Herbal Dietary Supplement Look Outs

Bear in mind that herbal dietary supplements can affect other substances in your body, including your medication.

More than 100 million Americans take vitamins or dietary supplements daily—including dozens of herbal nutrition supplements—and with a good reason. Research has shown that many herbal nutrition supplements can:

• Provide us with essential nutrients
• Boost the human’s immune system
• Enhance the memory and quality of sleep

Nevertheless, despite the popularity of herbal nutrition supplements to promote better health, not everybody who uses them is well informed about all of their properties or how they may interact—or interfere—with a variety of prescription drugs and other medication. As a result of this:

• Many people don’t share information about their use of herbal nutrition supplements with their health providers.
• Health providers do not think to ask if patients are taking herbal nutrition supplements.

Both are oversights that could have potentially dangerous consequences.

If you have had surgery in the past, you were probably told that you should stop taking aspirin several days before the operation to avoid excessive bleeding, even if you normally take aspirin daily to help protect your heart. (NOTE: There is news that stopping aspirin therapy suddenly can increase your risk of heart attack or stroke).

But what about herbal nutrition supplements which may increase bleeding, decrease the effectiveness of anti-clotting medications, or elevate heart rate or high blood pressure under certain conditions?

Benefits and Side Effects Of Nutrition Supplements

People who are contemplating surgery, or who even take medication regularly, should become familiar with the power and properties of any herbal nutrition supplements that they are taking.

Herbal dietary supplements are able provide important health benefits but it is important to know how they react to medication you may already be taking. Before you take herbal dietary supplements, do check with your health care provider to be sure the herbal supplement is safe for you.

 


John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.