Supplement-Drug Interaction Safety

Can you guess how many drugs and supplements are in your home today? Do you know if you can safely take Advil with the Magnesium you picked-up from the grocery store for your Migraine Headache? Now, how about your 70-year-old social medial savvy Aunt who has osteoarthritis and heart disease - is it a good idea for her to take her Lipitor with Turmeric capsules? These questions are not easy to answer. You may also be surprised that your doctor may not know the answers to above questions either - unless they were trained in Integrative or Functional Medicine and had access to tools like Wellkasa Rx. In most cases, the health professional who is not trained in integrative therapies may take a conservative (safe) position and discourage herb or supplement use – which may or may not be the best answer for your overall wellbeing.

Lack of Supplement-Drug Interaction Understanding

150 million people in the United States take supplements and many of them are taking those supplements, herbs, and botanicals along with their prescription or over the counter medications. Our non-scientific research shows that many these supplement users do not completely disclose all their supplement and herb use to their doctors. In some cases, they just don’t remember because there are too many pills and bottles around the house and in other cases they choose not to because they know that their health care professional will not be supportive of their self-care supplement regimen. Now, just because these "natural" products are available over the counter, it doesn't mean that they may be safe for you or your loved one. The supplement-drug interaction safety check becomes even more critical if one is managing one or more medical conditions.

Ensuring Supplement Safety with Drugs

At Wellkasa, we are committed to enabling safe and effective use of supplements and have created simple to use digital tools both for supplement users and their health care providers. WellKabinet is a digital medicine cabinet for anyone who uses herbs, supplements, or botanicals alone or in combination with their regular medicines. WellKabinet helps you:

• Track all your medications by family member (Rx Drugs and Supplements) in one place - whether you are taking or researching.
• Access research evidence in seconds on almost 1,500 supplements, foods, and mind-body therapies.
• Auto-check interactions between your Drugs and Supplements to ensure safety.
• Switch "On" those meds that you are taking to track dosage and frequency.
• Take notes or journal.

While you get empowered in safe management of your supplement regimen, we are connecting with your health care professionals to encourage them to use Wellkasa Rx which helps them:

• Save time – to find evidence summaries in seconds on ~1500 therapies (including supplements) covering ~1000 medical conditions.
• Quickly check interactions between supplements and drugs to ensure your safety
• Educate you with easy to share PDF reports on supplement effectiveness and interaction safety.

The picture below shows how WellKabinet and Wellkasa Rx can help you and your health care professional ensuring safe and effective whole person care.

Now to solve the mystery of Advil and Magnesium safety for you, here is what you would be able to see if you put these two medicines in your WellKabinet.

And your favorite Aunt should consult with a health care professional about the moderate interaction between her Lipitor and Turmeric before she continues her social media recommended regimen.