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BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies

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Open Access 01-12-2019 | Research article

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Authors: Matthew Peacock, Mihaela Badea, Flavia Bruno, Lada Timotijevic, Martina Laccisaglia, Charo Hodgkins, Monique Raats, Bernadette Egan

Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies | Issue 1/2019

Abstract

Background

The rise in use of food supplements based on botanical ingredients (herbal supplements) is depicted as part of a trend empowering consumers to manage their day-to-day health needs, which presupposes access to clear and accurate information to make effective choices. Evidence regarding herbal supplement efficacy is extremely variable so recent regulations eliminating unsubstantiated claims about potential effects leave producers able to provide very little information about their products. Medical practitioners are rarely educated about herbal supplements and most users learn about them via word-of-mouth, allowing dangerous misconceptions to thrive, chief among them the assumption that natural products are inherently safe. Print media is prolific among the information channels still able to freely discuss herbal supplements.

Method

This study thematically analyses how 76 newspaper/magazine articles from the UK, Romania and Italy portray the potential risks and benefits of herbal supplements.

Results

Most articles referenced both risks and benefits and were factually accurate but often lacked context and impartiality. More telling was how the risks and benefits were framed in service of a chosen narrative, the paucity of authoritative information allowing journalists leeway to recontextualise herbal supplements in ways that serviced the goals and values of their specific publications and readerships.

Conclusion

Providing sufficient information to empower consumers should not be the responsibility of print media, instead an accessible source of objective information is required.

HS are generally implied to fall within the legal definition of Food Supplements (EU Directive (2002/46/EC), though this is not stated as specifically as might be wished. Therefore it was deemed important to select a consistent term which could be precisely defined and adhered to irrespective of the inconsistent terminology and classification found at the level of Individual EU states.

Thus, the definition of HS decided upon was: “foodstuffs the purpose of which is to supplement the normal diet and which are concentrated sources of botanical preparations that have nutritional or physiological effect, alone or in combination with vitamins, minerals and other substances which are not plant-based. HS are marketed in dose form, such as capsules, pastilles, tablets, pills and other similar forms, sachets of powder, ampoules of liquids, drop dispensing bottles, and other similar forms of liquids and powders designed to be taken in measured small unit quantities”.

This definition is reflected in other publications drawn from the PlantLIBRA project already in print, though the project tended to prefer the term “Plant Food Supplements” to “Herbal Supplements” to refer to the same products, drawing in particular from survey published by Garcia-Alvarez [48].

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Title: Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks
Authors: Matthew Peacock
Mihaela Badea
Flavia Bruno
Lada Timotijevic
Martina Laccisaglia
Charo Hodgkins
Monique Raats
Bernadette Egan
Publication date: 01-12-2019
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 2662-7671
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-019-2602-9

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Herbal supplements in the print media: communicating benefits and risks

Abstract

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

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