supplement herbal can become dangerous when taken with prescribed medications -
St. John's wort, the first alternative and complementary treatment for depression in the States States, can be dangerous when taken with many commonly prescribed drugs, according to a study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
The researchers reported that the supplement herbal can reduce the concentration of many drugs in the body, including oral contraceptives, anticoagulants, cancer chemotherapy and blood pressure medications, resulting disabilities effectiveness and treatment failure.
"patients may have a false sense of security with the so-called" natural "treatments such as St. John's wort," said Sarah Taylor, MD, assistant professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist and author principal of the study. "and it is crucial that doctors know about the dangers of" natural "treatments and communicate the risks to patients effectively."
the study is published in the current online issue of the alternative and complementary medicine Journal .
to determine how often the must of St. John (SJW) has been prescribed or taken with other drugs, the team process a retrospective analysis of representative national data collected by the National Survey of Ambulatory medical care from 1993 to 2010. the research team has discovered the use of hypericum in potentially harmful combinations in 28 percent of cases examined .
possible drug interactions may include serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal disease that causes high levels of serotonin, a chemical to build up in your body, heart disease due to impaired efficiency medicines for blood pressure or an unplanned pregnancy due to contraceptive failure, Taylor said.
Limitations of the study are that only medicinal products registered by the doctor were analyzed. However, she indicated that the rate of SJW interactions may actually be underestimated because the database does not include patients who used SJW but did not tell their doctor.
"The labeling requirements for useful supplements such as St. John wort need to provide appropriate warnings and risk information," said Taylor, adding that France banned the use of St. John's wort products and several other countries, including Japan, the UK and Canada are in the process of including the interaction drug-herb warnings on products St. John wort.
"physicians must be trained to always ask if the patient takes supplements, vitamins, minerals or herbs, especially before prescribing any of the common drugs that can interact with St. John's wort. "
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