How vitamin supplements and your diet could mess with your medication

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. ‘Real world’ effects Although treatment of mental health disorders with multiple drugs is the norm, there’s not much evidence about which combinations help to keep patients well in the long-term, and how these may be affected by diet and nutritional supplements. We showed that patients given a combination of drugs commonly used for treating bipolar disorder had fewer symptoms of depression and were less likely to relapse, compared with those given quetiapine alone. Similarly, St John’s wort, a herbal supplement often used to treat mild depression, can interfere with the actions of a number of prescribed drugs, including reducing the effectiveness of oral contraceptives and causing side effects when used in conjunction with certain prescribed antidepressants. Our findings show that our diet can influence the effect of prescribed drugs, and show how beneficial drug effects might be missed without knowledge of the diet and supplements used by patients in clinical trials.