When we use meds and even natural supplements, interactions can occur. How meds and supplements are metabolized and eliminated from the body become very important. The pathways that eliminate one med can block a pathway for either the absorption or excretion of another med. That either increases or decreases the levels of the other med.
Herbals and even fruits like grapefruit can be very problematic. Obviously, there can be side effects to anything we put in our body. I experienced two problems. First, I was accustomed to using a number of herbal supplements and found some were a problem . Second, the combination of Vyvanse and Pristiq raised my levels of noradrenalin too much. This caused a slight tremor and sense of inner tension at times that was uncomfortable to me. It wasn’t overwhelming. It just was there and bothersome to me.
I had to gradually isolate and eliminate any of the herbals that caused me problems. But it was not always easy to figure out if something was bothering me or not. For instance, I was taking a Vitamin C that also had high amounts of Quercitin in it. I eventually learned it was the Quercitin that definitely caused problems. I eventually learned that Milk Thistle, Curcumin, Pomegranate, Green Tea extract, Black Tea extracts and even bioflavonoids in typical Vitamin C caused problems. It was very frustrating!!
I spent time on forums where people discussed their experience with different meds. It seemed EVERYBODY on the forums had all kinds of problems and often blamed the med. Now the med may in fact, been bad for them, but in my experience if someone is taking meds, they often are also taking other supplements to try to help themselves get and feel well. It made me think that many of the problems these people were experiencing were from other herbs and supplements they were taking. It is very easy to confuse the two.
Today most psych meds are prescribed by GPs (General
Practitioners). These docs get most of
their info from the pharma reps and also don’t focus on the psych area so their
experience is very limited. Even psych
docs get this stuff wrong. My own psych
doc got me into deep trouble in just 6 days by prescribing inappropriately. It is a very frustrating area. The brain is still mostly unexplored
territory and extremely complex. It
seems rare to get it right the first time, the second time or ever. Then complicate it when people are “self medicating” with other herbals and supplements and you can
have a real mess on your hands very quickly. I gradually worked out what additional supplements I
could take and which ones I couldn’t.
So then I had the noradrenalin problem to get fixed. Dr. Parker and I tried a few different approaches. Taking Pristiq at a different time. Taking less Pristiq. Taking it every other day. Lowering the dose of Vyvanse. None of these approaches worked. I would still have the tremor/tension. So he finally prescribed an old, very mild hypertension med called Tenex (guanaficine). One of the things it does is mildly block the action of noradrenalin in the body. So a very small dose of Tenex did the trick. I learned that Tenex was fairly often used when a stimulant was used to treat ADD.
I was glad I had a solution but it was beginning to bother me regarding the number of meds I was taking. Especially since I was taking some meds to counteract what other meds did to me. While there was no question I was functioning better, I did not like the feeling of needing to take so many meds. However, I knew I would continue to choose better function over my dislike of the meds. More in the next post.