Here's a question about herbal supplements

[Susan BAV]

I saw a news article on the television tonight about herbal supplements... A woman interviewed on the television had a kidney transplant many years ago and since she was now going through menopause her doctor recommended she take a couple of herbal supplements to help her with hot flashes and such. Well, the supplements made her anti-rejection drug(s) inactive and now she is on the kidney transplant waiting list again! The news article mentioned other problems, like taking garlic supplements simultaneously with prescribed blood thinners (which will make the blood even thinner), and a few other things like that. I have a friend who was taking garlic and vitamin E and was having a fairly serious problem with monthly bleeding until she cut [back on or out] both supplements. Her husband had to take her to the ER a few times before she figured out the supplement issue.

So, my question is: Are there any supplements specifically that you know of that we, as heart patients and valve replacement patients, should avoid, and for what reason(s)? My father-in-law had quadruple bypass several years ago and he recommends various "heart healthy" supplements to me but I tend to stay away from those things now that I have a new (pig) valve.

 

[Harpoon]

The real problem with herbal suppliments (and herbal beverages too) is that there's no real real standard for content or purity and such. Herbals are unregulated so there's no way to know what or how much of an herbal ingredient you're really getting.

Actual ingredients, like using garlic in a recipe, are easier to manage. You know you're putting two cloves of garlic in a recipe for soup, how much garlic is actually in a garlic suppliment pill?

There are some ingredients to watch out for (if not avoid all together) Stuff like gurana or ginko biloba can have an effect on clotting factors. Some herbs interact with a number of medications in strange and mysterious ways and should be used with some degree of caution.


Personally, I keep track of what I'm taking in versus how I feel (and how certain bloodtests like protimes come in) Im drinking an herbal tea right now. It's got lemongrass, blackberry leaves, citric acid, rose hips, spearment leaves, "natural flavors", orange peel, safflower, hibiscus flowers, rose petals, orange essence, ginger root and licorice root in it.

Nothing, that I know of, that's really going to affect my meds. It hasn't shown that and I usually have about three cups a week, at work.

I think it's the same kind of thing as with regular foods. Use in moderation, bearing in mind that some things night affect you in ways that may be unpredictable. Keep a close eye on how you feel and whatever regular lab results might say. Don't do anything dramatic either. A cup of green tea with every meal might not be the best new thing to try...

 

[Susan BAV]

Thanks, Harpoon -

That's my feeling too. I used to take Vitamin E and Evening Primrose Oil and Garlic, in supplement forms all off and on again pre-AVR, but I hesitate to take anything now because I don't want to throw anything off-balance, although I always felt like those were relatively safe to take. Some well-meaning friends encourage this or that "heart healthy" supplement but I wonder if we ever really know enough about potential side-effects. I did buy some garlic (supplement) at Costco the other day and there was a free package of "energy" vitamins, or some such thing like that, within. I think that Ginko Biloba was the first ingredient so I just tossed the package. I notice a lot of bottled fruit drinks have herbal remedy-type additives in them now. I always stay away from those. Also, the news was saying the other day that so many things are fortified with calcium now that it can throw other things off-balance in an otherwise healthy body.

It might be good if we had a "Red Alert" list of potentially dangerous supplements for those of us with various valve replacements. Maybe there is one already?