St John's Wort - word of warning

[Louisa]

I have read various mentions of St John's Wort on other threads and have prbably recommended it to people. I wanted to share my experiences. Basically I thought it was a panacea, felt fantastic, then after a month or so I began to experience extreme feelings of anger and depression. I quickly came off it needless to say, but now even if I drink the tea I can start to feel the same way. Apparently it can affect your liver and this produces toxins which can explain the anger. Anyway, I wanted to share this as I did research the subject extensively before I took it and could find very few negatives

Apparently, it can also interact with the Pill to cause unexpected side effects.

Louisa- where did you manage to find that info re. St Johns Wort and liver function? I had v severe PND and took antidepressants for 2 years. was feeling 100% and came off them but now feel bad again(so gone back on tablets.) I'm desperate to stop taking them and considered St johns Wort but I'm finding it really difficult to find any useful (realistic) info on either conventional or alternative medicines.

Yikes. Just started taking St John's Wort on the advice of my doctor, but may possibly have a liver disorder which is being investigated. Guess this could be a bad thing to carry on taking in the meantime. I think I need to look into it a bit more.

Kizzie, I was told about the liver function by a herbalist, who seemed to have anecdotal evidence.
I also looked up several sites that came up when I searched for St John's wort. I spelt and pucntuated it in various ways. I can only remember one specifically - it was called "HealthGate". I do remember that there was a site with a very long
academic paper- sorry I can't be of more help.

A possible alternative to St John's Wort:
I have had fairly bad PND but got over the worst with the help of Kava-kava. I didn't try StJ'sW as I can't risk taking it because of a pre-existing condition that I have. In my opinion K-k is a wonder-drug. It's a herbal extract; the make I use is "Nature's Answer", which I get from Planet Organic, but I've used other makes with equally good effect. I chose this make because it's the only one I could find which tells you exactly how much you're getting of the active ingredients. K-k also has some potential side-effects if you take high doses of it over a long period (months, I think), but I found that after taking it for a few weeks I could reduce the dosage without any difficulty. So after taking it regularly but varying the dosage, I now only take it when I feel the need. As far as I'm aware, I haven't had any side-effects. K-k did NOT cure the PND, but helped me get to a stage where I could help myself, and look for help from others. I HIGHLY reccommend it - it's changed my life!
Hope this helps.

wmf, there has been a very recent warning about Kava Kava, you may want to search for it. It may even have been withdrawn. Worth double checking.

Kava Kava has been withdrawn in Germany because it has allegedly caused cases of liver failure, six people needed a transplant. I took it for a while a year ago and it was brilliant for low-grade anxiety. I certainly won't be taking it again though!

Is nothing safe? I'm also taking St John's Wort in an attempt to stave of depression, and have so far found it pretty effective (been on it since XMas). In fact the reason I chose St John's Wort was because I didn't want to take the anti depressants my doc was recommending, since it seems they have a plethora of side effects associated with them too. Seems like you can't win any which way. Doc knows I'm on SJW but has not mentioned any links to liver disfunction (which wouldn't be good news for me considering the amount I drink!).

I'm haven't heard about the liver thing but it certainly interferes with the Pill. I have a friend who became pregnant (quite unwantedly) whilst on the pill and taking SJW.

Its kava kava which has been withdrawn, not St Johns Wort.

Yes, if you are on the pill and want to take St Johns Wort, tell your Dr, and use extra contraceptive.

Tell your Dr if you are on any medication and want to take SJW as it has a long list of interactions with other drugs. It's easy to forget that despite being "herbal" it's still a drug and has side effects like other drugs, it causes a rash in response to sunlight for example. Lots of drugs are plant derived (heroin springs to mind), don't be lulled into a false sense of security about lack of toxicity just because it's perceived to be "natural".

Don't know much about kava kava except some reports in the medical press of associated liver toxicity.

Thanks for the warnings re kava. I knew before I started taking it that one of kava'spotential side effects was liver damage, but that has only been found when people have used itexcessively. There are also other side-effects connected with over-use (abuse?). That is why I started cutting down on it as soon as I felt able. Here are a few websites to try:
www.kavakava.org.uk (but they are trying to sell kava)
www.thorne.com/altmedrev/kava3-6.html (a review of alternative medicine)
www.personalhealthzone.com/kavakava.html (about side-effects)
www.glensfallshospital.org/pdf/healthsup.pdf (a rather wordy document but has details of other 'herbal' medicines).