In a message dated 5/20/00 9:36:28 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< I have been collecting surveys from women taking fenugreek, I have over 50
so far, and none have reported headaches as a side effect.  If you would
like to fill out a survey or help me by passing them out to your clients
please let me know by private e mail.

I am working with a physician and another LC, we are in the early planning
stages, of doing a double blind research study on the effectiveness of
fenugreek. >>

I have wanted to open this discussion several times, but didn't know quite
how to explain my thoughts. My family has used natural medicines for 13
years. I can count on one hand the number of times I or my dh or my children
have had medical intervention, including over-the-counter drugs during that
time (except for his occasional use of aspirin). This is not to say that I do
not treat herbs with the utmost respect, b/c I do.
    But, one of my greatest concerns lies in the idea of taking what many in
natural medicine (and I in my heart) know are poor techniques for assessing
the efficacy of a substance, procedure or intervention and applying them to
natural medicine.
    Cindy, I hope that you will realize that your post is purely a catalyst
for my comments and they are not directed specifically toward your project.
    This is my concern: in holism "anecdotal" information, placebos, nocebos
(the practitioner's opinion affects the outcome) and such are given
completely different status than in allopathic medicine.
    If you just look at something as simple as fenugreek, there are many
issues to consider aside from the obvious possibility of allergy (related to
ragweed). Does the mother take the herb in capsule, tincture or tea form? Who
supplied the herb--a reputable company? Is it wildcrafted or organic? If the
mother takes a tea, who makes it for her? The very act of making tea or
having tea made is extremely nurturing to some people. Herbalists often work
with an understanding of synergy--in herbalism one plus one does not equal
two. I do not ever recommend only fenugreek. I recommend it in combination
with fennel, blessed thistle and perhaps hops or red raspberry leaf. (IMO,
the blessed thistle is more important). I consider the mother and whether she
is more likely (in my best intuitive guess) to respond better to a tea,
tincture or capsule. Taste can be a factor--if the tea is bitter, the mother
may not drink enough of it. On the other hand, if it tastes bad, some mothers
believe more in the medicinal quality of the herb. I dread to see the day
where fenugreek becomes one more "drug" artificially copied in some
laboratory and used the same way we do other drugs.
    I read often on Lactnet that people are interested in seeing studies done
on herbs or other aspects of helping which seem more a part of the art than
the science of bf. I just want to urge caution. We, as bf supporters have
been troubled by the "bottling of the breast" and other cultural ways or
normalizing all aspects of artificial feeding such that bf is the
"alternative". The same has been done in Western society to healing. That
which is intuitive and organic in nature and seeks to maintain health has
become the "alternative" to that which is highly interventive and depends on
pathology to exist. By applying the "laws" of allopathy to natural medicine,
we may do far more harm than good. I suggest we look to the world of natural
healing for guidance rather than cutting parts of it away from the whole to
view under our microscopes. As Joseph Chilton Pearce has taught me, when you
place two heart cells on a slide and look under a microscope, they "beat" in
unison. When you place them on separate slides and moves them apart, they
die. Many things in nature depend upon relationships to be life-supporting,
but may prove ineffective in the vacuous world of the double-blind study.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

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