If you use poorly studied plant remedies, then remember: no one guarantees their safety, especially with prolonged use, as reported by the Internet publication for girls and women from 14 to 35 years old Pannochka. net This is again reminded experts of the European Organization of Molecular Biology (EMBO).

To some, this may seem absurd, but researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine at the University of Stony Brook (New York, USA) came to the conclusion that the use of traditional herbal medicines is rather a threat to human health than actually treats diseases.

Few of the uninitiated understand that every "harmless grass" around us is an incredible natural cocktail of thousands of organic substances, sometimes unknown to science. Some plants contain potent poisonous or carcinogenic substances, capable of either killing a person right away or imperceptibly triggering the development of fatal diseases.

The last work of American scientists was devoted to the famous Asian plant of aristolohia, also known as Kirkizon (Aristolochia macrophylla).

Included in its composition, aristolochievic acid causes severe damage to the kidneys, which in the West even got its name - aristochlorous nephropathy (AAN). The use of this toxin can lead to kidney failure and tumors of the genito-urinary tract.

The study used data on the treatment with Kirkizon from Taiwan, where between 1997 and 2003, at least 8 million sick people were exposed to this poisonous plant.

Analyzing these statistics and experimental data, professor of pharmacology Donald M. Marcus) and Dr. Arthur P Grollman (Arthur P. Grollman) found that the component of Kirkzona called aristolactam is capable of damaging the structure of DNA in the renal parenchyma.

Aristolactam "turns off" the gene TP53, responsible for the suppression of cancerous tumors, thereby increasing the likelihood of malignant degeneration of the kidney cells, and sometimes the cells of the liver and bladder.

"The story with aristolochia once again shows that the medicinal plants that we use for centuries can conceal toxic and carcinogenic substances that are dangerous to humans," write the authors of the study.

According to them, the aristolochia is used in Asian folk medicine for more than 2000 years, without even knowing about the toxicity and, moreover, about the carcinogenicity of the insidious plant.

There are two explanations for this. First, there is a long time between taking the medicine and the symptoms of the illness, and the healers of antiquity could not connect these two facts. Secondly, only 5% of people with a special genotype are most sensitive to the toxic effects of the kirkasone.

Further, based on fragmentary information, Marcus and Grollman suggested that traditional medicinal plants are associated with a number of serious diseases in African and Asian countries. But, unfortunately, the lack of epidemiological data did not allow scientists to go further.

We will not deny phytotherapy at all, but we will try to understand: not all of what our grandparents have been treated is actually effective and safe. While there are scientifically valid methods of treatment, you should not experiment on your own health.

medbe. en.

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