Doctor warns of herbal medicines ‘stronger than poitín’

A WARNING about taking over-the-counter herbal medicines which contain alcohol solutions stronger than poitín has been given by a Co Kerry GP.

Tralee doctor Bridget O’Brien said people were unaware that high alcohol levels contained in herbal tinctures could make them ill or result in them unwittingly driving while way over the legal alcohol limit.

She said one of her patients who was taking a number of herbal tinctures together was tested with a blood alcohol limit of 266 milligrammes of alcohol - more than three times the legal limit of 80mg.

“She came into the surgery with tremors. It had been going on for a number of weeks and the more she shook the more she took of the tinctures.

“People should be careful. It is very frightening what I have seen,” she said.

“There are a number of products that have exceptionally high levels of alcohol. They go as high as 75%. Some of the products are in effect a very strong poitín. It is illegal to sell poitín, which is about 55% alcohol.”

Dr O’Brien said a herbal medication called Gotu Kola dissolved in 70% ethanol led to a patient of developing an eating disorder.

It resulted in her repeatedly waking at 4am craving carbohydrates.

When the 41-year-old stopped taking the herbal tincture, she re-established a normal sleep pattern and the night eating syndrome (NES) disappeared.

The woman had developed her symptoms when she started taking the Gotu Kola tincture two years before she visited the GP.

“Unwitting alcohol consumption, particularly in the form of herbal tinctures with high ethanol content, should be considered as a precipitary cause of NES,” Dr O’Brien said in the current edition of the Irish Medical Journal.

Tincture may prompt night eating

* Night eating could be stimulated by taking a high-alcohol tincture like Gotu Kola that could result in a consequent reduction in blood sugar during the early hours of the following morning.

* NES is a relatively new illness that was first described by a professor in the Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the 1990s.

* The disorder normally affects younger people who appear to have a normal appetite but have no desire for food in the morning and then wake during the night craving food.