Herbal Contraindications and Drug Interactions: Plus Herbal Adjuncts with Medicines, 4th Edition

If you are taking prescription medications as well as botanicals or minerals (even certain foods), this is an absolutely necessary reference. It covers not only the most common botanicals, but a fair number of less common ones as well.This book is extremely well-cited, and written for professionals. But I still think it would be necessary for any thoughtful person to double-check their meds against herbal supplements, foods, minerals, etc. for contraindications and for interactions. Entries for each substance reviewed give both sides/all sides, if there are disagreements in the medical community. For example, there may be a caution for certain herbs for people on certain medications, but if there are contrary studies, it says so. Entries also give an indication of whether the author thinks studies were appropriately done, or not.Diabetics and people on certain medications, (warfarin, for one example), as well as pregnant women might find this book especially helpful.One significant drawback is that the headings on each page do not provide the name of the supplement. With hundreds of pages, and some entries going on for many pages, a page heading that included the name of the supplement being discussed is a bothersome flaw. It is difficult to simply page through it, as one would with a dictionary, until one found in the header the supplement you need to read about. I use the index, which is very thorough, but cumbersome. Over time I will probably annotate the pages with that information in the top corner, and bookmark entries to which I think I will be referring time and again.

This is an excellent book. There is no book like it -- a comprehensive review of studies and reports on herb side effects, contraindications and drug interactions, negative and positive. Unlike many books that looks at the scientific literature, this one is discriminating about the significance of various reports and studies, and helpfully rates the information by the level of significance and credibility. This book has been a valuable tool in my clinical practice and as a student, and I recommend it for anyone practicing herbalism.

I was so disappointed with this book. I was really looking forward to reading it and being able to use it as a reference but you have to be a medical professional or a scientist to understand a single word of it! This book is definitely not written in layman terms which is a shame because there are not many books that I have been able to find on this particular subject.

I bought this book for a class and love it. It's easy to use and understand; addressing common conditions along with the drug and complementary herbal adjuncts and contraindications if any. He shares some case studies as examples, which I find very helpful. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book but requires careful reading as it is very detailed. I do love the many footnotes and book's arrangement.

Excellent reference for all interactions with medicinal plants and drugs.I recommend you this marvellous book.J-P Deschenes, registered naturopath. Montreal, Quebec

I've never believed in accepting the knowledge from just one source. When it comes to herbal medications, I always want to get that 2nd opinion. Great book here.

Was a gift to someone highly interested Herbs.

As a person training to become a clinical herbalist this book has been invaluable. My only issue is the link the author sites to follow more current investigation into drugs and herbs is no longer functioning. Other than that this book is really terrific highly recommended.

I work in the field of herbal medicine and do product development. I find myself using this book for a good overview of published documentation on contraindications. I also use the AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook. I find it more helpful that the 'Natural Medicines' (used to be Natural Standard) database I subscribe to. It is more comprehensive (so I don't have to look in multiple locations) and it shows what is relevant, without giving a lot of space to what is not necessarily relevant.

This book is very well done. As the title says, it gives the contraindications & [pharmaceutical] drug interactions associated with each herb. It also states if there are human clinical studies, case reports, animal studies, or ex/in vivo studies associated with the claim. Very useful for any practicing naturopathic/medical doctor!