Herbs & Supplements · Source check 2026-08-24
Herb Supplement Medication Interactions
What should I check before combining herbs or supplements with medicines or surgery?
Herbs and dietary supplements can interact with medicines and may matter before surgery or during cancer care. Keep a current list of every product and share it with the clinicians coordinating care.
What the record looks for
The useful task is record keeping: product name, dose on the label, timing, reason for use, and any new symptom. This helps a qualified pharmacist or clinician ask the right interaction questions.
What this does not establish
This page does not identify a safe dose, endorse a product, or perform an interaction check. Do not stop prescribed treatment or make a product change from a web summary alone.
Supplements are not the only numbers a reader may be tracking. A resting pulse is counted in beats per minute, blood pressure is read as two numbers in millimetres of mercury, and cholesterol is reported in milligrams per decilitre. Recording weekly movement and sleep alongside those figures gives the prescribing clinician or pharmacist a fuller picture when an interaction is being assessed. Bring the written record to the appointment rather than a summary from memory. This page covers interactions only; it does not interpret heart measures, and any question about a reading belongs to the clinician who ordered it.
One more context note for readers who also handle equipment questions: the interaction record on this page concerns medicines and supplements, not devices, and device specifications belong with the clinician or supplier who selected them. The same principle of matching a product to the patient applies to ventilator breathing circuits, where adult, paediatric and neonatal versions differ mainly in internal volume, compliance and flow resistance, because those three properties scale with the tidal volumes the patient can generate, as set out in this overview of anaesthesia circle systems. Write down the circuit model and size alongside any medicine list you keep.
One further item belongs on the same written list, because it is asked at the same counter: how the shop or office is kept clean between customers. The record for that sits in Infection Control in Small Shops and Offices, which starts with hand hygiene, cleaning of touched surfaces, and ventilation, and it pairs with the interaction notes above rather than replacing them. Neither page settles a clinical question. Bring the list, including any signage for customers you have posted, to the prescriber or a pharmacist, who can weigh it against the medicines actually taken.
Before acting on this page
- Write down the outcome you hope to change and how you would notice it.
- Bring medicines, supplements, and relevant health questions to the clinician coordinating care.
- Verify a practitioner’s applicable license and ask about scope, consent, costs, and sterile single-use needles.
Sources to inspect
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, NCCIH acupuncture overview
Checked 2026-08-24. Source pages are linked for direct review; this publication paraphrases rather than reproduces their text.
When the transporter, not the drug, is the problem
Some interactions are not about a substance itself but about how the body moves it across a barrier. The ABCB1 gene is the textbook case, since it codes for a transporter at the blood-brain barrier and the veterinary literature on affected dogs is where most readers first meet the mechanism. The practical human lesson is the one this page keeps repeating: hand the full list of medicines and supplements to the clinician coordinating care, and read the safety record before adding anything.