I’m not saying what I said to knock on ginseng, but I’m simply saying anything, whether it’s ginseng, tea, meat, cheese, or anything else used incorrectly or inappropriately will be harmful.
In Chinese medicine there is a concept of “attacking poison with poison” and so many Chinese medicine is essentially poison that is only to be used to treat certain conditions, and the side effect must be weighted.
Furthermore, some Chinese medicine, particularly from questionable places have harmful additives or contaminants (such as lead!) that can lead to health problems.
What’s causing problem is someone reads some forum, or sites that says xxx will treat yyy, and then they go to some Chinese pharmacy to get the stuff and ends up hurting their health. Taiwan news is full of cases like this, where people have become seriously ill or even died from using Chinese medicine without professional supervision.
Okay, thanks. I was given a big bag of ginseng by family and I’m pressured to use it. I’m to the point of “Meh, why not?” But after reading that post I was like, “WHAT?” Thanks for the clarification.
In ‘western’ medicine it’s the same. Many meds are actually poisonous if over used, even pain killers.
The thing you can not overdose on is homeopathy ‘cures’. It’s basically water.
Homeopathy can be dangerous because you’re lulled into a false sense of security so treatments are missed. Also not all homeopathy medicine is water. I saw a documentary where a popular homeopathy “cure” is eating powdered remains of the Berlin Wall. How that cures anyone is beyond me. Also, what do they put in those concrete, and are any of those harmful? I mean people who built the Berlin Wall isn’t intending anyone to eat the ground up concrete…
I’ve heard of people just buying all kinds of “cures” based on Chinese medicine, that have supposed benefit (like give you a longer erection or something), but may contain harmful trace elements. Maybe that’s why people are ending up with renal failure.