http://www.umm.edu/altmed/

Click on "interactions" and/or depletions.

The most severe interaction is bleeding. Taking herbs that increase bleeding with blood thinners is one of the most important ones to recognize.

Also some herbs like St. John's Wort increase metabolism of some drugs.

In general if you add up all the potential problems, more nutrients are negatively impacted with drugs, than vice versa.

Many doctors have no clue as to what to do...so they just say a blanket "don't take anything". That is their typical solution to a question.

But the fact that supplements are regulated as food not as drugs is what bothers me. (I do not take any supplements). They do not have to be proven safe, effective or the quality of them. Makes a person wonder. There probably are some good ones that help depending on a person's situation.

And, of course, there can be some big interactions with some drugs that are taken with certain kinds of supplements. Inform you doctor what you are taking when it comes to supplements and even what drugs you are taking if your doctor is a new one for you and he has no knowledge of what you are taking be it drugs or supplements. There can be side effects from supplements just as there can be from drugs.

Increasingly, children are being treated nutritionally to help with symptoms that formerly would have been diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Especially for sleep (although really - a sleep study should be done to try to figure out what is going on, but the U.S.A. insurances seems reluctant to pay for them). The supplements can either augment pharmaceutical medication (thereby reducing the amount needed which thereby reducing side-effects), or replacing the pharmaceuticals entirely.

Some cases really need a collaborative team of specialists who know multiple fields including Integrative medicine.

Sometimes it is frustrating obeying the psychiatrist's command "Thou shalt not use melatonin" and "thou shalt not use tryptophan and suffer for a decade trying med after med only to go ahead and try the supplements ten years later thinking how everything else the psychiatrist did was random and trial and error and find... gee... a simple supplement worked better than everything else... and now you can lower or eliminate the other meds that didn't work well anyway and were giving a bunch of side-effects.

Forgot to say that I don't take drugs either. Well, one Advil now and then. I am fortunate so far although I still live with some pain everyday. Everyone has to make their own decisions along with their doctors, etc. The experts on CMT have advised to be skeptical and I am. I'm sure some supplements help some people who have other diseases. And, perhaps some with CMT feel better taking certain supplements depending how their CMT has progressed. One size does not fit all in the CMT community. There are so many types of CMT and so many different symptoms. And of course a CMTer is not immune to all the other diseases either.

In the past six months, I have a crampy back everyday. Just part of CMT. I live with it using Biofreeze and heat at different times of course. (Not together). And if I can convince my new chiropractor that all I need is ultrasound heat therapy now and then, I would be happy for that. However, he seems to want to fix me. That's not going to happen. If it was that simple, nobody would have CMT. Wish my regular chiropractor would come back. At least he understood. Off my soap box.

Excellent post - Many doctors shy away from nutrition products, because they do not make any money as they would by selling prescriptions... Just like any other business, profit is put above people's health in this sick world... I was going to see a doctor for the way I was feeling, but held strong and took a gamble with nutrition products... I narrowed it down to brain quicken and focus fast... i settled with the latter and im more than happy with it

I've read in a number of places that people in the U.S. spend anywhere from $8 to $20 + billion dollars a year on supplements. That's a lot of dough Guess those providers are in it for the money too.

Not saying that some supplements aren't good. They are regulated by the FDA as a food so the manufacturers do not have to prove their quality, effectiveness or safety.

They do have to prove their effectiveness - They can't make claims without defending them so if you do see a claim without any scientific studies, you can bet the product will be investigated...

To put this in a bit of perspective:
The annual sale of Lipitor (one drug only) for 2007 was 6.8 billion dollars.
Supplements remain fairly low on the dollars spent, compared to drugs.

Coca Cola?
from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23143415/

Absolutely, there is no doubt about it that plenty of money is spent on drugs and all the rest. I never said that there wasn't lots spent on drugs and all those kinds of things. I was just making a statement. I don't drink pop/soda either so they aren't making any money on me.

Research studies in people to prove a supplement's "safety" are not required before the supplement is marketed, unlike drugs. The manufacturer does not have to prove that the supplement is "effective", unlike for drugs. If the manufacturer does make a claim, it must be followed by the statement "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

The manufacturer does not have to prove supplement "quality".

It is all on the government site.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/bottle/

It's a personal choice if people want to take them or anything else. I'm not bashing supplements, just providing a government site for information on them. It is interesting.