By Nana Ama Gyapong
Dr. Christopher Mensah, Deputy MD at Tobinco Pharmaceuticals LTD has stated that herbal medicines have a lot of medicinal value but also come with it’s own side effects.
He made the point during the health segment on the GTV Breakfast Show.
Self-medication is defined as the selection and use of medicines by individuals (or a member of the individuals’ family) to treat self-recognized or self-diagnosed conditions or symptoms.
Speaking on whether or not self-medication is advisable, Dr. Mensah explained that self-medication is a global issue that the World Health Organization (WHO) is dealing with especially in the African countries because of limited healthcare infrastructure.
He added that when a person has a mild headache or does not feel too well, the person resorted to self-medication because he or she might not have a health insurance card or money to afford medical care.
He added that parents can also be a problem in the area of self-medication because immediately a child falls sick, they immediately give the child a pain killer without finding out the actual cause of the illness.
Dr. Christopher Mensah reiterated that herbs have a medicinal value but these same herbs come with their side effects.
Describing the dangers of combining herbal and orthodox medicines, he said, ”the advice is always to separate them because the herbal drugs may contain the active ingredients to make you feel better, but combining both will not make one see the effect”.
Dr. Mensah advised people to either finish taking their Orthodox medicines before beginning herbal treatment to avoid complications.
”Self-medication is not a good thing, everyone should desist from that”, he opined.
