Q&A: How do I find out if I take too many vitamins and herbs?

Question by herby: How do I find out if I take too many vitamins and herbs?
The doctor knows about all of my herbs and vitamins but don’t say anything about them. When I ask all I get is, the fda has not approved them.As you can see by my name, I love to be healthy. I haven’t always eat right so my health has been neglected. I can’t find a web site that will give me the risk of the herbs and their interactions, so I’m asking you for some help?

Best answer:

Answer by oldtimekid2
There’s one of two easy options. You can ask him to do a blood test for each of the vitamins and minerals that have an RDA (basically everything in a multivitamin)… the results will tell you if you’ve got too much or too little of any of them and can help you better evaluate what you should/shouldn’t take.

The other option would be to consult a Nutritionist, Naturopath, or similar natural practitioner to have them help you evaluate what you’re taking. As long as you’re not overlapping ingredients (eg. 2 or 3 combinations with the same herb in them) and as long as the herbs don’t have any negative interactions between themselves, you can take as many as you’d like. The body sees herbs the same way it sees food (plants with nutrients in them), so there’s no limit on the variety of herbs you can take as long as those conditions are met. Granted, the increase in fiber by taking 100 different herbs compared to 1 herb may help regularity like eating extra fruits/veggies, but if it’s gradual, you wouldn’t even notice the difference. 😉 Good luck and I hope I helped!

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