Hawthorn extract may help the symptoms of heart failure
Publication Date:23/01/2008
Introduction
Hawthorn extract can help the heart beat more strongly and may reduce breathlessness and tiredness in people with heart failure, a review of studies has found. But don't take this herbal medicine without speaking to your doctor first. Heart failure is a serious condition and hawthorn might react with some of the medicines prescribed by your doctor.
What do we know already?
If you have heart failure it means your heart doesn't pump blood around your body as well as it should. Heart failure is usually caused when your heart has been damaged in some way, for example, after a heart attack.
If you have heart failure you may feel breathless and tired, even if you don't do very much. You may also cough up frothy pink phlegm and have swollen ankles.
There are many medicines for heart failure. Diuretics are one of the main ones. They help your body to get rid of excess fluid. Other medicines reduce blood pressure so that blood flows more easily through the blood vessels and your heart doesn't have to work so hard.
Hawthorn extract is a herbal remedy made from the dried leaves, flowers and fruits of the hawthorn bush. In some European countries, such as Germany, hawthorn extract is available on prescription for people with heart failure.
There have been quite a few studies looking at whether hawthorn extract helps people with heart failure. Some have found that it does and others that it doesn't. The present study was done to get an overall picture of what benefits, if any, there are from hawthorn extract by combining the results of studies.
What does the new study say?
The review of 14 studies found that hawthorn extract increases how much work the heart can do so that more blood is pumped round the body. It also reduces the amount of oxygen the heart uses. People who took hawthorn extract scored better on tests that measured their symptoms than people who took a dummy pill (placebo). They were less tired and less breathless and could also exercise for longer than they could before. But the benefit seems to be small.
Tell me more about the study's findings
The dose of hawthorn extract used in the studies ranged between 160 milligrams and 1800 milligrams. The patients were aged between 50 and 74.
Patients who took hawthorn reported some side effects. But these were mild. They included dizziness, problems sleeping, nausea, heart pain and stomach upset. In five studies there were no side effects from hawthorn extract.
Where does the study come from?
The study was done by researchers who work in complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth. It was published in a database called the Cochrane Library.
How reliable are the findings?
Although there were 14 studies included in this review some of them were small. Only 10 studies, which included 855 patients in total, provided results that could be combined to see the overall effects of hawthorn extract. And different studies looked at different effects of hawthorn, which means the numbers of patients that led to the findings in the review were often small. For example, only three studies looked at how hawthorn affected symptoms. These included just 154 people who took hawthorn and 85 people who took a placebo. This small number of patients makes the finding about symptoms less reliable.
In some of these studies patients were taking standard treatments for heart failure, so it's hard to know for certain how much effect the hawthorn extract had.
There's also the possibility that studies that find that hawthorn extracts are helpful are more likely to be published than those that find they’re not. This can distort the findings of a review of studies like this one.
What does this mean for me?
If you have heart failure you may wonder whether hawthorn extract may help you. The findings of this review suggest that it might. But although hawthorn extract seems to be safe, the researchers say that you shouldn't start taking it without speaking to your doctor first. It's important to note that this herbal remedy is not intended to replace any standard medicines you are taking for heart failure.
What should I do now?
If you're thinking about taking hawthorn extract then make an appointment to see your doctor. He or she will be able to advise about whether it's safe for you to take hawthorn extract alongside the medicines you're prescribed for heart failure.
There are also some other things you can do to help your heart failure. One of the main reasons that people with heart failure end up in hospital is because they stop taking their tablets or don't take them correctly. You shouldn't stop taking your medicine without talking to your doctor first.
Gentle exercise such as walking can all help to make your heart stronger. Talk to your doctor if you're not sure how much exercise to take. Some hospitals run exercise programmes for people with heart failure. You might be tested to make sure you can take part, so if you're worried about exercising this might be a good option for you. Ask your doctor about what's available in your area.
From:
Pittler MH, Guo R, Ernst E. Hawthorn extract for treating chronic heart failure (Cochrane review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 1, 2008. Wiley, Chichester, UK.
To learn more, see our information on heart failure.
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