The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

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  • Recent Comments

    The digoxin-dan shen interaction

    Here is an example of a Chinese herbal medicine (dan shen) interacting with a lab test to cause an inaccurate digoxin blood level result.

    • Taking digoxin and the Chinese medicine dan shen (aka: Salvia miltiorrhiza, red sage, chan su, and radix salvis mitiorhiza) might lead to inaccurate digoxin blood levels due to interference of a component in the Chinese medicine with the antibody used in the digoxin test.

    Dan Shen is a traditional Chinese herb used for — among other things — supporting “heart function.” So, it’s very possible that a person taking digoxin to treat congestive heart failure or abnormal heart rhythm might also take dan shen.

    This finding is part of larger report published by the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School in Houston. The researchers reviewed all published reports between 1980 and 2005.

    9/30/06 20:03 JR

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