S.J. Enna - Herbal Supplements and the Brain: Understanding Their Health Benefits and Hazards

Understanding Their Health Benefits and Hazards

S. J. Enna
Stata Norton

Illustrated by Kevin S. Smith

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2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2012

ISBN-10: 0-13-282497-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-282497-2

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Enna, S. J.
Herbal supplements and the brain : understanding their health benefits and hazards /
S.J. Enna, Stata Norton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-13-282497-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. HerbsTherapeutic use. 2. Alternative
medicine. 3. Dietary supplementsTherapeutic use. I. Norton, Stata, 1922- II. Title.
RM666.H33E55 2013
615.321dc23
2012006286

Both skeptics and believers in the value of herbal supplements for brain conditions will enjoy the calm objective analysis to which these two experienced pharmacologists put the most popular products. You may not like their conclusions, but their evidence is convincing.

Floyd E. Bloom, MD, Professor Emeritus, Molecular and Integrative Neuroscience Department, TSRI

Written with authority yet as lucid and enticing as a novel, the Enna/Norton book is certainly the finest volume I know addressing the interface of herbs, the brain, and behavior. It will be of value and fun for the educated layperson as well as the professional.

Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

It all began with Adams apple. Knowing what you add to your diet may change your life. Getting a kick from a cup of coffee, fighting depression with St. Johns wort, drifting away with valerian, or reaching a ripe old age with Gingko, this book gives insights into the pros and cons of taking herbal supplements. Excellent and entertaining reading!

Hanns Mhler, Professor of Pharmacology, University of Zurich, Switzerland

If you are someone who takes and believes in herbal supplements, then this book is a must-read for you. Ill bet you will be surprised at some of the information. It is written by two extraordinarily qualified authors, who have decades of experience with the effects and toxicities of drugs and supplements. The aim of the book is to use proven criteria to evaluate if herbal supplements are effective or not. This information is not always easy to find, so read on.

Michael J Kuhar, Ph.D., Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, Candler Professor of Neuropharmacology, School of Medicine, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Center for Ethics of Emory University

We thank our spouses, Colleen Enna and David Ringle,
for the decades they have devoted to encouraging us
to pursue our scientific interests and career goals.
Neither this book, nor any of our other accomplishments,
would have been possible without their patience, support,
and understanding. This work is dedicated to them.

We thank Mr. Kirk Jensen, Mr. Russ Hall, and their colleagues at Pearson for their guidance and assistance in creating this volume. Thanks, too, to Mr. Kevin S. Smith for preparing the illustrations and for contributing his creative talents to this project. We are particularly grateful to Ms. Lynn LeCount at the University of Kansas Medical School for her editorial and technical assistance. Without her efforts, this work would not have been possible.

A Kansas City native, S. J. Enna received his undergraduate education at Rockhurst University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in pharmacology from the University of Missouri. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, F. Hoffmann-LaRoche in Basel, Switzerland, and Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Dr. Enna joined the faculty at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston in the departments of Pharmacology and of Neurobiology and Anatomy. In 1986, Dr. Enna was appointed Scientific Director of Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation in Baltimore. At this time, he also held appointments as a Lecturer in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Medical School and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans. Dr. Enna returned to Kansas City in 1992 as Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he is currently Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, and Professor of Pharmacology and of Physiology. Dr. Enna has published nearly 300 research reports, reviews, and book chapters describing his research, and has edited or coedited 30 books on various subjects relating to neuropharmacology. For decades, he has served as a scientific consultant for most of the major pharmaceutical companies and as a board member on government panels and private research foundations. He has been appointed to the editorial boards of numerous pharmacology journals and has served as editor of leading journals in the field, including the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

At present, Dr. Enna is editor of Biochemical Pharmacology and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, coeditor of Current Protocols in Pharmacology, and series editor of Advances in Pharmacology. Dr. Enna has held many elective offices in professional societies, including the presidency of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Currently, he is Secretary-General of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to the discipline of pharmacology. Among these are two Research Career Development Awards from the National Institutes of Health, the John Jacob Abel and Torald Sollmann Awards from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Daniel H. Efron Award from the American College of Neuorpsychopharmacology, and the PhRMA Foundation Excellence Award from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Foundation. Dr. Enna is internationally recognized for his research in neuropharmacology, especially his contributions in characterizing the biochemical and pharmacological properties of neurotransmitter receptors in general, and the -aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in particular.