Black cohosh no help in menopause

The yearlong study of 351 women suffering from hot flashes and night sweats found that those given black cohosh got about the same amount of relief as those who took a placebo.

"It's safe and not effective, so therefore it doesn't have any utility whatsoever," said Barrie Cassileth, an alternative-medicine researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who was not involved in the study.

Women taking the herbal treatments reduced hot flashes by only about half an episode per day when compared with those taking the placebo, the study found.

The study was conducted at Seattle-based Group Health, a health plan, and was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Black cohosh, an herb that is a member of the buttercup family, is commonly given to ease menopause symptoms.

Bonnie - so my clients and millions of women around the world that have used it successfully over the years are just experiencing the placebo effect? I don't think so. A 2005 study with a similar participant size appeared in Obstetrics & Gynecology and did find improvement in hot flashes.