Dietary supplements and medications, prescription or over-the-counter, can be a risky combination. That’s because many dietary supplement ingredients, especially herbs and botanicals, can interact with drugs (such as ones to treat blood pressure, diabetes, depression and anxiety) or even other dietary supplements. Interactions between drugs and supplements can result in either an increase or decrease in the effectiveness of your medications. In other words, you could be getting too much or too little of the medications that you need, which can be dangerous to your health. If you’re taking or plan to take a dietary supplement, inform your healthcare provider to make sure it’s safe to use with your medications.

Learn more about how supplements can change the effectiveness of your medications and know when drug-supplement interactions are especially important by using this interactive web resource from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). And for information about many known interactions between dietary supplement ingredients and medications, as well as other dietary supplement ingredients, visit the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (NMCD).

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