Home :: Kelpware

Kelpware Herb - Uses And Side Effects

Kelpware comes from Fucus vesiculosus (of the Fucaceae family), a brownish green seaweed that grows on rocky areas along the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Several species found along the French coastline are used to make kelpware tablets.

Product quality can vary widely. Some products contain eight times as much iodine as others, depending on the plant's origin. F. vesiculosus accumulates cadmium and lead in various plant parts, probably because of the heavy metal content of sea water.

Common doses of Kelpware

Kelpware comes as dried plant, soft extract prepared with 45% alcohol, liquid extract, tablets, and softgel formulation with lecithin and B6' Some experts recommend the following doses:

• For obesity, mix 16 grams of bruised plant with 1 pint of water and take 2 fluid ounces orally three times daily.
• As soft extract, 200 to 600 milligrams taken orally.
• As liquid extract, 4 to 8 milliliters taken orally before meals.
• As tablets, three tablets (3.75 grains) taken orally daily, then increase gradually up to 24 tablets daily.

Uses of Kelpware herb

Specifically, Kelpware may help to :-

• Fatty degenetation of the heart
• Goiter (an abnormally large thyroid)
• Inflammmatory bladder disease
• Kidney disease
• Minstrual irregularities
• Obesity

Side effects of Kelpware

Call your health care practitioner if you experience any of these possible side effects of kelp ware:

• chronic excessive thirst
• excessive urination.

This herb also can cause:

• high blood sugar
• increased blood creatinine, which may damage the liver.

Interactions

Combining herbs with certain drugs may alter their action or produce unwanted side effects. Tell your health care practitioner about any prescription or nonprescription drugs you're taking, especially:

• aspirin
• blood thinners such as Coumadin.

Important paints to remember

• Don't use kelpware if you're pregnant or breast-feeding.
• Avoid this herb if you have cancer, diabetes, a kidney disorder, severe liver disease, heart failure, recent heart attack; if you're elderly; or if you're taking drugs known to cause liver damage.
• If you take thyroid hormone replacement therapy, Lithobid, Cordarone, or a blood thinner, check with your health care practitioner before using kelpware.
• Don't give kelpware to children.
• Know that kelpware may cause symptoms of cadmium, lead, arsenic, or bromide poisoning.
• Be aware that kelpware products may contain iodine.

What the research shows

Although kelpware seems to work as a blood thinner, medical experts don't recommend it because it hasn't been tested on people. Most experience with the herb comes from Europe.

As an obesity treatment, kelpware has been criticized. Generally, it's not used to treat life-threatening obesity.

Other names for Kelpware

Other names for kelpware include black-tang, bladder fucus, bladder-wrack, blasentang, quercus marina, sea wrack, sea-oak, and seetang.

Products containing kelpware are sold under such names as Kelp, Kelp Combination Tabs, Kelp/Lecithin/B6, Kelp Natural Iodine, and Pacific Kelp.