Does St. John’s Wort Work For Depression?
If it’s natural, it has to be good for you, right? Wrong. Herbs and supplements are just as powerful on the body as man made drugs. They still can give bad side effects and interact badly with other medications. Herbs like St. John’s Wort (also known as hypericum) need to be treated with repsect.
What is St. John’s Wort?
St. John’s Wort is a little herb with yellow flowers that blooms on midsummer’s day (also known as St. John’s day, hense the name). It’s very common in Europe. In case you’re wondering where the “wort” part of the name comes from, it’s not from “wart”. “Wort” is derived from “wyrt”, which used to be the English word for herb…until it changed to herb.
You don’t have to munch the plant like a cow. St. John’s Wort comes in a really foul tasting tea, capsules and tinctures. However, it is imperative that you talk to your doctor before taking St. John’s Wort for depression in any form. In Europe, doctors can even write prescriptions for St. John’s Wort.
Bad Interactions
The reason why you have to talk to your doctor first is because St. John’s Wort interacts so badly with so many other types of life-saving medications. Do not take St. John’s Wort for depression if you are already on:
- antidepressants
- blood-thinning medications like Wafarin
- oral contraceptives
- Loperamide
- Digoxin
- immunosuppressive drugs
- asthma medications
- blood-pressure medicines
Any Clinical Trials On This Stuff?
There have been many clinical trials done with St. John’s Wort for depression and other kinds of medical disorders. But for every clinical trial you can find in favor of using St. John’s Wort, you’ll find another that’s not in favor of it.
This is a common problem for most herbal medications and alternative therapies when done under clinical trials. Herbs so not behave in a predictable fashion. What works for some people might do diddly squat for you.
In Conclusion
Overall, St. John’s Wort is not recommended for major depression, anxiety disorder or bipolar disoprder. It can help with the mildest type of depression, which is the usual temporary sadness you get after going through a trauma.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[...] Study by Rena Sherwood I guess it’s just my luck. I just posted an article about how St. John’s Wort does buttkiss for major depression and now there’s a new massive clinical study out by the [...]