How can Drugs and Supplements Interact?

Drugs may interact with herbs, and even vitamins and minerals, causing adverse reactions. The first step in avoiding drug-vitamin interactions is to know where the risks are.

Are you at risk?

If you take both dietary supplements and medicines, then there is a risk of drug-supplement interaction. However the very young, and the very old, run a greater risk for physiological reasons. Particularly heavy use of medication, and regular supplementation, also increases the risk. Therefore the need for precaution is especially important for elderly people, pregnant women and those who may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and people with chronic health problems.

Dietary supplements can interact with both prescription medicines and over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin and cold remedies. Many drug-supplement interactions reported in the medical literature have involved herbal supplements, such as licorice, and St. John’s Wort. However, the problem of drug-supplement interactions is not limited to herbs. Vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, and zinc, are also known to interact with certain types of drugs.

How can drugs and supplements interact?

There are three main ways in which a supplement can interact with your medication:

1. A supplement may strengthen the effects of your medication. If both a supplement and a drug have similar actions in the body, then taking both together can cause an excessively strong effect. In this case, the supplement dosage should be limited to avoid interactions. To take an extreme example, combining an anticoagulant drug such as warfarin with a supplement that also inhibits blood coagulation, such as fish oil, could increase the risk of abnormal bleeding.

2. A supplement may reduce the bioavailability of your medication. A drug can either alter the breakdown of a supplement in your body, or prevent proper absorption of a supplement into your blood. Both of these effects will reduce the bioavailability of the supplement in your body, and so lower potency. Therefore it is best to increase the dosage of a supplement in these circumstances.

3. A supplement may seriously interact with your medication. Potentially the most dangerous type of interaction, sometimes a supplement has an excessively strong reaction with a drug, causing either adverse side-effects or drug overdose type symptoms. Where this is a concern, it is strongly recommended to avoid these supplements completely.

Taking control: how to avoid drug-supplement interactions

Despite the risks, there is no reason you should stop supplementing your diet, or taking your medication. All that is needed to avoid drug-supplement interactions is awareness and consultation with leading authorities on nutritional health before you start.

About the author:
Mitamins is a professional online resource for anyone who wants to know more about vitamins, natural herbs, and other supplements. Our drug checker uses a comprehensive database of 6000 interactions to avoid harmful drug-vitamin interactions.

Cholesterol: Eat Your Way to Lower Numbers

Eat Your Way to Lower Cholesterol is the title of a very informative article in The Seattle Times. Dr. Astrid Pujari writes at length about the benefits of making every effort to control high cholesterol with our diet.

She advocates eating more soluble fiber, adding plant sterols to our diet, eating raw nuts such as almonds and walnuts. Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which lowers cholesterol by mixing with fats in your stomach and decreasing their absorption.

Dr. Astrid Pujari concludes by saying: Statins or other cholesterol-lowering drugs may be necessary and important. Keep in mind that sometimes people need to use medication because their cholesterol is simply too high for diet or natural supplements to work completely.

In this case, the goal of a natural approach is to help you use the least amount of medication necessary to do the trick. Statins may also have benefits outside of cholesterol lowering for certain issues, such as heart failure (when the heart muscle doesn't pump effectively).

More information at: The Seattle Times, Sunday May 20, Living Section
(http://www.seattletimes.com).