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| |  ESPE: Natural Herbal Supplement Has Disastrous Impact On Young Boys By Cameron Johnston Special to DG News
MONTREAL, QC -- July 10, 2001 -- Certain herbal supplements might be harmful for children and for women with conditions such as estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. The use of two commonly available herbal supplements resulted in significant pre-pubertal gynecomastia in two young boys, it was reported here at the 6th joint meeting of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society and the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) in collaboration with the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group, the Japanese Society for Pediatric Endocrinology, and the Latin American Society for Paediatric Endocrinology. Dr. Gilbert August, of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, United States, added that the same mechanism of action could flood the body with estrogens, making these products risky for anyone who has been advised to avoid estrogen supplements. In Dr. August’s case study, one boy aged five years and one month and another aged five years and nine months both were taken to specialists after developing significant gynecomastia. In one case, the boy had had gynecomastia for two years, with breast that were 10-12 cm in diameter, while the other boy’s breasts were 2 cm in diameter. He had had the condition for more than six months. One boy’s father said the child had been receiving a "natural herbal supplement" available widely in stores throughout the United States under the name Maharishi Ayurved Kalahi-5. On lab analysis, this product was found to contain 10 different estrogenic components, comprising a total of 24 pg/mL of estradiol. The other child had been taking echinacea, another popular herbal supplement, as a food supplement for a period of approximately one year. This product was also found to contain estrogenic substances, although because of the small amount provided by the child’s parents, the precise amounts could not be quantified. "A lot of products contain estrogen-like components -- soy is one good example," Dr. Gilbert told Doctor’s Guide. "But these aren’t the same. These supplements these kids were taking contained estrogen, in the form of estradiol, and there’s a big difference." "It’s scary to think what these products might be doing," added co-investigator Dr. Susan Nunez, also of the Children’s National Medical Center. Both children’s breasts began to shrink in size when they were taken off the natural supplements, but in the case of the boys whose breasts were the larger of the two, his breast had only decreased in size from 12 cm to 8 cm more than two years after use of the supplement was stopped. Dr. Gilbert said that taking these products might be harmful to other people as well. Women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, for example, are advised not to take any products -- including soy supplements -- that have estrogen-like or estrogen-containing components. "Herbal supplements are often regarded as natural and healthy, and therefore people think they can’t hurt them -- but these products we saw contained biologically active substances that can be particularly deleterious to children," he said.
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