I thought you might find the following article useful. It is written by Dr Sarah Jarvis, and is a good article on the use of herbal medicine.
One of the key messages from this article, which I’m sure most of you know, is that herbal medicine can interfere with standard medication, so when your doctor asks you what medication you are taking, it is important to mention herbal medicines, not just prescribed ones. Sarah also discusses some of the herbal medicines for which there is good evidence and which she often recommends to patients:
Another example that springs to mind, in terms of ‘natural’ products that can interfere with medication is the humble grapefruit. This isn’t mentioned in the article, so I have included a separate link about this (below). This has been in the news before, so again, many of you may already be aware of this, but for those who aren’t, grapefruit contains chemicals that can affect the length of time it takes for drugs to be broken down in the body, which in turn can cause more of the ‘active’ drug to be present in the body than the intended dose, as explained here:
You wouldn’t be expected to give your doctor a full break down of every food you eat of course, but grapefruit can be a particular issue, so is certainly one to be aware of.
I hope these articles will be if interest/use to you.
Victoria
(NRAS Information and Support Manager)
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Interesting! Up to a point, because all people do not like the same food intake, I cannot eat
spicy foods of any kind, would a Doctor be aware of that, I doubt it very much, because that would come under the guise of a nutritionist, but on the same hand could course an imbalance with drugs one might be taking.
After many years of suffering Arthritis : Osteoarthritis : Fibromyalgia, operations: treatments of every kind, all turning out like a continues wheel in motion, a appointment was to see a Consultant responsible for the latest thinking and innovation on drug medication, very interactive conversation I had taken along a copy of my prescription we discussed the pain relief drugs and how I felt affected by them. First the Butec patches I said how it effected my head I could no longer think properly, which was important to me due to my painful joints from head to toes. given me his reasons we got rid of the patch. Area two, the Consultant was concerned about Paracetamol and Co-dydramol originally on the Paracetamol eight across a day, when my G.P. desired to give Co-dydramol instead of eight Paracetamol reduce to four plus four Co-dydramol. The Consultant said stop the Paracetamol right away, as the Co-dydramol contained all the Paracetamol I needed. I the meantime He would write to my G.P. tell him what action he had taken and he will see me in one month time to see how I am progressing. Despite having a nasty cold that is going around and only a few days on my amended medication, I already feel much still early to say on the long term, but here's hoping. Hermes.
I recently contacted the pharmacist attached to my GP practice, and asked him about all the supplements I take, along with prescription medication. He was really helpful and it was a weight off my mind to get his knowledge on this. It's something I'm very conscious of, that some supplements are not always harmless, if we are also on medication.
I think good thing to remnd us of, I was asked about vitamins and food supplements by A&E when my kidneys failed last October. It was also said that interactions are common of things we think are harmless and just supplements. I had'nt taken anthing luckily although would also remind folks to keep those blood tests up to date. It did not help me but might stop this from happening to you as I feel so tired all the time and it won't get better. Omprazole is not harmless!
The biggest problem lies however in that doctors specialized in rheumathology are seldom knowledgable in supplements. Patients are often adviced not to take anything ( even this varies a lot) and often unfortunately are not given all possible help. If there is such a scare around supplement interactions why is there no comprahensive info on this? How grape fruit effects meds has been a known fact for a long time that I believe doctors do tell their patiens.
True. Some of that is down to a lack if evidence and some a lack if knowledge, and of course newer supplements there will be no evidence yet regarding interactions. Still worth informing them though, as some supplements will be known to them for interactions. Agree though that it's frustrating if you mention them but they are unaware of them and can't give an answer.
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