• News Report Says Mixing Dietary Supplements With Drugs Could Be Dangerous. But Public Isn’t Buying It This Time

    Posted May 1, 2014: by Bill Sardi

    A third of Americans are mixing dietary supplements with their prescription medications.  [Reuters News April 29, 2014; Journal Academy Nutrition & Dietetics April 4, 2014]]

    Should that be alarming?  No more than they drink grapefruit juice with their medicines.  But the news headline prompts undue alarm.  And the public isn’t buying it this time.

    Some herbal molecules like those found in grapefruit juice do contain molecules that inhibit the liver detoxification of drugs.  There are a number of liver enzymes (known as cytochrome p450 enzymes) that normally dull the effects of drugs.  But molecules like those found in grapefruit juice inhibit these enzymes and make the drugs more powerful.  That might be beneficial, but in the case of blood pressure-lowering drugs, it might result in blood pressure dropping too far and the patient experiencing transient dizziness.

    A couple of years ago researchers in Germany investigated reported herb-drug interactions.  They particularly focused on the published evidence six popular herbal drugs (Echinacea, garlic, gingko, ginseng, goldenseal, and milk thistle) as “perpetrators of drug interactions.”  What these researchers concluded was “the available evidence indicates that, at commonly recommended doses, none of these herbs act as potent or moderate inhibitors or inducers of cytochrome P450 enzymes.”  [Planta Medica Sept. 2012]  Of course, that study never generated a news report.  So much for the government-sponsored propaganda.

    Almost nothing is said of the many essential nutrients that prescription drugs deplete.  Investigators say “the effects of widely used drug on nutrients is a story rarely told.”  That “drug-induced nutrient depletion may be the origin of unexplained symptoms that might influence medication compliance.”  [Nutrition April 2013]

    A decade ago the public might have fallen for the false alarm.  But today there is widespread skepticism over negative news reports involving dietary supplements.  Here are just a few of the comments posted at Yahoo about this news story.

    You mean ask the doctor why he is giving you a cocktail of drugs when we should know the FDA only approves one drug for a specific health problem?  Is that why 120,000 innocent people die each year from pharmaceutical greed?  Yes, let’s go after the supplement business…. The truth is, supplements are not dangerous.  Give the pharmaceutical companies a little more time to buy up the large supplement companies and the problem will be solved.  You, yes you, won’t have the safe choices available to you any longer.  The reporter did his job today, paid by Big Pharma or government to write a totally inaccurate article.

    This is super interesting. A doctor will prescribe multiple drugs for a patient when s/he does not know a thing about how they will interact, but they do NOT want you to take Echinacea, Turmeric, or Hawthorne Berry because they also don’t know how they will interact. 

I told the doctor from now on, I will ONLY take one pill. If they can show me a study of 300 or more women, in my age group that took the same two RX, I will read the report and decide if I am going to take them. The reason they don’t want people taking supplements is because the supplement will do more good than Big Pharma. 

And so it continues that DOCTORS are the third leading cause of death.

    It is routinely reported that prescriptions and prescription errors are responsible for thousands of deaths every year. If vitamin C or some other supplement caused a few deaths, there would be an outcry from the media and the AMA to take it off the market a-la tryptophan.

My doctor knows what supplements I take and we talk about interactions if he prescribes any prescription drugs. He knows that I would be very reluctant to take a prescription drug if it meant that I had to stop taking supplements.

    It is the pharmaceutical medicines that are the problem. Many are being “fast tracked” which means they are not adequately tested. Most pharmaceuticals are made from natural ingredients that supplements are made from but they are chemically “duplicated” and elements extracted so they can patent them.

    Well, we need to put a stop to this. Just stop taking meds and stick with supplements. It was just a few years ago that supplements were labeled as placebo and were useless. In todays world their effects are becoming known and likely doing as much if not more then expensive meds. There are a few meds that need to be taken (hypothyroid medication and insulin). The rest are questionable and most do more harm then good, just listen to that fast talking person at the end of every ad on radio and TV. Why would I risk death and heart attack just to have lessened joint pain? Big Pharma rules so BE CAREFUL! Headline should read that “Taking MEDS with your supplements can be dangerous.”

    My, oh my! I better stop taking vitamins so I can be a better drug addict!

    Dangerous interactions?
 That’s funny, considering the five minutes of dangerous side effects after each pharma TV commercial.
I imagine that one day they’ll just stop the warnings…after the right lobbyist is paid off.

    Take the supplements, not the medications. You’ll live longer with a higher quality of life.

    Oh please, just anything to slam the supplement industry. Don’t they think people are smart enough to do research for themselves?

    The FDA allows pharmaceutical companies to play death lotto with a small percentage of patients. Buyer beware.

Also, there is no such thing as a “side effect” when taking medications.

    The biggest problem for the pharmaceutical companies is that people are finding they need to take less prescription meds thanks to supplements. Do they realize that many doctors now advise patients to take supplements?

    The authors call the findings “concerning” …
The sky is falling!

    Another ad for prescription meds while they diss vitamins. 

I don’t take ANY meds but will most certainly continue to take my vitamins. 

SCREW PHARMA. They never get sent to jail when a product kills a bunch of people. I wish we could give them an overdose of their own medicine when they REFUSE to pull a bad product off the market until they have sold enough of it to pad their fing portfolios.

    I wonder how long it will be until Obamacare mandates certain ‘pharmaceuticals’ or no health care for you?

    People on medications are more likely to take supplements? Well, DUH. They have known health problems and are trying to get better and AREN’T seeing the results they would like from traditional care.

    I have yet to find a Doctor who is interested in vitamins or supplements. They will go on and on about prescription drugs but they all stick their heads in the sand when it comes to discussing supplements and vitamins.

    The pharmaceutical industry is constantly lobbying both publicly and behind the scenes in order to bring the supplement industry under their iron control. They have the entire senior population popping statins like they are candy. This is a drug that alters liver chemistry. You only get one liver. Ask Mickey Mantle. 

More people will die this year from Tylenol poisoning than will die in the next TEN years from all supplement interactions combined. And nobody is lobbying to ban Tylenol.

    Prescription drugs are one of the top causes of death in America. Gee, I never hear of people dying of natural vitamins in the news.

    Warnings about combining prescription medication and supplements…translation: pharmaceutical industry afraid supplements may help people and impact their business. So obvious!

    How interesting that the federal government sponsored this study, eh? No interactions or problems were cited, but the POTENTIAL for interaction exists (kinda like having an arsenal of 10,000 nuclear bombs and saying the potential for destroying the world exists?). Supplements are another area the government wants to take control of, and this is another STUPID article that says nothing

    Let me get this straight. The big chemical companies like Mon$anto create GMO’s, herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers that give us cancer, and the pharmaceutical industries create drugs to treat those maladies, but not cure them. It’s a win-win, right?

    Take your meds!!! Everyone must be on meds!! Don’t be non-compliant or no treatment for you.

    Lose the meds, keep the supplements. Escape the big pharma plantation.

    I have a friend whose wife is being treated by several different doctors according to what special field the doctor is in. She has been prescribed 15 different medications and takes them every day. How can that possibly cure anything or be good for you? He himself takes 5 different medications. Have we all gone nuts or what? He spends $1500 a month out of pocket expenses for prescription and that does not include what insurance pays. I would rather take my chances on vitamins and supplements along with the guidance of a good health care professional.

    All the mass shooters have suicidal reactions to their meds, but that’s ok, at least they didn’t take any vitamin c with them…

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