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Too Much Herbs To Boost Immunity Might Do More Harm Than Good

February 17, 2022

Too Much Herbs To Boost Immunity Might Do More Harm Than Good
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Historically, we have a very strong affiliation towards herbs and alternate medicine, for centuries as a result of generational binding of trust. Common cold or indigestion, our endless list of herbs and spices have played the role of heroes of home remedies. And now, with the Covid pandemic, the herbs are the showstopper as the immunity-booster. But, to what extent are they reliable? Ever since 2019, our WhatsApp inboxes and FB feed were flooded with various list of herbal remedies and grandma recipes claiming to be the cure or the fighter against covid. While a lot of these are not clinically proven, most of them are already been consumed by the common public, on regular basis.

Herbal medicines and home remedies are good to an extent. But it depends on a person’s symptoms, medical history and the amount of dose an individual consumes every day. Consuming herbal immune boosters daily without consultation will cause health issues and discomforts such as heartburn, bloating, acidity. In serious cases when people consume herbal medicine and allopathy drugs hand in hand, there are more chances for negative causations on Liver and Kidney functions.

Gastrointestinal Experts from Rela Hospital Doctors are quite concerned about this trend as they see more and more patients with complaints and complications such as gastritis and ulcer caused by herbal immune booster. Dr.R Ravi, Group Director – Medical Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy at Rela Hospital says “We are encountering various cases where herbal immunity boosters are going wrong. A lot of them are consuming irrelevant herbal medicines therapeutically either when the body necessarily didn’t need one or by overdosing themselves at a large quantity and frequency. This is completely putting down their already healthy bacteria in their gastrointestinal tract. Many cases, we are forced to do endoscopy to figure this out.” There is a concrete reason behind why it is causing disturbance to the gut health in Indians.

Dr. R Ravi explains that, “We Indians are already in-taking a lot of relevant immune building herbs and spices in our day-to-day diet. An already fit person taking additional herbal medicines will not do good to the immunity but deteriorate it.” So, if public want to strengthen their immunity, at present, it is advisable to look things on a broader light and focus on keeping up with consuming balanced food at regular interval of time and with regular physical activities. That can be extremely effective than overdosing with herbal immunity boosters.

Disclaimer: While the home remedies mentioned in the above blog may seem effective and practical, it is important to note that no scientific evidence supports their efficacy. Therefore, consulting with an expert in the field is highly recommended.


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Department

Medical Gastroenterology

Medical Gastroenterology



Doctor

Dr. R. Ravi

Dr. R. Ravi

MBBS, MD (Gen. Med.), DM (Med. Gastro.)

Group Director - Medical Gastroenterology & Interventional Endoscopy

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