Do you have any resources that effectively list the potential cross-reactions between herbal supplements and pharmaceutical medications?

Oh, great question. Let me see, what do I have. I’m doing the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, AIHM, fellowship, and they have given us a couple and I’m looking on my bookmarks manager because I know I have them, but the names are—okay, so one that I have here is the—through the ​National Institutes of Health​ there’s the ​Office of Dietary Supplements​. I do use the dietary supplement label database. There’s some information there in terms of cross-reaction. I think ​Epocrates​ might have some interaction data, as well. I’m not paying for Epocrates right now, but I think I have used that one previously. I think that’s the main resource that I’ve been using recently, and I feel like there’s one more that if I can remember it, I’ll post it here. If I can remember the other one that I’ve been using, I’ll post it. I think after a while, you start getting pretty familiar with the supplements that you’re using and the medications that you’re using, so if it’s more, like, if I start using something new or adding something else and/or someone comes on the medication that I’m less familiar with, then I have to dig into it a little bit more, but it’s a great question because it’s definitely something to be really aware of.

I think especially as Functional and integrative medicine practitioners, a lot of conventional doctors still have maybe a lot of mistrust or skepticism. I’ve definitely had a couple of my Kaiser patients come and say, “Ha, my Kaiser doctor told me that Functional Medicine docs are dangerous.” And so, I think we really have to be extra prudent and vigilant about being safe in the way that we’re practicing because I think we’re really still establishing ourselves as a legitimate field and as a really effective way in treating patients. I love that you’re thinking about the interaction between botanicals and prescription; [it’s] is really great. Javier, if you find the interactions that I can’t come up with right now, that would be awesome. Send that [via] the Ask an Instructor or something like that, so if you come across more resources, just sharing it with the group I think is awesome. There’s also, like, a PDR, the ​Physician’s Desk Reference for herbal medicine. That’s one of the other ones that I was thinking about, so that’s a big heavy book, but there’s probably an online version of it, actually. I’m actually looking at that on my bookshelf right now, PDR for Herbal Medicines; that one’s helpful, as well. Anyway, I think we’ve covered that.