Herbal Supplements Could Turn Dicey With Heart Medications

A study conducted by researchers from the Mayo Clinic reveals that those patients who took heart medications were risking potential grave reactions when they additionally consumed herbal remedies like St. John’s wort, garlic, ginkgo biloba among several others.

Researchers spotted several alternative, herbal remedies which must not be taken by heart patients on drugs for treating cardiac ailments.

They claimed that these herbal remedies could be problem-causing when consumed with medicine prescriptions for lowering blood pressure, controlling cholesterol, stabilizing irregular cardiovascular rhythms or preventing blood clot formations.

Investigators pointed out that heart patients mostly do not keep their physicians informed about any herbal or alternative products they were taking as they fail to identify the likely harm that these remedies could cause. For such individuals natural synonymously translated to being risk-free. Though these medications have been used for hundreds of years, but in present times, its safety quotient when taken along with several other drugs is dubious.

Elderly Patients at Highest Risk

The risk is particularly high among older-aged cardiac patients who mostly also consumed medications for other unceasing conditions and who could by now would be facing a greater risk of bleeding.

Bleeding was the widely reported interaction perils recognized by investigators along with lowered or increased effectiveness of the prescription drugs.

A number of explicit illustrations were reported by the Mayo investigators which comprised of:

• A number of researches have shown that St. John’s wort that is generally used as an anti-depressant, anti-anxiety and sleep-restorative aid has been observed to lower the efficacy of digoxin (medicine for treating irregular heart rhythms), anti-hypertension drugs and cholesterol-regulatory statins.
• Investigators found that the following herbal products raised bleeding chances when taken along with prescription anti-coagulant medication Coumadin or warfarin:
  • Ginseng
  • Green tea
  • Alfaalfa
  • Dong quai
  • Bilberry
  • Fenugreek
  • Ginger
  • Ginkgo biloba
  • Garlic
• The proscribed herbal remedy ephedra has been associated with risk of heart attacks, strokes, seizure attacks and fatality due to abnormal heart rhythms in generally normal health individuals that employed the remedy for boosting energy or losing weight.

But, not all reactions spotted by investigators entailed herbal or alternative products. Researchers stated that cardiac drugs along with grapefruit extract are a prevalent reason for medicine toxicity.

The latest modifications in federal law necessitate dietary supplement producers to cite grave unpleasant events to the FDA. In the initial year following the law being implemented, the FDA has cited over one thousand undesirable events associated with the usage of vitamin, mineral, herbal, sport and weight-reduction supplement formulas. More than six hundred unfavourable episodes were deemed grave.