Every morning, you enjoy a light breakfast and take your medications and supplements. You have a handful of supplements on top of the medications your doctor prescribed you.
These days it’s encouraged to replace some medicines with natural remedies. A 2018 survey found that 77% of Americans report using some kind of dietary supplement to improve their health!
But, do you know how your supplements affect prescription medications? Keep reading to learn about some of the most dangerous supplement interactions to avoid.
What Are Dietary Supplements?
A ton of over-the-counter products fall under the dietary supplement umbrella. A supplement is a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid taken to supplement one’s diet. These supplements can come from natural food sources or synthetic sources.
Most Dangerous Pharmaceutical and Dietary Supplement Interactions
Some supplements will help the effectiveness of your medications. But not all do. Here are some dangerous drug interactions to avoid.
Antidepressants
Patients who take fluoxetine, and paroxetine to battle chronic depression shouldn’t take melatonin or St. John’s Wort. If you’re taking MAO inhibitors, also avoid green tea, valerian, and ginseng. Taking these supplements could cause anxiety, confusion, sedation among other serious side effects!
There are supplements, like tianeptine, that can help with your depression too! What is tianeptine? Check out this article to learn about this antidepressant and antianxiety supplement.
Cholesterol Medications
If you have high cholesterol, doctors often recommend taking statins. These patients should avoid taking supplements like iron, niacin, St. John’s Wort, and vitamin A.
Antibiotics
Calcium, iron, magnesium, psyllium, and zinc make oral antibiotics less effective. To prevent this, take the supplements 2 hours before or after you take your antibiotics. That helps prevent the supplements from blocking the absorption of the antibiotics into your system.
Blood Thinners
Fish oil, garlic, ginger, and vitamin E cause supplement and drug interactions with blood thinners. The supplement side effects can cause excessive bleeding. Taking Vitamin K counteracts the blood thinners, so be careful with that as well.
Seizure Medications
Patients who use medication to prevent seizures shouldn’t take folic acid, iron, and magnesium. These supplements can counteract seizure medication and cause other serious medical interactions.
Sometimes Your Supplements Are a Detriment
It seems like a good idea to trust in the medicine mother nature gave to us. But, you also need to know how the supplements will interact with each other and with your medicine.
Make sure to let your doctor know about all the supplements you’re taking. That way, they can tell you if you need to adjust your regimen. They may ask you to hold off on a particular supplement during a temporary course of treatment.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article and that you learned about important supplement interactions to avoid. For more informative articles about the latest topics and trends of science/technology, check out the rest of our blog today!
