Smart use of natural and medical remedies

Especially in health anxiety people get worried about several different illnesses. In order to avoid sickness or to treat undiagnosed conditions some people reach out to various substances. It's logical: if you have a headache, you take a painkiller. If you want to prevent sickness, you might go for multivitamins or food supplements.

This might lead to frequent, chaotic use of medication. It can be natural/herbal remedies in combination with prescribed and over-the-counter medication. The intent is good, but the effect might not be. 

Combining supplements and medicine can have unintended ill effects. Please always discuss with your pharmacist or health care provider about all the substances you use.

Risks

Increased effects: Some supplements may increase the effects of another. For example, CBD-oil (cannabinoids) and Sertralin are used for anxiety and depression. CBD is available freely, and Sertralin needs a prescription. These two substances reinforce each other, as they are metabolized by the same enzymes. Our body just cannot get rid of both at the same time. 

Cancelled effects: Other substances can cancel each other out. You'll end up paying and spending time on something that is rendered inefficient by something else.

Not giving enough time: Most substances need quite a bit of time to reach their peak efficiency. For example, Sertralin can take 2-3 weeks to start working, but Diazepam starts already in 30 minutes. For herbal and natural remedies it may not even be known how much time is needed. So give it time! Don't make changes too quickly, or switch medication too fast to avoid giving up on something that could really help.

Waste of money: Medication is regulated, but herbal and natural remedies can in some countries still be marketed with unproven promises. Often these miracle drugs are expensive for you (the patient) and very cheap for the producer. 

Also, if taking supplements that cancel each other out, we're also giving gout money for nothing. 

Toxicity: Some supplements and medication can react together to create toxic substances. Toxicity can also occur in relation to supplements increases each others' effects, increasing the levels of the active substance beyond safe limits. 

Links

• Oxford university: Dietary supplements could seriously mess with your medication
• Drug interaction checker (do not trust this over your doctor!)
• US Food and drug administration: Mixing medications and dietary supplements can endanger your health

Everyone can get sick... But how likely is that?

Today I had a typical health anxiety moment. After 20 years you'd think I would not fall for it anymore, but anxiety has so far always outsmarted me. 

I had slept poorly. I woke up a few times during the night, listening to me heart skipping and trying to calm myself down. In the morning I made tea and skimmed through the news. A headline caught my attention: a singer had passed away peacefully at the age of 56 of acute liver failure.

Hmm, a liver failure? What is that? Google told me three things

• symptoms of this life-threatening emergency (vague symptoms which I luckily didn't have)
• that 5-10 people in a million get it
• and that anyone can get an acute liver failure and it will kill if not treated immediately. 

Anxiety galore! I'm going to get it! I'm dying! Aaaaaargh! ... or am I?

Alright, yes, everyone can get it... BUT the chance is 0.001 - 0.0005 %. 

First of all, that 0.001 % chance is not the chance of me instantly dropping dead. It's the chance that I develop a condition, which requires treatment.   

Secondly, the odds are not evenly distributed. The 5-10 people of one million who get an acute liver failure likely had predisposing ailments or other contributing factors. They were already in higher risk than me, so the odds don't even apply to me. One of the wonders of statistics.

Thirdly, the odds are always calculated for a specific population. If those are the odds for the "average American", they already do not apply to me (a European). Lifestyle, genetics, diet, pollution, environment etc all affect those odds. 

Fourthly (is that a word?) the chance of actually dying of acute liver failure is much less than the 0.001 - 0.0005 %. 

So what do those odds really tell me? Honestly, the best description would be "it's really freaking unlikely that I would need to be hospitalized for acute liver failure."