To interact or not to interact, that is the Q

After I was placed on a regimen of Clopidogrel (Plavix) and baby aspirin, I started doing some research to see which of my many supplements were potential agents of adverse interactions with the blood thinner. I was surprised to discover that there are a few. Hope it may be of benefit to you re. the blood thinner that you are taking. Clopidogrel Interactions Checker - Drugs.com

Interesting as I think many of us with a stent used are put on both but for a short time with the plavix. Perhaps itā€™s a situation where the specialist has to weigh the possibility of adverse reactions with the possibility of a clot.

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I couldnā€™t agree more with @Moltroub. When it comes to medications it can be a real balancing act between benefit vs adverse effects. There are some medications given in small doses that can be beneficial, in higher doses theyā€™re used as rat poison. I have a good relationship with my local pharmacist. He knows my med ā€˜regimeā€™ and before adding to it (including supplements) I consult him. Iā€™m on a heart med. Iā€™ve had some medicos ā€˜tryā€™ to alter it, but my symptoms went crazy. Thatā€™s one med I NEED to maintain. Me, personally I have no clue what the interactions are, nor what to be aware of. The pharmacist does. I consult him.

Merl from the Modsupport Team

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You are fortunate to have a pharmacist who has a decent handle on the therapeutic interactions of supplements. Studies have shown that many pharmacists do not, including most of the ones Iā€™ve interacted with. Glad to know yours is an exception. I prefer to know as much as a patient can, via diligent research, about anything and everything that a physician or pharmacist is prescribing for my health.

ā€œA systematic review of community pharmacist therapeutic knowledge of dietary supplementsā€ A systematic review of community pharmacist therapeutic knowledge of dietary supplements | International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

ā€œConclusions: Global community pharmacist knowledge of dietary supplements appears to be poor. Community pharmacists have an professional responsibility to provide accurate health information about dietary supplements as they do for any other therapies they provide to patients. Further research including that which assesses pharmacistsā€™ therapeutic knowledge of commonly sold vitamins and minerals is suggested.ā€

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Were you able to read the entire study Peter? Iā€™m curious as an Abstract of course just tells you what the author(s) were looking at with the summary of their findings. Nine studies meeting criteria out of 5594 looked at seems to be but a small sample. I am wondering how many pharmacists were in those nine studies and what the criteria was. But I canā€™t afford $39.95 to read a study and unfortunately I donā€™t belong to an institution.

Iā€™m like Merl, I trust my pharmacist on all things medicine and refer questions to them. The pharmacists I have where I go, they refer to their computer if they donā€™t know the answer. I certainly have found all the research you do quite enlightening, thank you.

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I, too, cannot afford to pay for full accounts of clinical research and clinical trials, so I make do with whatever freely available information is out there. Making some effort to dig for info is better than making no effort for me. :slight_smile: Iā€™m a product of an adage that Ronald Reagan was fond of publicly saying, ā€œtrust but verifyā€.

Iā€™ve benefited from medical second opinions in more than one occasion, as have several members of my members. And acquiring a second opinion is a lot easier today than it was in the old days, given the advent of telehealth and telemedicine. If you keep personal copies of all your tests, you can share them with a physician for a second opinion via a phone or video chat.

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I well remember Reagan, he was Governor of California when I grew up and then of course became President. When I attended Chico State, he was on the ballot the first year I could votešŸ¤£. Chico State gifted me with a love of research and taught me not to trust any that didnā€™t have a significant number of subjects. However in our world, we are hard pressed to find research that has a lot of subjects. But I still need to know how any research or papers came up with their numbers when it comes to statistics. My professors drilled that into me seemingly every day - donā€™t trust statistics unless they can prove them. Iā€™m keeping my fingers crossed that one day every hospital throughout every country will start keeping stats on cerebral aneurysms.

Sometimes, you can find research or papers through NIH that other sites want us to pay for.