Herbal Medications - Issues Related To Their Use - Part I

Herbal Medications - Issues Related To Their Use - Part I is organized by e-EdCredits.

Date Expires: Jul 31, 2023

Course Description:
To start, hundreds of herbal ingredients are in existence and alone or in combination make up thousands of products that can be purchased by the public without a prescription. One of the purposes of this article (and others that will follow in the series) is to inform nurses about some of the medical effects that can be seen with certain products. It is important to remember that a large portion of prescription and non-prescription drugs come from herbs or are derivatives of herbs. Therefore, many herbs can produce an effect on an individual medically when taken internally. Furthermore, nurses and everyone in the healthcare field should understand why these have become so popular. We should not take the stance that they are all hocus-pocus and ineffective. On the contrary, some have been shown to be effective; however, some have not been shown to be effective.

Objectives
• Explain when, why, and by how much the use of herbal products by Americans increased in the United States.
• Describe the proposed mechanisms of action for the herbal products reviewed in this article and the primary reason why people use them.
• Discuss which herbal products reviewed in this article should be used with caution in patients with hypertension, epilepsy, and immune disorders, and in those taking certain medications.
• Discuss which herbal products reviewed in this article should not be used prior to surgery, near delivery by pregnant women, or in conjunction with other drugs that may decrease the ability of blood to clot.