, nonmineral, and natural products, 19% used folk medicine, and 3% used megavitamin therapy in the past 12 months (1). 

So how is insomnia treated Most commonly, people self-medicate their insomnia with over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol PM , Sominex , Unisom , or other drugs such as antihistamines (discussed in Chapter 3). Other people try natural remedies such as melatonin (see Chapter 4). When such medications don t work, people often ask their doctor for a prescription sleep aid, which is usually a type of medication called a benzodiazepine such as Halcion or a related type of drug such as Ambien or Sonata (see Chapter 6 for more on these types of drugs). 

A few weeks earher he had diagnosed himself with mild depression, and he d known exactly what to do about it. He d seen stories about the potential benefits of the herbal remedy St. John s wort in all kinds of tabloids and magazines, and here was his chance to give it a try. It never crossed his mind to check with his doctors first, since St. John s wort was a natural remedy, and therefore (supposedly) completely safe. But the effects of drugs on our bodies can be very complex and sometimes mysterious. While the mechanism by which St. John s wort carries out its antidepressant effect is not clear, researchers have been able to identify an unwelcome side effect. Some component in St. John s wort stimulates the production of an enzyme with the cryptic name of cyp3a, one of a number of... 

It has only been discovered relatively recently that a natural remedy, St. John s Wort, used by millions for the treatment of depression, is a potent inducer of the major human drug-metabolizing enzyme, CYP3A4. This induction can lead to the therapeutic failure of a drug when the remedy is taken at the same time. 

Stollenwerk, K.G. and Colman, J.A. (2003) Natural remediation potential of arsenic-contaminated ground water, in Arsenic in Ground Water (eds A.H. Welch and K.G. Stollenwerk), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 351-80. 

Natural remediation Refers to allowing already existing biological, chemical, and physical processes in nature to biodegrade, precipitate, sorb, or otherwise reduce the toxicity and mobility of contaminants at a field site with little or no human intervention. 

Tierra, M. and Lust, J., The Natural Remedy Bible (revised ed.), Pocket Books, New York, 2003. 

In spite of this lack of information, several popular books came out during the 1990s advocating the supposed usefulness of melatonin as a treatment for everything from insomnia to jet lag to aging. Consumer interest in melatonin increased dramatically. It is estimated that millions of Americans take melatonin supplements as a natural remedy. 

While many commercially available preparations contain only melatonin, many others contain a combination of this hormone with other active ingredients. Some of these other ingredients may be vitamins such as pyri-doxine, while others are natural remedies such as kava root and valerian. It is even available combined with acetaminophen, a common over-the-counter pain reliever. Frequently, the long-term effects and safety of these other ingredients are not known. Even less is known about any possible interactions between these substances and melatonin, because melatonin has been available and used commercially for only a short period of time. Many experts have suggested that it would be preferable to test melatonin in controlled studies to determine if it is effective and safe before it was released on the market and used by millions of people. 

The long-term personal and social consequences of routinely using melatonin are not known. It is known, however, that millions of people take over-the-counter melatonin preparations containing very large doses of melatonin relative to the amount produced by the human body or contained in foods. Even less is known about its interaction with other drugs or natural remedies. Many experts are concerned that such large-scale use of a hormone may not be safe. Serious health implications of using melatonin may not be discovered until many people have placed themselves at risk. 

Unsaturated-Zone Airflow Implications for Natural Remediation of Groundwater by Contaminant Transport through the Subsurface... 

Key words unsaturated zone barometric pumping natural remediation... 

Smith, J. A., Katchmark, W., Choi, J.-W., and Fred D Tillman, Jr. Unsaturated Zone Air Flow at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey Implications for Natural Remediation ofthe Trichloroethylene-Contaminated Aquifer. U.S. Geological Survery Toxic Substances Hydrology Program - Proceedings ofthe Technical Meeting, Charleston, South Carolina, 625-634. 

Finally, Chapters 14 and 15 address the remediation of the unsaturated zone. In Chapter 14, researchers from the University of Virginia study the effects of natural atmospheric pressure variations on the flow of air into and out of the unsaturated zone at the Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey. This barometric pumping contributes to the natural remediation of the shallow, trichloroethylene-contaminated groundwater. In the last chapter of the book, Richard Meixner and co-workers present a detailed field study documenting the effectiveness of soil-vapor extraction to remediate gasoline hydrocarbons in the unsaturated zone. 

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