No doubts there are many beneficial herbs, which considered as dietary supplements.
These herbal dietary supplements are provided to us in food, juices or we take its extracts in forms of capsules or powders.
But many people ignore the side effects of herbs and its drugs interactions while taking a medication. They believe in nature, and think it wouldn’t be any harm comes from a natural herb. Almost they are right, as long as they don’t take any medications, but there is another view you should know before consume herbals while taking some drugs.
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| Herb Drug Interactions |
While you are treated with any immune-suppressant, you must not take Echinacea, as it develops your immune system, acting against your therapy.
Ephedrine herbal extract, which administered to treat nasal congestion in flu and common cold, increases blood pressure, so be careful when taken with beta blockers like Propranolol.
If you are treated with any sedatives or benzodiazepines like Xanax, you should avoid using Valerian and Kava Kava, as they enhance your nervous system depression and sedation.
Also Kava Kava decreases the effect of some Parkinson’s disease drugs which contain Levodopa.
Ginseng increases GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) metabolism, and if you take it with some depression medications or Parkinson’s disease drugs like MAOIs (mono amines oxidase inhibitors) it may leads to mania symptoms.
Herbs containing high levels of vitamin K, as wheat grass herb, acting oppositely to Coumadin (a blood thinner also known as warfarin) causing therapeutic failure.
Co-enzyme Q10 which has a chemical structure related to vitamin K, shouldn’t be taken while treating with warfarin derivatives as it will heightens the risk of bleeding.
Also Garlic, Ginger and Black Cohosh (a herb used to reduce menopausal symptoms) are to be avoided with warfarin as they inhibit platelets and lead to bleeding.
Evening Primrose Oil and Ginkgo Biloba decrease the platelets aggregation, so shouldn’t be administered with anti-coagulants.
Again Garlic but this time with Ginseng must be avoided in diabetic patients, as they may lead to hypoglycemia when taken with diabetes medications such as Metformin.
At the end you should know that Soy interferes with thyroxin absorption, increasing the hypothyroidism symptoms and displaces its medications.
