Dear Bizi
Quote:
Originally Posted by bizi
I am getting ready to start selling some nutritional supplements part time. They are specifically designed (ingredient wise) to help elevate mood
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I am anxious to try them out.
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All plant based.
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Plants contain chemicals. it is the chemicals in them which work as supplements. Those chemicals are no different than drugs wrt how we process them. sometimes they do similar things to our drugs (eg St. John's Wort works similar to SSRIs). Manic reactions are just as possible, depending on the mechanism of action of the herb (chemicals in it.)
Interactions are also possible if you take meds and plants that have similar actions - eg, 2 things that elevate serotonin can put one at risk for Serotonin Syndrome.
Moreover and very importantly, our body, and especially the liver does a lot of work "dismantling" these chemicals - herbs or drugs, it cares not - for excretion.
if you intend to take herbal supplements of any kind
safely along with meds you need to research
each and every single plant - its active constituents. then, you need to find out how
each constituent is metabolized, down to the nitty gritty, to see if it has the potential of messing with your meds... or
messing up your meds.
just as a general example, many herbs induce glucuronidation - a process by which many benzo's are partially metabolized. oxidative processes involving hepatic enzymes, esp. the p450 family of enzymes are affected by many herbs also.
a given plant chemical can "induce" or "inhibit" an enzyme or metabolic pathway. this will cause, respectively, faster or slower clearance of any drug that is processed via that route. that in turn results in lower or higher plasma levels of the drug.
Because it is difficult to find solid information of this kind on herbs, and even doctors don't know of herb-drug interactions except for a handful of herbs, i
personally adopt the "
either-or" philosophy when it comes to meds, and that is also my
personal recommendation to others, for safety :
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EITHER ---
commercial pharmaceuticals (interactions are well documented)
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OR -----
herbal remedies (a good herbalist will know how to combine herbs with each other safely)
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i hope you find some answers from the docs, and feel better soon.
love
~ waves ~