Is Forskolin bad for you?
Short answer:
Absolutely not. Just as long as it's of high quality and you get it from a credible source. Forskolin is not at all bad for you. In fact, it has a number of features that make it safe and effective for people to use.
Long answer:
Forskolin is a root extract from a plant commonly known as coleus. It is a popular and widely used herbal treatment for an assortment of ailments. It can be taken by inhaling, intravenous injections, eye drops or drinking in liquid mixtures. So is forskolin bad for you?
The first useful feature of forskolin is the blood thinning feature. It reduces the viscosity of blood making it flow easier within the blood vessels. This feature is applied in both clinical and herbal medicine where it is used to control conditions such as high blood pressure, angina as well as getting rid of clots.
Forskolin also has an anti-inflammatory ability. This is the features applied when it is used to relieve distress during asthma attacks and allergic reactions involving the respiratory tract.
Other features have not been sufficiently proven and these include pain relief, weight loss supplement and antiseptic traits. The effects of forskolin differ and this means that though it helps relieve your friend’s period pain, it may not work the same way on you.
Benefits and uses of forskolin
Forskolin is safe for human consumption more often than not and has many different uses. In summary these include:
- Asthma control
- Blood pressure control
- Pain relief for angina and period cramps
- Dietary supplement
- Eye drops to reduce pressure within the eye
- Antiseptic on small wounds
How Effective is Forskolin?
Possible health risks of Forskolin
Despite all the good things there are about forskolin, it does have its own cons. They are:
- It is unsuitable for expectant and breastfeeding women as high levels of Forskolin affects fetal and infant development respectively.
- The blood thinning effect can cause low blood pressure as well as excessive bleeding in some people.
- When used together with other drugs including anticoagulants and hypertension medication, it can have negative effects such as dizziness, loss of consciousness and shortness of breath.
Alternatives to Forskolin
Forskolin is as good as many other medical drugs available. However, given the many different uses of Forskolin, it would be wiser to use alternatives for specific effects. This means that you should probably use pain killers for period pains instead of forskolin which will affect your blood pressure. Good alternatives include:
- Ibuprofen for pain and inflammation
- Heparin for blood thinning
