"Can I take extra vitamin C/vitamin D/selenium/zinc to boost my immune system?"
It’s a question you may be hearing from your patients these days. The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020 sparked an increased interest in dietary supplements (Aysin & Urhan, 2021; Hamulka et al, 2021). While the jury’s still out on whether supplements such as vitamin D and zinc can improve a person’s ability to fight off COVID-19, it’s safe to assume some of your patients have added them to their regime—without necessarily knowing the safe dose or of possible interactions with pharmaceuticals.
The Natural Medicines™ database can help you guide your patients in their safe use of dietary supplements. Its monographs and tools such as 'Interaction Checker' and 'Effectiveness Checker' cover thousands of supplements, natural medicines, and complementary and integrative therapies.
Let's look at vitamin D, one of the supplements currently being studied in clinical trials as a potential COVID-19 prophylaxis. Enter the search term “vitamin D” in the Natural Medicines™ ‘Search’ box and click on the icon.
You can then view the full product monograph (1) or jump to the specific information you need for your patient, such as effectiveness (2) or safe dosage (3).
Maybe you want to know if your patient can safely take a vitamin D supplement while also taking a specific pharmaceutical, such as Lipitor®. Rather than scrolling through the ‘Interactions with Drugs’ section of the monograph, you can use the ‘Interaction Checker’ tool.
Enter the name of one of the items you want to crosscheck (such as ‘vitamin D’) in the search box (1). Click on the item when it appears in the ‘Search Matches’ list (2), then click the ‘Add’ button (3) to add it to the ‘Selected Agents’ box. Repeat these steps to add another item (such as Lipitor®) to the list of ‘Selected Agents.’
If there are any potential interactions, they will instantly appear in the ‘Results Summary’ box (4). Natural Medicines™ colour-codes this information so you can quickly see if this is a safe combination (green), a moderate interaction risk (yellow) or a severe interaction risk (red). Click ‘View Details’ (5) for a detailed explanation and the evidence the recommendation is based on.
Natural Medicines™ can also help you:
Reach out to us at AskLibrary@nshealth.ca with any questions you have about Natural Medicines™ or book a consultation with a Library Services team member.
Aysin, E., & Urhan, M. (2021). Dramatic increase in dietary supplement use during COVID-19. Current Developments in Nutrition, 5(2, Suppl.), 207. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab029_008
Hamulka, J., Jeruszka-Bielak, M., Górnicka, M., Drywień, M.E., & Zielinska-Pukos, M.A. (2021). Dietary supplements during COVID-19 outbreak: Results of Google trends analysis supported by PLifeCOVID-19 online studies. Nutrients, 13(1), 54.https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13010054
Library Technician
Aberdeen Regional Hospital, Northern Zone
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