RESEARCH - Dietary supplement polypharmacy: an unrecognized public health problem?

[Guest guest]

eCAM Advance Access originally published online on December 5, 2007

eCAM 2010 7(1):107-113; doi:10.1093/ecam/nem150

Dietary Supplement Polypharmacy: An Unrecognized Public Health Problem?

L. Nisly1, M. Gryzlak2, M. Bridget Zimmerman2 and

B. Wallace2

1Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine,

University of Iowa and 2Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa

College of Public Health, Iowa City, IA, USA

Excessive and inappropriate use of medications, or ‘polypharmacy’, has

been recognized as a public health problem. In addition, there is

growing use of dietary supplements in the United States; however,

little is known about the patterns of supplement use. Recent reports

in the literature of cases of excessive or inappropriate use of herbal

dietary supplements leading to the term ‘polyherbacy’. The clinical

vignettes described in this article highlight the need for further

research on the nature and extent of multiple and inappropriate

dietary supplement use or ‘dietary supplement polypharmacy’. Clinical

interviewing and population surveys both address this issue in

complementary ways, and provide a further understanding of dietary

supplement use patterns.

**************************************************

Read the full article here:

http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/7/1/107

Not an MD