I thought Barbara Wilson-Clay brought up some really excellent points in her
post.  I am not an LC of any kind, don't help breastfeeding mothers
directly, don't know much about herbs.  I did hang out for a while with
Patricia Stuart-Macadam, who is a firm believer in homeopathy (I am not, but
she and I are still friends!).

I am not concerned about people like Chris Hafner-Eaton, or T. Low Dog, or
other people who really know their stuff about herbs *and* are knowlegable
about breastfeeding as well, working with mothers under controlled
circumstances.

What concerns me is:

(1) the general public's lumping together of all alternative medicines
including herbs, nutritional supplements, homeopathic medicines, Bach flower
remedies, etc. into one big group and not really having any idea that there
are differences among these.  I've heard people refer to ginko and garlic as
"homeopathic medicines" for just one example.  I've heard people say that
you can take any "herbal" medicine, in any quantity -- that you can't
overdose on them.  I've heard people refer to Vitamin C as an herbal
medicine.  I think the great unwashed masses out there just lump all this
stuff together.

(2) the allopathic medical professionals who don't know a thing about herbs
or homeopathy or nutritional supplements, and who therefore either tell
people they are all useless and to stay away from them, or tell people they
are harmless and to take as much as they want of whatever they want.  Just
one example: My radiation oncologist asked if I had any complaints (besides
the usual side effects of radiation) and I mentioned that the hot flashes
from chemotherapy-induced menopause were really annoying.  The usual
treatment for hot flashes is estrogen, but I can't take estrogen because my
breast cancer is estrogen-receptor positive.  I said "Do you know of any
herbal treatments or nutritional supplements that might help with the hot
flashes but not act like estrogen on the tumor cells?"  (I'm thinking here
about soy and yam, etc.).  And he looked me straight in the eyes and said
"Sure, take whatever you like.  Can't hurt, might help."  I just smiled
thinly and kept my mouth shut.  I've read enough of the soy literature to
know that soy is highly controversial in the context of breast cancer --
some think it helps a lot, others think it hurts, and there are studies to
support both sides.


Kathy Dettwyler

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