Uninformed Complementary and Alternative Supplement Use: A Risky Behavior for Cardiovascular Patients

Growing use of complementary and alternative supplements (CAS) is of concern because of the potential for herb—drug interaction among cardiovascular patients. Literary searches were conducted on PubMed to identify reports of extent and purpose of CAS use, disclosure of use by patients, physician knowledge, and possible drug—CAS interactions for cardiovascular patients. Additional published studies were located through the Web sites of various organizations. Further searches of case reports, case series, controlled trials, and laboratory evidence were performed for each of the top 10 CAS and their possible cardiovascular drug interactions. More research is needed to understand supplement—drug interactions, particularly in terms of how this potentially affects patients taking cardiovascular drugs. With this lack of research and clarity on supplement—dug interactions and the underreporting of CAS use by many patients, physician education is also in need of improvement.