Re vitex oil

January 18, 2004

Chuck Woodfield said:

>From my personal study and known safety record (see below), Vitex is

>safer than anything you can get from the drugstore or on

>prescription written by your competent healthcare provider.

I would just like to point out that this statement is not correct.

No one has got a clue on the safety of vitex essential oil. It is

only the herb and the alcohol extract that have been studied.

Why use an oil on which there is no sound safety data or sound

therapeutics when the herbal extract has been used effectively for

hundreds of years? However, herbalists know that even the unrefined

herb is not without its side effects; a highly concentrated essential

oil may have adverse effects that we do not yet understand. The use

of this oil internally is playing with fire over the long term

reproductive health of pre-menopausal women. Even sniffing the oil -

although less of a hazard - could cause problems if used long term.

Applying it to the skin in fixed oils nothing will be absorbed,

although in a cream possibly some may be.

This is one of those oils that I eluded to in previous mails. Tiny

snippets of uncoordinated and uncorroborated information are seized

on by oil suppliers in order to create a demand for an oil.

At a later date I will do a review of all the claims made for this

oil and particularly on the so called " trials " which actually amount

to zilch. See below for an independent review of the published

papers.

Lastly, no properly qualified herbalist would ever use a single herb

such as vitex to treat menopausal problems. The aim is to balance

the body and that can only be done by a combination of herbs aimed at

the individual. Using any single herb is just a substitute for

conventional drugs, i.e. take this drug and it will cure this

illness - the magic bullet approach. The way vitex oil is being

promoted is the opposite to what true traditional healing is about.

Martin Watt

Medical Herbalist.

http://www.aromamedical.com

--------------------------

Re the vitex anthology as reported by Barbara Chopin Lucks

Review by Maria Liz Balchin

The main problems are:

" No double-blind controlled study, no randomization, everybody knew

what they were using and everybody could swop from one oil to the

other. Apart from that all participants had a positive attitude. "

Almost directly quoted from the article.

Consequently, the only real outcome was placebo.

However, the placebo effect is a very potent factor, even in

conventional medicine where it can account for up to 90% of the

effect. Nothing wrong with that, therefore, except that this clinical

trial didn't measure what it set out to do because of this effect.

The effect of a placebo on hormonal changes in the body can be

immense. This effect was evident in some of the remarks made in the

article.

It would be nice to see the composition of the oils, also who

analysed them.

Other problems with the survey include:

The different ages of women

Different stages of menopause, if any

The participation of a child of 11 with her mother (legality?)

Are the oils toxicologically tested? very doubtful...

What conventional/non-conventional drugs were taken by each woman v

the result obtained, as generalisations are not very relevant

otherwise

How exactly was the oil taken in each case: including frequency of

use and dosage (this was vaguely given as licked off palm or smelt;

was it taken any other way?)

As one third of women stopped the drug during the study and were

therefore very unhappy with it or badly affected, what medical follow-

up was undertaken to determine the toxicity effects?

Conclusion:

This is a useless study of the placebo effect of two extracts of

Vitex on women who were already strong believers of Essential oil

efficacy.

January 18, 2004

At 02:34 PM 1/18/2004 -0000, Martin wrote:

>Lastly, no properly qualified herbalist would ever use a single herb

>such as vitex to treat menopausal problems. The aim is to balance

>the body and that can only be done by a combination of herbs aimed at

>the individual. Using any single herb is just a substitute for

>conventional drugs, i.e. take this drug and it will cure this

>illness - the magic bullet approach. The way vitex oil is being

>promoted is the opposite to what true traditional healing is about.

Agreed. The approach you condemn is that used in allopathic medicine and by

those untrained in the holistic approach. Treating the symptom, and not

getting to the cause of the problem is not good healing, it is the

half-assed 'magic bullet' irresponsible (as in I don't want to take

responsibility for my health, just gimme something to make *it* go away).

I would add that in addition to the herb, lifestyle changes also need to be

affected, including diet, exercise, reducing stress, perhaps meditation,

yoga, etc. If you tap into responsibility for your life, then the magic of

healing will come your way, hopefully, holistically.

I hope everyone who considers using a single herb or oil because they read

a few posts about it on an internet group reconsiders their position. At

this point, I consider the sale of vitex oil without a copy of the strong

disclaimer/warning issued by Barbara Lucks (who, originally, herself is to

blame for the lemming run) to be irresponsible,and potentially very, very

damaging legally (typical legal disclaimers apply -- I'm not a lawyer, just

one who is wary of them, and all the litigious people who can bankrupt a

small EO supplier who sells them an oil without such a disclaimer).

Herbs and oils are wonderful, wonderful gifts, and we're all d to

this group to learn more about them, to share our knowledge and

experiences. Anecdotal knowledge is how information is gathered in initial

stages, but running off to pop a pill (herbal or otherwise), apply an oil,

ingest an oil, etc., without a full understanding of the root of the

physical or emotional problem, can cause far more problems in the long run.

I wish we all had access to qualified herbalists and aromatherapist and CAM

practitioners, but we don't. In the meantime, we must be responsible and

not endanger ourselves by dosing ourselves with substances because a few

people said it 'helped' them.

It would be horrible if an oil such as vitex 'takes off' in popularity, and

lots of negative effects are reported (as in Lucks warning) and the FDA

takes it off the market, like it did ephedra. There is no inherent problem

with ephedra, if you are screened for pre-existing conditions that that

would preclude its use, but, of course, that isn't what happened. Lots of

people jumped on the weight-loss aspect of it, and those with hypertension,

underlying heart problems, etc., died. A good herbalist or CAM practitioner

would have screened for those conditions, and told the patient to avoid

ephedra.

Perhaps there is some use for the vitex oil, but it is too early to tell,

way too early.

HTH.

http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

January 18, 2004

A quick question Martin,

Which method of use of this oil is it that you don't like? Do you feel

that just sniffing this oil is potentially dangerous? Or is it the skin

application that is potentially dangerous? Or is it the idea of

ingestion of it that bothers you most? Or all of the above?

Thanks for the clarification!

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

aromamedical2003 [aromamedical-2]

Sunday, January 18, 2004 8:35 AM