For some reason, putting the term “all natural” on to a product stops some people from really questioning what they are buying. In the world of over marketed supplements, there is one category of product that warrants more caution than it often receives. That is the area of the various products that mix vitamins and nutraceuticals with herbs. That is not to say that these products are dangerous, only that it is important that consumers understand what they are buying. There are many of these products that mix popular herbs with a few select vitamins and related nutraceutical compounds. These sound to the consumer to be a great thing. They combine various all natural ingredients and are promoted as improving health.
The problem comes in regards to the potential for harm and questionable nature of the medicinal product. These products violate some basic principles of herbal medicine, and even pharmaceutical standards.
Pharmacies do not sell prescription drugs premixed with vitamins. The reason is that even though it is known that many drugs deplete vitamins in the body, the risk of patients overdosing on vitamins as they take multiple prescriptions is too high. Drugs change the function of the body. Vitamins and nutraceuticals provide specific chemicals that the body can use. Herbs used in proper context should be considered closer to drugs because they are not there for nutritional reasons, but rather to alter the function of the body. It can be inappropriate to mix these ingredients in the same product. These mixed products make as much sense as buying a multivitamin mixed with antibiotics.
It is quite common for patients who are trying to improve their health, to be actually harming their health through the use of these products. The usual situation is a patient who is taking a product for “memory” with others for “immune support” and “energy” and “digestive health” etc. Each of these is likely to contain herbs mixed with a days worth of vitamins. Adding it all up the patient may be taking several thousand times the recommended daily amounts of some of the vitamins. Some vitamins can be toxic at high dose.
If you are taking herbal products, talk to a herbalist. If you are taking nutritional supplements talk to a nutritionist. If you are mixing pharmaceuticals with natural products talk to a pharmacist as well as whom ever recommended the natural products. Always be aware of what you are taking and why.
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