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Taking ginseng in pregnancy and breastfeeding

Hello, I wonder if ginseng can hurt any baby if I use it during breastfeeding. I have been living for nearly four years (first little girl three and the other for less than a year) and I'm a little tired, so I would like to try to make my ginseng a bit "non-energized": c) Thank you and wish nice days, Barbora B.

Dear Mrs Barboro,

the answer to your question in a nutshell is: Effective saponins (panaxosides) , which ginseng contains, pass through a placental barrier and also in breast milk. If you take conventional low doses (2g a day), there are no side effects for you or your baby. You can try it out in this dosage. However, for higher doses, avoid and plan the ginseng more often - let's say a month and then not a month again. You know, my duty is to put a warning tone on pregnant women and infants in any sign of uncertainty, which is what I do, but there are studies in which ginseng babies benefit as well as adults.

For future moms

In the first three months of pregnancy, it is better to avoid ginseng (as well as other medicines, herbs, spices, etc.). This is the key phase when all the organ systems are formed in the embryo. At this stage, molecular mechanisms are embedded in the game, which are never used in the same form in the same way - heart, brain, and other organs are based only once. That is why it is difficult to predict how the drug will act on the embryo development, although it may be harmless for children and adults alike. Fruits older than three months and babies after birth essentially only grow and their molecular pathways are more or less the same as adults.

According to the literature, ginseng is essentially safe in pregnancy and lactation

The issue of ginseng use during pregnancy and lactation is addressed in Seely2008sep . He says ginseng seems safe in pregnancy and lactation. Ginseng is even traditionally recommended during and after giving birth to the overall strengthening of the woman. The reasons why Seely2008sep as well as me recommend caution are purely safety.

Other references

According to Seely2008sep, there are no scientific reports that ginseng has had adverse effects on pregnancy and lactation. The only report on the negative effect of ginseng on child development (androgenization) was the result of ginseng falsification - Periploca sepium was sold to the patient in place of ginseng. High doses of ginsenosides Rb1, Rc and Re also succeeded in inducing damage in rat embryos, but were significantly higher than those achievable by conventional dosing.

The ginseng panaxoside mixture was clinically tested in pregnancy as a medicine for slowing fetal growth ( Zhang1994gst ). The effect of panaxoside on fetal growth was found to be positive and statistically significant. Regarding your question, it is important that the authors performed extensive metabolic tests for the treated baby and did not find any metabolic or hormonal differences from the control group. According to this study, ginseng in pregnancy and in babies would be beneficial and harmless as well as in adults. The animal studies mentioned in Seely2008sep further show the protective effects of ginseng on the neonatal brain during alcohol poisoning (rat) and the positive effect of ginseng on macrophage activity at lactation (home turbidity). In humans, the effect of ginseng on lactation has not yet been investigated.

-boris-

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