Guidance for taking supplements

Have you ever tossed back a multi-vitamin and an herbal supplement with the same glass of water and wondered if by taking them together, one might compromise the effectiveness of the other? Last week I received an e-mail from an HSI member named Ursula with this very question, and more:

“One of the things that concerns me about the regular use of alternative medicines and supplements is the fact that there is no recommendation about dosage timing or dosage mixing with other supplements. The container usually suggests something like ‘one or two daily with meals.’

“What I often think about when taking my supplements is, ‘Should I be taking all these things at the same time? Should I be spacing them? Should some be taken only on an empty stomach? If in taking one or the other there is no danger to health normally, could mixing them together be a problem?’

“Asking my doctor is pointless. I don’t need him unless I’m bleeding or seriously ill. Thanks to alternatives, I haven’t needed him in years.”

To answer Ursula’s questions, I turned to HSI Panelist, Allan Spreen, M.D., who offered this:

“Remember that supplements are exactly that: supplements. They aren’t ‘medicine’ and they aren’t drugs, so toxicity levels are far harder to reach – meaning that precision is not nearly as critical. They are usually taken with food (meals) since they are better digested that way (they’re food supplements).

“There are exceptions. For example, amino acid supplements are expensive, and if taken with protein foods the protein receptor sites are flooded with competition from the protein in foods. If you’re trying to get a predominance of one amino acid for some reason (l-glutamine for energy, arginine for growth hormone production, l-tryptophan for sleep, etc.) you’d be wasting money to take them with other proteins.

“Most supplements don’t interfere with each other, though natural can interfere with drugs, like grapefruit increasing the effect of some drugs, etc. As with whole foods, some interfere with others, but it’s usually not nearly as critical as playing with medications. When it’s significant, the label of a good product may mention why.”

Of all the inquiries we get, this may be among the most common. I’m glad we could answer it for you (and Ursula). My thanks to Dr. Spreen, as always.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute