Health Study on Giloy
The study was recently published in Hepatology Communications, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.
“Tinospora cordifolia, also known as the heart-leaved moonseed (or Giloy in Hindi and Guduchi in Sanskrit), is popularly marketed in India as an ‘immune-booster herbal supplement’ with the ‘potential’ to prevent COVID-19, despite a lack of strong clinical evidence for its use,” the study notes.
While it validates that Giloy has been shown to have immune-stimulating properties, it adds, “A recent paper describing six patients from a single center revealed that Giloy use could lead to acute hepatitis with autoimmune features or unmask an underlying autoimmune chronic liver disease (CLD).”
Considering how people turned to Giloy in the midst of the pandemic, this study is a natural cause for worry.
Side effects of Giloy
While Giloy started gaining unprecedented glory in 2020, HealthShots had spoken to Dr Amitabh Parti, Director, Internal Medicine at Fortis Hospital, Gurugram, to understand its likely side effects.
Dr Parti had pointed out that one can go wrong with the dosage of Giloy if one is self-medicating, and that can do more harm than good. These are the side effects he pointed out:
* Constipation
* Dropped blood sugar levels
* Trigering of certain autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis
* May be harmful to pregnant women
