Some herbal remedies taken to relieve headaches may interfere with migraine headache medications and even cause headaches, according to a study University of Utah researchers are presenting this week at the American Headache Society annual meeting in Chicago.
In fact, there are so many interactions between herbal remedies and medications that anyone using an herbal remedy should discuss it, even though no prescription is required, with a pharmacist or physician, said one of the U. Health Sciences Center researchers, Carla Rubingh, a clinical pharmacist who specializes in headache and pain control.
She co-wrote the study with Kathleen B. Digre and Susan K. Baggaley.
Because herbals are sold over-the-counter, many people believe they are safe and free of side-effect or interaction free, Rubingh said. But research shows virtually all of them interact or interfere with something. And some effects of herbal remedies can pose serious problems.
The U. researchers looked at the "top 10" popular herbal remedies, a list created by looking at FDA, CNN and General Nutrition (GNC) store data. That list included echinacea, feverfew, garlic, ginger, gingko biloba, ginseng, glucosamine, saw palmetto, St. John's wort and valerian root. They next looked at the research involving those remedies. They found, for instance, that all 10 interfere with antiplatelet and anticoagulation drugs, said Rubingh. St. John's Wort, for example, renders oral contraceptives ineffective.
The herbal remedies studied interfered with a wide variety of treatments, including drugs taken after an organ transplant, antiviral medications, treatments for HIV and more. The most potentially serious were those that interfered with liver metabolism, Rubingh said.
On the headache front, they found that ginkgo biloba, ginseng, valerian and St. John's wort may cause or make migraine headaches worse in people who are prone to them, Rubingh said.
Gingko biloba, ginseng, echinacea, St. John's wort and large amounts of garlic can interfere with common migraine treatments, including a class of drugs called triptans; and tricyclic antidepressants, often prescribed for depression and as treatment to prevent migraines.
Conversely, some herbal remedies may alleviate headache, including echinacea, ginger, saw palmetto, St. John's wort and valerian root. And yes, they said, some remedies make both lists, for both improving and worsening headaches.
That very confusion is one reason that people need to talk to their doctors and pharmacists about what they're taking, whether it's a prescription or not, Rubingh said.
The researchers found no definitive numbers on how many headache sufferers might use herbal remedies. But University of Iowa research indicates that 42 percent of Americans have taken herbal remedies and it's known that as many as 30 million Americans have migraine headaches, while a couple of million more have cluster headaches, according to the American Council for Headache Education.
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