Effects of Herbal Products on Perception or Memory - Research Proposal Example

Literature Review: Effects of Herbal Products on Perception or Memory Literature Review Effects of Herbal Products on Perception or Memory Introduction Shaw (1998, p.294) presents the World Health Organization statistics indicating that 80 percent of residents in developing nations rely on conventional herbal medicines. Herbal products are also rampant in the developed countries such as Australia and America. In UK, the growth of the herbal products market is evident through the emergence of pharmacies, health food shops, and supermarkets trading in them. An increased availability of herbal products promotes the likelihood of consumers’ perception of their safety. Most herbal products, however, operate and sell without licenses in United Kingdom (UK). Because of the increase in unchecked quality, standard, and safety of the product for use (Starling 2006, p.6). The escalating use of herbal products on UK markets that is evident through the increased sales. The growing usage of the herbal products makes it a critical concern to ascertain its safety for consumption (Reynor et al. 2011, p.2). The women perceive herbal products to pose adverse consequences on their health. UK government should invest and funds researches meant to explore the effects of the herbal products on its citizens. The study herein evaluates the effects of herbal products and perception. The research encounters several ethical issues that the researcher must address in his or her study. The issue of honesty is very critical when conducting the research. The researcher must exercise honesty in all scientific disseminations he or she conducts. The second issue is maintenance and exercising of high level of integrity in the research. He or she must keep all the promises and agreements and act with sincerity as per the subjects’ anticipation. The researcher must remain respectful towards the subjects. He or she seek for permission from the subjects before conducting the research and ensure no to exceed the limits accorded when researching. The researcher must ensure not to invade the privacy and confidential part of the subjects. Cannabis is one of the controversial herbal products used across the globe both for medicinal and recreational purposes. The herbal product faces a heated debate on whether to legalize the drug for use for medicinal purposes in hospitals. Search Methodology Literature search involved comprehensive evaluation of scholarly online indexing and abstracting databases via Google search engine. On the scholarly database, the literature is available by keying the research topic. The database offers a broad range of peer-reviewed articles. The point of interest in the literature review is to analyze and note what other authors and prior researches ascertained about the subject under study. An alternative method and quicker method used in the literature review is to access the Google scholar database for peer-reviewed articles. To find the most relevant information, the researcher keys in the research subject topic (Swartz 1999, p.119). The other method used to extract valuable literature on the subject matter is locating EBSCOhost via their website link. The researcher keys the link http://www.ebscohost.com/ on an internet-enabled computer Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Kiscaden 2014, p. 56). The link leads to EBSCOhost database where there are varieties of articles addressing a wide range of research topics. The researcher then locates the search prompt box where he or she types the specific research topic and executes the command. In response, the database avails a variety of results on relevant topics, from where the researcher singles out the best articles for the literature review. Results According to Zawilska and Wojcieszak (2013, p. 406), cannabis induces intense and short-lived alterations in consciousness, mood and perception accompanied by hallucinations and disorientation. Cannabis is an example of herbal products that alters an individual’s sensory perceptions of environmental aspects. Cannabis associates with vivid visual hallucinations encompassing perceptions of alterations in bodily form, merging with objects in the environment. The drug instills extraordinary sensations and feelings that bring along fear of losing control and panic. The herbal product impairs short-term memory, the victim tend to recall past occurrences that destabilizes the moods. The research reveals that herbal use has varied shortcomings than merits. It is hence detrimental to an economy as the UK economy by lowering its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The short-term memory effect makes individuals less productive in terms of initiating business deals that may build an economy. The effect renders many jobless due to their less productivity in production and service deliveries thereby lowering the per capita income of an individual (Murphy 2000, p.221). Gunderson et al. (2012, p.321) asserts that Marijuana usage causes cannabis-like effects including changes in moods, perception and increased pulse. Herbal products cause psychological and mental hazards that interfere with an individuals’ memory and changes perceptions about the products. Herbal products do not undergo pharmaceutical certification process hence are not fit for human usage. The effects indicate the negative influence that the herbal products introduce in human health. Spice and K2 causes panic attack, anxiety, blurred vision and fear. In the health care sector, the effects may lead to deaths since the health care providers cannot work effectively under panic attack. Blurred vision may result in road accidents leading to deaths depriving a country of the human resources. The leadership of the various countries hence should incur costs in preventing the use of the herbal products. The research by Spaderna, Addy and DSouza (2013, p.529) proves that the use of cannabis usage increases psychiatric, medical and social consequences. Spice, an herbal product associates with psychotic symptoms including perpetual alterations, illusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, and aggression. Other effects of the herbal product include depersonalization, dissociation, and paranoia. The adverse effects that the herbal product poses to human health make it a product of destructive effects rather than constructive. For this reason, the governments should enact strict policies barring their use. Spaderna, Addy and DSouza (2013, p.529) however highlights some of the short-term merits that prompts the users to continue using it. These include acute psychoactive effects like well being, calmness, increased creativity, and mild memory and attention impairments. The increased creativity that the herbal product brings about is a positive effect since it can lead to new inventions and innovations. Creativity merits nations as it contributes towards the full exploitation of available resources and creating more opportunities. According to Franke et al. (2014, p. 441) the herbal products have positive effects on perception and memory. Some herbal products are usable to enhance human beings cognitive power. Franke et al. associates the enhanced cognitive power to increased academic performance. G. biloba is an example of an herbal product that increases users’ cognitive and memory skills. However, the use of the herbal product poses serious effects on the user’s health. The research conducted indicating the merits of using the herbal product in preventing cognitive decline and enhancing memory skills focused entirely on unhealthy elderly adults. Hence, due to the healthy individuals ‘user merit of the herbal product, it is not appropriate or fit for usage (Vickers, Zollman & Lee 2001, p.1). Tebbett (2014, p.39) from his research reveals that the use of Ginkgo and other herbal products for medicinal purposes causes mild adverse effects. The effects include headache and gastric upset. Medical reports indicate that headache associates to inefficiency in cognitive powers, confusion and problems with thinking clearly. In addition, the headache destabilizes the memory functionality leading to unproductivity of the victim. The herbal product use also interferes with an individual’s perception since it leads to spontaneous hyphema, a state of blood in the eye (Sevior 2010, p.246). Hughner (2000, p.1) presents the continuous and increasing use of herbal and natural products for medicinal purposes. The increased usage indicates the positive manner in which people perceive the herbal products. The extensive usage is evident through the sprouting of supermarkets like stores in America that offer organic products, homeopathic treatments, and herbal supplements (Olivo 2014, p. 40). The herbal products treat some ailments and are relatively cheaper in cost as compared to the manufactured medications. However, not all the herbal products are safe for usage since some of them pose more serious health complications. Holst et al. (2009, p.4) affirms the information from Hughner‘s research. The women have a negative perception about the herbal products leading to life complications. Hence, the use is a risky practice to them. The study conducted by Moss et al. (2010, p. 390) revealed that Salvia officinalis and Salvia lavandulaefolia have the capability of modulating cognition and mood. The research through the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) indicates the effect that aromas and herbal extracts causes on working memory and long-term memory. Through the tests conducted S. officinalis aroma translated to significant enhancement effect for the quality of memory factor. The enhanced memory factor is a beneficial effect of the herbal product to individuals. However, the use of herbal extracts lacked standardization, which is a shortcoming in their usage (Wills, Bone & Morgan 2000, p.50). The research shows that the use of some herbal products likes SO and SL increases self-reported alertness comparing to a decrease in the control condition. Hang (2013, p.8) asserts that there exists suboptimal assurance of safety, efficacy and quality of control. People use the herbal products in the treatment of sores and stomach despite their questionable efficiency and safety. The herbal products cause liver damages. The continued civic education enlightening people about the limitations of using herbal products earns it a negative perception. The States should hence form standardizations commissions to help test, verify and approve an herbal product before the public assumes usage. Conclusion Herbal products have adverse negative effects than the positive ones. The products have an escalating trend of exploitation posing a serious challenge and threat to nation’s labor force. The governments have a responsibility to ensure the health, safety, and security of the citizens. Hence, the government must invest on further studies on mechanisms of eradiating the menace. Herbal products cause psychological instability that associates to memory lapse. The memory lapse alters an individual’s moods. It also reduces the general efficiency and productivity of a person lowering the nation’s economy in the end. People especially women have a negative perception about the herbal products. The negative perceptions attributes to lack of safety assurance about the products (McGuiness 2008, p.6). Bibliography Franke, A. 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